HOME | DD

Description
After showing you some creatures of the planet Kwiares it's time to set sails and to explore other regions of the galaxy. The next stop will be the wonderful world "Slajatelan". It's a planet as big as Venus, but with a much friendlier atmosphere. The oceans are full of life and feed big flying beasts (i will show them in one of my next pictures).
In the moment the landmass is more interesting. It consists of three giant continents; every is even bigger than Africa. Long rivers cut through the landscape, forming beautiful canyons on their way to the sea. A few giant lakes extend over the continents and allow the growth of massive bizarre woods (you can see an excerpt in "Alien wood"). And this is the reign of the Slitaj, the most succesful species of the whole planet.
They're living in big herds, patrolling along the boundaries of the woods and collecting fruits as well as smaller creatures. They prefer to live in caves with pantries, which they dug into soft walls of loam or clay (for digging they use their strange looking, but very useful feet).
They can become a little bigger than an ostrich, but can't run fast because of their feet. But that's no problem: They have an extremely good and altruistic social structure. To protect each other against bigger enemies they unite to a huge aggressive mob (the little ones inside, the biggest ones outside) and make a terrible noise. Sometimes older Slitaj even sacrifice their bodies to the enemy to calm him down.
The reproduction of the Slitaj is kind of different: Deep in their caves they breed special wombs formed by enzymes from the meat of the dead herd members (the yellow sacks in the picture). This is a third, neutral gender. Males and females put their seeds into the wombs, which will close after fertilization. The older herd members care for them around the clock. So the embryos can develop safe and the females can hunt and collect without any reservation, because there is no pregnancy. That's the big advantage of this way of reproduction.
The Slitaj have a cycle of seven stadiums of development:
Stadium 1: After 3 weeks the big sacks split up into smaller sacks, which transform into green stems with yellow little bubbles on the surface. After bubble contains a single offspring.
Stadium 2: The offspring slips out. They look like little pink and yellow balls with tiny wings and legs. That's a good evidence for the evolution of the Slitaj from ancient flying creatures. The first days after slipping they feed on the rests of the wombs.
Stadium 3: The offspring hides in the weird hives at the end of the tails of their parents. These are quite similar to the bags of kangaroos; in them waits a highly energetic "milk" for the children. They are now carried around a few months by their parents and grow bigger and bigger.
Stadium 4: The offspring the hive. And a big journey awaits it, because it has to fly to distant regions to avoid inbreeding. They cross the rivers and lakes and even the oceans. They only stop flying, when they've found a new herd in another region. They, they land and search a quite place in the near of the new herds cave.
Stadium 5: A metamorphosis starts. They transform into inconspicuous brown cocoons and rest the next to month.
Stadium 6: The adult Slitaj slips out. It now has to become a part of the herd. This can be a little hard, because the old herd members are kind of wise and very skeptical. And there are maybe some rivals, who will although join the herd. All new ones have to solve "the test of the wise", what is just something like an interview. For this they need their complicated looking tentacles (they mainly use them as their sences, the forehead-tentacles are for hearing and smelling, the chin-tentacles are for tasting and feeling). They proof the new ones in their characteristics and qualities to keep up high the vitality of the herd. If a new Slitaj joins a herd it has all rights the others have. Even the right for reproduction.
Stadium 7: As we already know, the wombs of the Slitaj grow out of the dead bodies of the dead herd members. The young and fit ones carry the dead into the caves and after the womb has formed out of the corpse, the put their seeds into it.
So, they don't make babies in couples, but in groups with up to 20 individuals. There's no sexual selection in earth way. But the sperms and eggs have something like a "vitality race" inside the wombs and only the good seeds will make it to the first stadium. And the drama continues . . .
Man, this was a fight with my dictionary! Sorry, if made some mistakes. Hope you still like this incredible being!

Description
After showing you some creatures of the planet Kwiares it's time to set sails and to explore other regions of the galaxy. The next stop will be the wonderful world "Slajatelan". It's a planet as big as Venus, but with a much friendlier atmosphere. The oceans are full of life and feed big flying beasts (i will show them in one of my next pictures).
In the moment the landmass is more interesting. It consists of three giant continents; every is even bigger than Africa. Long rivers cut through the landscape, forming beautiful canyons on their way to the sea. A few giant lakes extend over the continents and allow the growth of massive bizarre woods (you can see an excerpt in "Alien wood"). And this is the reign of the Slitaj, the most succesful species of the whole planet.
They're living in big herds, patrolling along the boundaries of the woods and collecting fruits as well as smaller creatures. They prefer to live in caves with pantries, which they dug into soft walls of loam or clay (for digging they use their strange looking, but very useful feet).
They can become a little bigger than an ostrich, but can't run fast because of their feet. But that's no problem: They have an extremely good and altruistic social structure. To protect each other against bigger enemies they unite to a huge aggressive mob (the little ones inside, the biggest ones outside) and make a terrible noise. Sometimes older Slitaj even sacrifice their bodies to the enemy to calm him down.
The reproduction of the Slitaj is kind of different: Deep in their caves they breed special wombs formed by enzymes from the meat of the dead herd members (the yellow sacks in the picture). This is a third, neutral gender. Males and females put their seeds into the wombs, which will close after fertilization. The older herd members care for them around the clock. So the embryos can develop safe and the females can hunt and collect without any reservation, because there is no pregnancy. That's the big advantage of this way of reproduction.
The Slitaj have a cycle of seven stadiums of development:
Stadium 1: After 3 weeks the big sacks split up into smaller sacks, which transform into green stems with yellow little bubbles on the surface. After bubble contains a single offspring.
Stadium 2: The offspring slips out. They look like little pink and yellow balls with tiny wings and legs. That's a good evidence for the evolution of the Slitaj from ancient flying creatures. The first days after slipping they feed on the rests of the wombs.
Stadium 3: The offspring hides in the weird hives at the end of the tails of their parents. These are quite similar to the bags of kangaroos; in them waits a highly energetic "milk" for the children. They are now carried around a few months by their parents and grow bigger and bigger.
Stadium 4: The offspring the hive. And a big journey awaits it, because it has to fly to distant regions to avoid inbreeding. They cross the rivers and lakes and even the oceans. They only stop flying, when they've found a new herd in another region. They, they land and search a quite place in the near of the new herds cave.
Stadium 5: A metamorphosis starts. They transform into inconspicuous brown cocoons and rest the next to month.
Stadium 6: The adult Slitaj slips out. It now has to become a part of the herd. This can be a little hard, because the old herd members are kind of wise and very skeptical. And there are maybe some rivals, who will although join the herd. All new ones have to solve "the test of the wise", what is just something like an interview. For this they need their complicated looking tentacles (they mainly use them as their sences, the forehead-tentacles are for hearing and smelling, the chin-tentacles are for tasting and feeling). They proof the new ones in their characteristics and qualities to keep up high the vitality of the herd. If a new Slitaj joins a herd it has all rights the others have. Even the right for reproduction.
Stadium 7: As we already know, the wombs of the Slitaj grow out of the dead bodies of the dead herd members. The young and fit ones carry the dead into the caves and after the womb has formed out of the corpse, the put their seeds into it.
So, they don't make babies in couples, but in groups with up to 20 individuals. There's no sexual selection in earth way. But the sperms and eggs have something like a "vitality race" inside the wombs and only the good seeds will make it to the first stadium. And the drama continues . . .
Man, this was a fight with my dictionary! Sorry, if made some mistakes. Hope you still like this incredible being!