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A brightly marked male resplendent sunshark comes in for a landing near the nest hole being scouted out by his more subdued mate, likely holding a small tidbit of food gathered in the surrounding forest to offer to her as a testament to his affections. If the nest site proves sufficient in her eyes, she will likely give birth to her litter of pups here in the coming week which both she and her partner will dutifully provide for for several months.
~~~
Sunsharks: Clade Aerocaetia
Upon Sheatheria there has evolved a clade of strange winged animals which resemble fishes yet flutter like birds. Descended from neither, they are in fact an aberrant group of cynodont therapsids descended from Procynosuchus. Known as the Aerocaetians, they are but the latest evolutionary stage in a long and varied history.
Originally evolving not into a flying creature but into a clade of small but swift aquatic hunters that flourished in great success throughout the Late Permian and up all of the way through the Jurassic, it was one small and social clade of shark-like sea Procynosuchian that developed powered flight directly from sea to air in the middle Cretaceous era, an ability likely preceded by flap-assisted gliding to escape oceanic predators. Though several primitive aquatic Procynosuchian cynodonts are still extant in Sheatheria's southern ocean, their majority of the clade's diversity today comes in the form of the flyers, gliders, and secondarily-flightless, superficially shark-like Aerocaetians - more commonly known as the Sunsharks.
All true sunsharks are ancestrally flying animals, carried aloft on membranous wings supported by four digits and derived from mobile flippers, and while several lineages have secondarily lost this ability the majority of extant species are well known for it. Sunsharks fly with two pairs of wings, a large frontal pair derived from the forearms and a smaller hind pair equipped with an exceptionally loose and mobile hip socket that allows an almost 360 degree arc of motion. Sunshark flight occurs with an alternating forward-back flap pattern, similar to that of a dragonfly, generally allowing for great maneuverability in the air. A result of their aquatic ancestry, sunsharks do resemble sharks; their wings originate originally from four mobile flippers, and dorsal fins upon their backs once used for aerodynamics remain as display structures. A lack of external ear pinnae or differentiated teeth combined with a smooth and aerodynamic facial structure result in a very sharky profile, though the eyes are soft and mammalian and the teeth normally covered by flexible lips. Sunsharks have well-developed senses of sight and smell, and though it was lost in the ancestral aquatic ancestor to the clade, several lineages have re-developed color vision. Physiologically, sunsharks combine a variety of mammalian and non-mammalian traits - long whiskers adorn their shark-like snouts, while their reproductive and waste-emitting orifices are combined into a single opening known as a cloaca, similar to that of the dinosaurs. The body is elongated and smooth, the skin supple and soft to the touch as a result of short but dense fur just a few millimeters in length which covers the entirety of the animals' bodies. Both the frontal and hind wings are supported by four digits, with a free first phalange serving as an opposing thumb that, pressed against the wing, allows the shark to climb. This digit as well as the second and third flight finger retain strong, hooked claws in the forearm - the latter two being retracted into a pocket of muscle at the end of the wingtip during flight; the hind limb carries only two claws, one of which retracts into the tissue when in flight. Most sunsharks carry a sharp as well as venomous barb at the end of their tails, with the degree of toxicity varying between species and lost entirely in some. Sunsharks are warm-blooded and have glandular skin.
Unlike more advanced therapsids, sunsharks lack milk glands and feed their young in the old and reliable manner of birds, griffons, and ranamonarchians - via regurgitation - and all sunsharks are either cliffside- or cavity-nesting, giving live birth to well-developed offspring which hatch internally from soft-shelled eggs immediately before being born. Sunsharks rely on extensive parental care and cannot fly nor climb well from infancy. Most sunsharks even as adults can walk only awkwardly over the ground, for their arms are short and their wrists unable to pronate. Most forms instead rely on their well-developed claws to cling to cliffsides or the branches of trees, though several basal species which have never entirely lost their tie to aquatic environments have evolved stronger limbs and quadrupedal gaits to move directly over land, trading their flight for improved terrestrial abilities. Flying sunsharks' wing membranes are loose and do not fold up as tightly as those of griffons or frogatebirds when at rest.
