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Description

Three hundred and sixty-seven million years hence, amidst a clearing in the forests over what once was East Antarctica, a small group of animals move about, no more than six or seven individuals. They are average sized creatures, no bigger than a dog. They are covered in tough, leathery skin all over, covered with a row of stripes along their backs. Their legs are long and digitigrade, with blunt claws adorning their feet. The semi-erect legs support their roundish bodies, and while they mostly carry themselves with a slow pace, they can run in quick bursts. The group moves about the clearing, mowing down on any plant matter that is carried to their wide mouths by their tongue. A symphony of barks, chirps, and squeals can be heard as they move by the riverside.

This herd is comprised of Knumpers (Dolicristatus gracilipes). Without their crests, they are rarely more than a meter tall at the shoulder. The crest itself is the most distinct feature of the creatures, having a parabola-like shape that occupies all the top-half of the head. With that, it is often hued a light orange, and, while it is used to intimidate predators on occasion, is more often utilized as a display feature.

Without a neck, they forage with their tongues, which can be over a third of a meter long. Any plant matter they find on the ground is edible, from fruit to small grasses to moss. It is scooped up, and brought into their large stomachs to be digested. Without any teeth to tear apart the vegetation, they instead have a gizzard, lined with stones to grind down the food. Due to this, they often spend a vast quantity of their time feeding.

While not pure endotherms, they are mesotherms, with the ample heat of the Silverstrious being able to account for no full ectothermy.

This group formation is no abnormal behavior. With relatively minimal defense alone, the groups allow for more eyes to inspect the surrounding forest for predators. These small groups can hold together for weeks, moving across the forest foraging and carefully eyeing all about their surroundings.

With hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary time behind them, they have been transformed far from their ancestors. However, their lumpy shape, circular body, and dexterous tongues hint at their ancestry. The Knumpers are the far descendants of frogs.

More specifically, they are the far descendants of the Verrucophids, and are even related to the Moss Worms a hemisphere away. However, the proto-Knumpers, instead of drastically changing their anatomy, changed their reproductive means. As these more advanced species of land-dwelling frog began to develop, and the change from tadpole became increasingly strenuous on the amphibian's body, some species began to opt to hold the young in internally for longer lengths of time to allow for greater development, and thus, the earliest of the Advanced Pouchers emerged. For the past thirty million years, these anurans have slowly been diversifying in the undergrowth.

Knumpers and kin, belonging to this relatively recent group, exhibit a form of ovivipary, where the young emerge from the mother with a tinier version of the adult; All the tadpole-like growth occurring within.

While these forest frogs dart about the wooded areas of Africa and East Antarctica, it isn't meant to last. With the Absevtrozoic only beginning, Knumpers are only among the first in a long line of clades and orders to reign over the herbivorous niche. Regardless, however, they do foretell what is to come for the world of frogs, and are a mere start to the diversification underway.

Description

Three hundred and sixty-seven million years hence, amidst a clearing in the forests over what once was East Antarctica, a small group of animals move about, no more than six or seven individuals. They are average sized creatures, no bigger than a dog. They are covered in tough, leathery skin all over, covered with a row of stripes along their backs. Their legs are long and digitigrade, with blunt claws adorning their feet. The semi-erect legs support their roundish bodies, and while they mostly carry themselves with a slow pace, they can run in quick bursts. The group moves about the clearing, mowing down on any plant matter that is carried to their wide mouths by their tongue. A symphony of barks, chirps, and squeals can be heard as they move by the riverside.

This herd is comprised of Knumpers (Dolicristatus gracilipes). Without their crests, they are rarely more than a meter tall at the shoulder. The crest itself is the most distinct feature of the creatures, having a parabola-like shape that occupies all the top-half of the head. With that, it is often hued a light orange, and, while it is used to intimidate predators on occasion, is more often utilized as a display feature.

Without a neck, they forage with their tongues, which can be over a third of a meter long. Any plant matter they find on the ground is edible, from fruit to small grasses to moss. It is scooped up, and brought into their large stomachs to be digested. Without any teeth to tear apart the vegetation, they instead have a gizzard, lined with stones to grind down the food. Due to this, they often spend a vast quantity of their time feeding.

While not pure endotherms, they are mesotherms, with the ample heat of the Silverstrious being able to account for no full ectothermy.

This group formation is no abnormal behavior. With relatively minimal defense alone, the groups allow for more eyes to inspect the surrounding forest for predators. These small groups can hold together for weeks, moving across the forest foraging and carefully eyeing all about their surroundings.

With hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary time behind them, they have been transformed far from their ancestors. However, their lumpy shape, circular body, and dexterous tongues hint at their ancestry. The Knumpers are the far descendants of frogs.

More specifically, they are the far descendants of the Verrucophids, and are even related to the Moss Worms a hemisphere away. However, the proto-Knumpers, instead of drastically changing their anatomy, changed their reproductive means. As these more advanced species of land-dwelling frog began to develop, and the change from tadpole became increasingly strenuous on the amphibian's body, some species began to opt to hold the young in internally for longer lengths of time to allow for greater development, and thus, the earliest of the Advanced Pouchers emerged. For the past thirty million years, these anurans have slowly been diversifying in the undergrowth.

Knumpers and kin, belonging to this relatively recent group, exhibit a form of ovivipary, where the young emerge from the mother with a tinier version of the adult; All the tadpole-like growth occurring within.

While these forest frogs dart about the wooded areas of Africa and East Antarctica, it isn't meant to last. With the Absevtrozoic only beginning, Knumpers are only among the first in a long line of clades and orders to reign over the herbivorous niche. Regardless, however, they do foretell what is to come for the world of frogs, and are a mere start to the diversification underway.