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Description

280 Million years post establishment, gravediggers and antlears are in an arms race again, but this time it is not a race of intellect, but rather a mundane predator prey relationship, which won´t produce any sophonts ever again.

The burrowing antlears were never sapient in the first pace, and merely the relatives of other, now extinct forest antlears, of which one species became sapient.

The severe Stoatshrike on the other hand is descended from the extremely smart, but extremely solitary and non sapient Savage gravedigger, which in turn is descended form the solitary but sapient tunda gravedigger. The tundra Gravedogger lost its sapience and larger brain, in favor of a smaller brain with lesser energy expenditure, an adaptation necessary to survive alone in the desolate tundra of the mid ultimocene ice age. Now the ice age is over, but rather than becoming smarter again, most of the descendants of the savage Gravedigger just fill various ecological niches, and most have lost the excessive territoriality of its ancestor, as food has become much less scarce. Severe Stoatshrikes in particular have adapted to a burrowing lifestyle and can hunt inside burrows, and are one of the few enemies of the very standoffish Burrowing antlears.

Here we see a pair of Severe Stoatshrikes hunting such a burrowing antlear with their usual hunting strategy. One of them has went inside the burrow, while the other has blocked the exit of the burrow. The Antlear is distracted by the Stoatshrike inside the burrow and is standig its ground, waving its foot clawy threateningly, promising nasty scratches, should the stoatshrike insidse the burrow try to attack him, but he has not noticed the Stoatshrike at the entrance yet, which is a fatal mistake. The stoatsrike at the entrace has sucessfully caught the antlear of guard, and is jumping straight at its neck, and will now kill it with a quick series of cutting bites, which can even decapitate the antlear.

Hunting the burrowing antlear is probably still quite a risk for the stoatshrikes, and a lone stoatshrike would probably get nasty injuries from the foot claws of the antlears without guaranteed hunting sucess, but hunting in pairs makes it much easier and safer for them than hunting alone would, and also worth the risk.

-- This Fanart is based on Serina, a speculative evolution/worldbuilding project, which is the sole intellectual property of of .
You can view his work on sites.google.com/site/worldofs… . --

Description

280 Million years post establishment, gravediggers and antlears are in an arms race again, but this time it is not a race of intellect, but rather a mundane predator prey relationship, which won´t produce any sophonts ever again.

The burrowing antlears were never sapient in the first pace, and merely the relatives of other, now extinct forest antlears, of which one species became sapient.

The severe Stoatshrike on the other hand is descended from the extremely smart, but extremely solitary and non sapient Savage gravedigger, which in turn is descended form the solitary but sapient tunda gravedigger. The tundra Gravedogger lost its sapience and larger brain, in favor of a smaller brain with lesser energy expenditure, an adaptation necessary to survive alone in the desolate tundra of the mid ultimocene ice age. Now the ice age is over, but rather than becoming smarter again, most of the descendants of the savage Gravedigger just fill various ecological niches, and most have lost the excessive territoriality of its ancestor, as food has become much less scarce. Severe Stoatshrikes in particular have adapted to a burrowing lifestyle and can hunt inside burrows, and are one of the few enemies of the very standoffish Burrowing antlears.

Here we see a pair of Severe Stoatshrikes hunting such a burrowing antlear with their usual hunting strategy. One of them has went inside the burrow, while the other has blocked the exit of the burrow. The Antlear is distracted by the Stoatshrike inside the burrow and is standig its ground, waving its foot clawy threateningly, promising nasty scratches, should the stoatshrike insidse the burrow try to attack him, but he has not noticed the Stoatshrike at the entrance yet, which is a fatal mistake. The stoatsrike at the entrace has sucessfully caught the antlear of guard, and is jumping straight at its neck, and will now kill it with a quick series of cutting bites, which can even decapitate the antlear.

Hunting the burrowing antlear is probably still quite a risk for the stoatshrikes, and a lone stoatshrike would probably get nasty injuries from the foot claws of the antlears without guaranteed hunting sucess, but hunting in pairs makes it much easier and safer for them than hunting alone would, and also worth the risk.

-- This Fanart is based on Serina, a speculative evolution/worldbuilding project, which is the sole intellectual property of of .
You can view his work on sites.google.com/site/worldofs… . --