Sunsharks in their myriad diversity can be found all across the planet but are particularly abundant in the jungles of the southern hemisphere, where the clade is thought first to have adapted to life on the land and to completely cut their ties to the ocean and cliff sides in favor of the forest. Cold climates are not well tolerated by most flying species, leaving the greatest diversity present in polar regions.
When Sunsharks first left the sea approximately 85 million years ago, they were fish-eating predators that nested on oceanic outcroppings and spent their time diving in the sea for a meal or soaring above the waves. Today many sunsharks continue going about this ancestral lifestyle, including such non-flying forms as "penguin sunsharks" and "land sharks", together comprising the broadly amphibious Cetophacinae. The first truly terrestrial sunsharks did not appear for twenty-five million years further, when one early group shifted away from a diet of seafood to large ground-dwelling insects in coastal forests and traded cliffs for trees to reproduce. From this single colonization event, however, would soon arise the most specious of all sunshark groups in the form of the Passerapiscinae, the perching sunsharks, which comprises all non-oceanic members of the clade alive today. Of the Passerapiscine sunsharks, undoubtedly some of the most remarkable of all are those of the order Luciferinae.
Luciferine sunsharks, contrary to their name, which means "light bringer", do not actually emit light; they are rather named for their incredible markings and color patterns which often range across the entire visible spectrum, color so bright and vibrant that it appears to radiate from the animal's body. Luciferine sunsharks are in fact unusual among sunshark lineages in being able to see in such a spectrum, with most other clades being color-blind and carrying only earthy tones. Luciferine sharks, however, are the only sunsharks to have specialized away from a meat-based diet and become largely herbivorous, adapted to a diet based around ripe fruit and the nectar from flowers. In order to find these colorful foods with ease they are one of two groups that can see in full color - the others being certain members of the Cetophocinae that hunt in bright, sunlit waters. Both groups are subsequently colorful, but many Luciferines take "colorful" to an entirely new level, often carrying an entire rainbow upon their bodies and covered in bold and contrasting patterns that dazzle the eye. This coloration serves a social use; sexual display, recognition from afar, and disruptive camouflage all come into play, for of all sunsharks, the Luciferines contain some of the most social. Most species are monogamous and all species gather in flocks at least some of the time, sometimes of thousands of individuals. Males are usually brighter than females, but not to a radical extreme, and sometimes females and males may both be wildly different in appearance yet both equally flamboyant. These sunsharks, so garishly colored, rely on their agility and the eyes of their peers to watch for danger, but also advertise another hidden attribute by merit of their bold colors; the tail spur in all of them is highly venomous, and a predator who grabs one the wrong way will not soon forget the experience, assuming it survives at all. Luciferine sunsharks are also strong, rapid flyers, and fortunately for their predators usually take flight well before their enemies are within striking distance, escaping above the treetops with explosive vertical take-off. However, they are not as agile in the air as their predatory ancestors were, with their hind wings reduced in size, and when not pressed they prefer to climb through the trees with their well-developed wing claws, foraging in groups for safety and fluttering only short distances between food trees. Though occasionally taken by surprise by predatory birds from above or ambushed from below by pouncing canopy prowlers, most sunsharks do not fill a significant portion of any single predator's diet.
Most Luciferine sunsharks are relatively small, just a few ounces to a pound in weight. One of the largest is the widespread Resplendent sunshark, Aerocaetus illustris, weighing in at 26 ounces and measuring a little over two and a half feet nose to tail, with a three foot frontal wingspan. The resplendent sunshark, which ranges over all of Aenvarna, is a brilliantly gold and scarlet creature with vertical blue stripes down its wings and bold length-wise bands of red down its sides, and not only is it among the prettiest of sunsharks, it is also one of the most intelligent. A nearly obligate frugivore, it eats little but ripe fruit, which it often must travel for far and wide to locate in the forest while moving in flocks several hundred strong. Like all sunsharks they are vocal creatures and keep in constant contact with high-frequency chirps and whistles as they forage, manipulating fruits off of their stems with long and prehensile blue tongues while hanging upside down from the branches by their long wing claws. Pairs usually mate for life - multiple breeding seasons at the least - and form strong, loyal bonds to their chosen partners, rearing litters of pups irregularly whenever food is particularly abundant. Nests are usually made in abandoned tree cavities, preferentially above the canopy in exceptionally tall emergent trees where ground-based predators cannot readily reach. A prime nesting spot is worth its weight in gold and will be defended at all costs by a bonded pair from competitors, both from their own and other species; though they associate in flocks to feed throughout the year, the resplendent - unlike some of its relatives - is a solitary nester and requires considerable personal space at breeding time.
