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Tlaquanaru 061

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The "walrus rats" are a group of far-flung cryptotheres. The disparate range of the family Stagmadontidae, with genera present only in the Khoduhani Tablelands, the Green Fortress of Anak Palao, and the Guacayana Plateau, along with fossil remains found throughout Northern and Southern Iapetus, and Palao proper, suggest that the family was once widespread throughout the ancient supercontinent Oghma, but, died out due to climate change and competition with placental mammals and birds.

The walrus rats are named so for their (usually) rat-like appearance, and for their canines, which are modified into long tusks that are used to hammer out invertebrates from their shells and or hiding places.

Name: Giant Box-Toothed Leopard-rat
Species:Stagmadon gigantes
Notes: This ferocious, leopard-sized animal is found in the Green Fortress, where individuals vigilantly defend their territories from each other. Paradoxically, such a fierce animal feeds primarily on snails and wood-boring insects, which they winkle out with the elongated talons of the first and second digits of their forepaws. The tusks are used to hammer open particularly stubborn meals, though, the tusks are more often used to threaten intruders.

Unlike almost all other mammals, the females of the genus Stagmadon give almost no care for the young. After she mates, the female builds a nest of rotting leaves in the center of her territory, and lays up to a dozen, avocado-sized eggs in it. The female guards and cares for her nest for about three months, though, when the young hatch, the female either ignores them, or chases them out of her territory, whereupon the self-sufficient hatchlings seek out territories of their own.

Name: Rapacious Box-Toothed Leopard-rat
Species: Stagmadon rapax
Notes: This is a smaller relative of the Giant Box-Tooth. It is referred to as "rapacious," as it is a notorious raider of nests, both of cryptotheres and of birds, and will eat small animals almost as readily as it eat eggs. Its carnivory is peculiar, as its premolars and molars are all block-like as with all other members of the genus, and lacks the shearing carnassals inherent in the typical predatory mammal. As such, captured prey is worried and battered until it can be swallowed with ease.

Name: Wand-toothed Rat
Species: Bacteriodus ptilurus
Notes: A shy, retiring insectivore. It uses its highly modified single tusk to chisel out and spear prey from rotting logs. Very little is known about it, beyond that males have larger tusks than females, and that Stagmadon rapax is its main predator.
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tarbano's avatar
modern relatives?