Big-Eared Rovett

Big-Eared Rovett
Creator	Disgustedorite🌺
Information
Status	Extant
Common Name(s)	Big-Eared Rovett
Zones	F
Roles	Base-consumer, Predator
Classification
Genus	Valkyriesaurus
Species	Valkyriesaurus megalotis
Evolution
Date	August 14th, 2019
Ancestor	Eared Rovett
Descendants	No results

With the unexpected addition of a predator, the eared rovett (V. protolotus) was pushed to improve its ear so that it could hear predators coming a lot faster. The big-[[Valkyriesaurus protolotus|eared rovett]] is the product of this. As its ear was on the lower jaw, in order to increase the size of the ear without screwing up its jaw joints, the big-eared rovet’s tympanum was moved much lower. The ears are now very large and externally visible on the sides of the jaw. It is the same size as its ancestor, at 2 feet long and .8 feet tall. Its stripes have darkened to better break up its shape, making it less visible to predators and prey alike.

The big-[[Valkyriesaurus protolotus|eared rovett]] has the same mating practices as its ancestor. Males fight over females in the spring, and after mating they stay together and the female lays 3-6 eggs in a nest she builds. The eggs take about 2 weeks to hatch, and the young are fed and taught to hunt by both parents until they are sub-adults and can go off to live on their own. They reach maturity in about a year, just in time for the next mating season.

Like its ancestor, the big-eared rovett lives in social groups with loose, overlapping territory and a hierarchy determined by non-lethal combat. Individuals can sometimes be members of more than one group. Additionally, like its last 2 ancestors, mated pairs tend to stick together, hunting, foraging, and raising their young side by side.

The big-eared rovett has the same diet as its ancestor, and it uses its claws to grapple prey and reach leaves in taller polyphs. It has a slight alteration to its digestive system which makes its polyph-eating more efficient as well; it has developed the ability to shed some of the cells of its stomach lining, creating short-living free-floating cells which produce enzymes as they are moved randomly around the digestive system, better saturating the food with the enzymes, allowing it to use less enzymes and therefore less net energy to digest the same amount of food.