Most frugivorous sunsharks rear relatively large litters that mature quickly, and the resplendent sunshark is not exceptional, though due to its larger size its young take longer than some others to fledge; litters average five pups, which are dependent for two months in the nest and another three weeks once large enough to fly. Most pairs rear two litters in a year. Parents raise their young on largely the same diet upon which they subsist, with flocks sometimes stripping trees bare of fruit in the span of just a few weeks in the endless hunt to supply their growing young ones, though adults favor oil-rich fruit and immature green seeds during the rearing process over the sugary fare they favor at other times of the year to provide the young with the protein they require to grow. Food intended for the young is lightly chewed and then stored in an expandable pouch in the interior of the esophagus, crudely similar to the crop of a bird. Sunsharks remember their offspring for a prolonged period of time after they leave the nest and will continue to groom them and associate in an affectionate manner for several years, or as long as the young remain in their parents' general area and gather in the same flocks to forage, but unlike in other sunsharks the young are not permitted to assist in rearing later litters alongside their parents and are driven from the nest hole once they learn to feed themselves.
Luciferine sunsharks of many species are often captured as nestlings, tamed, and kept as pets by the zucchini bear, typically allowed to fly freely around villages where they normally remain, bonded to their captors. They make endearing companions and are playful, curious, and affectionate, though quite messy and thus usually kept out of doors.
~~~
The original resplendent sunshark, which originated as a fantasy animal with proportions not well suited to actual flight, can be seen here: sheather888.deviantart.com/art…
~~~
Sunsharks: Clade Aerocaetia
Upon Sheatheria there has evolved a clade of strange winged animals which resemble fishes yet flutter like birds. Descended from neither, they are in fact an aberrant group of cynodont therapsids descended from Procynosuchus. Known as the Aerocaetians, they are but the latest evolutionary stage in a long and varied history.
Originally evolving not into a flying creature but into a clade of small but swift aquatic hunters that flourished in great success throughout the Late Permian and up all of the way through the Jurassic, it was one small and social clade of shark-like sea Procynosuchian that developed powered flight directly from sea to air in the middle Cretaceous era, an ability likely preceded by flap-assisted gliding to escape oceanic predators. Though several primitive aquatic Procynosuchian cynodonts are still extant in Sheatheria's southern ocean, their majority of the clade's diversity today comes in the form of the flyers, gliders, and secondarily-flightless, superficially shark-like Aerocaetians - more commonly known as the Sunsharks.
All true sunsharks are ancestrally flying animals, carried aloft on membranous wings supported by four digits and derived from mobile flippers, and while several lineages have secondarily lost this ability the majority of extant species are well known for it. Sunsharks fly with two pairs of wings, a large frontal pair derived from the forearms and a smaller hind pair equipped with an exceptionally loose and mobile hip socket that allows an almost 360 degree arc of motion. Sunshark flight occurs with an alternating forward-back flap pattern, similar to that of a dragonfly, generally allowing for great maneuverability in the air. A result of their aquatic ancestry, sunsharks do resemble sharks; their wings originate originally from four mobile flippers, and dorsal fins upon their backs once used for aerodynamics remain as display structures. A lack of external ear pinnae or differentiated teeth combined with a smooth and aerodynamic facial structure result in a very sharky profile, though the eyes are soft and mammalian and the teeth normally covered by flexible lips. Sunsharks have well-developed senses of sight and smell, and though it was lost in the ancestral aquatic ancestor to the clade, several lineages have re-developed color vision. Physiologically, sunsharks combine a variety of mammalian and non-mammalian traits - long whiskers adorn their shark-like snouts, while their reproductive and waste-emitting orifices are combined into a single opening known as a cloaca, similar to that of the dinosaurs. The body is elongated and smooth, the skin supple and soft to the touch as a result of short but dense fur just a few millimeters in length which covers the entirety of the animals' bodies. Both the frontal and hind wings are supported by four digits, with a free first phalange serving as an opposing thumb that, pressed against the wing, allows the shark to climb. This digit as well as the second and third flight finger retain strong, hooked claws in the forearm - the latter two being retracted into a pocket of muscle at the end of the wingtip during flight; the hind limb carries only two claws, one of which retracts into the tissue when in flight. Most sunsharks carry a sharp as well as venomous barb at the end of their tails, with the degree of toxicity varying between species and lost entirely in some. Sunsharks are warm-blooded and have glandular skin.
Unlike more advanced therapsids, sunsharks lack milk glands and feed their young in the old and reliable manner of birds, griffons, and ranamonarchians - via regurgitation - and all sunsharks are either cliffside- or cavity-nesting, giving live birth to well-developed offspring which hatch internally from soft-shelled eggs immediately before being born. Sunsharks rely on extensive parental care and cannot fly nor climb well from infancy. Most sunsharks even as adults can walk only awkwardly over the ground, for their arms are short and their wrists unable to pronate. Most forms instead rely on their well-developed claws to cling to cliffsides or the branches of trees, though several basal species which have never entirely lost their tie to aquatic environments have evolved stronger limbs and quadrupedal gaits to move directly over land, trading their flight for improved terrestrial abilities. Flying sunsharks' wing membranes are loose and do not fold up as tightly as those of griffons or frogatebirds when at rest.
Sunsharks in their myriad diversity can be found all across the planet but are particularly abundant in the jungles of the southern hemisphere, where the clade is thought first to have adapted to life on the land and to completely cut their ties to the ocean and cliff sides in favor of the forest. Cold climates are not well tolerated by most flying species, leaving the greatest diversity present in polar regions.
When Sunsharks first left the sea approximately 85 million years ago, they were fish-eating predators that nested on oceanic outcroppings and spent their time diving in the sea for a meal or soaring above the waves. Today many sunsharks continue going about this ancestral lifestyle, including such non-flying forms as "penguin sunsharks" and "land sharks", together comprising the broadly amphibious Cetophacinae. The first truly terrestrial sunsharks did not appear for twenty-five million years further, when one early group shifted away from a diet of seafood to large ground-dwelling insects in coastal forests and traded cliffs for trees to reproduce. From this single colonization event, however, would soon arise the most specious of all sunshark groups in the form of the Passerapiscinae, the perching sunsharks, which comprises all non-oceanic members of the clade alive today. Of the Passerapiscine sunsharks, undoubtedly some of the most remarkable of all are those of the order Luciferinae.
Luciferine sunsharks, contrary to their name, which means "light bringer", do not actually emit light; they are rather named for their incredible markings and color patterns which often range across the entire visible spectrum, color so bright and vibrant that it appears to radiate from the animal's body. Luciferine sunsharks are in fact unusual among sunshark lineages in being able to see in such a spectrum, with most other clades being color-blind and carrying only earthy tones. Luciferine sharks, however, are the only sunsharks to have specialized away from a meat-based diet and become largely herbivorous, adapted to a diet based around ripe fruit and the nectar from flowers. In order to find these colorful foods with ease they are one of two groups that can see in full color - the others being certain members of the Cetophocinae that hunt in bright, sunlit waters. Both groups are subsequently colorful, but many Luciferines take "colorful" to an entirely new level, often carrying an entire rainbow upon their bodies and covered in bold and contrasting patterns that dazzle the eye. This coloration serves a social use; sexual display, recognition from afar, and disruptive camouflage all come into play, for of all sunsharks, the Luciferines contain some of the most social. Most species are monogamous and all species gather in flocks at least some of the time, sometimes of thousands of individuals. Males are usually brighter than females, but not to a radical extreme, and sometimes females and males may both be wildly different in appearance yet both equally flamboyant. These sunsharks, so garishly colored, rely on their agility and the eyes of their peers to watch for danger, but also advertise another hidden attribute by merit of their bold colors; the tail spur in all of them is highly venomous, and a predator who grabs one the wrong way will not soon forget the experience, assuming it survives at all. Luciferine sunsharks are also strong, rapid flyers, and fortunately for their predators usually take flight well before their enemies are within striking distance, escaping above the treetops with explosive vertical take-off. However, they are not as agile in the air as their predatory ancestors were, with their hind wings reduced in size, and when not pressed they prefer to climb through the trees with their well-developed wing claws, foraging in groups for safety and fluttering only short distances between food trees. Though occasionally taken by surprise by predatory birds from above or ambushed from below by pouncing canopy prowlers, most sunsharks do not fill a significant portion of any single predator's diet.
Most Luciferine sunsharks are relatively small, just a few ounces to a pound in weight. One of the largest is the widespread Resplendent sunshark, Aerocaetus illustris, weighing in at 26 ounces and measuring a little over two and a half feet nose to tail, with a three foot frontal wingspan. The resplendent sunshark, which ranges over all of Aenvarna, is a brilliantly gold and scarlet creature with vertical blue stripes down its wings and bold length-wise bands of red down its sides, and not only is it among the prettiest of sunsharks, it is also one of the most intelligent. A nearly obligate frugivore, it eats little but ripe fruit, which it often must travel for far and wide to locate in the forest while moving in flocks several hundred strong. Like all sunsharks they are vocal creatures and keep in constant contact with high-frequency chirps and whistles as they forage, manipulating fruits off of their stems with long and prehensile blue tongues while hanging upside down from the branches by their long wing claws. Pairs usually mate for life - multiple breeding seasons at the least - and form strong, loyal bonds to their chosen partners, rearing litters of pups irregularly whenever food is particularly abundant. Nests are usually made in abandoned tree cavities, preferentially above the canopy in exceptionally tall emergent trees where ground-based predators cannot readily reach. A prime nesting spot is worth its weight in gold and will be defended at all costs by a bonded pair from competitors, both from their own and other species; though they associate in flocks to feed throughout the year, the resplendent - unlike some of its relatives - is a solitary nester and requires considerable personal space at breeding time.
Most frugivorous sunsharks rear relatively large litters that mature quickly, and the resplendent sunshark is not exceptional, though due to its larger size its young take longer than some others to fledge; litters average five pups, which are dependent for two months in the nest and another three weeks once large enough to fly. Most pairs rear two litters in a year. Parents raise their young on largely the same diet upon which they subsist, with flocks sometimes stripping trees bare of fruit in the span of just a few weeks in the endless hunt to supply their growing young ones, though adults favor oil-rich fruit and immature green seeds during the rearing process over the sugary fare they favor at other times of the year to provide the young with the protein they require to grow. Food intended for the young is lightly chewed and then stored in an expandable pouch in the interior of the esophagus, crudely similar to the crop of a bird. Sunsharks remember their offspring for a prolonged period of time after they leave the nest and will continue to groom them and associate in an affectionate manner for several years, or as long as the young remain in their parents' general area and gather in the same flocks to forage, but unlike in other sunsharks the young are not permitted to assist in rearing later litters alongside their parents and are driven from the nest hole once they learn to feed themselves.
Luciferine sunsharks of many species are often captured as nestlings, tamed, and kept as pets by the zucchini bear, typically allowed to fly freely around villages where they normally remain, bonded to their captors. They make endearing companions and are playful, curious, and affectionate, though quite messy and thus usually kept out of doors.
~~~
The original resplendent sunshark, which originated as a fantasy animal with proportions not well suited to actual flight, can be seen here: sheather888.deviantart.com/art…
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Comments12
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These are utterly adorable. the Zucchini Bears are right to keep them as pets.