Grazing Shieldnewt

Grazing Shieldnewt
Creator	Thecuriousone06🌺
Information
Status	Extant
Common Name(s)	Grazing Shieldnewt, Kwiatosław
Zones	C
Roles	Base-Consumer, Predator
Classification
Genus	Alionasaniwa
Species	Alionasaniwa polyphagos
Evolution
Date	January 19th, 2021
Ancestor	Conqueror Shieldnewt
Descendants	No results

• Size: 50-66 cm

• Reproduction: Sexual with internal fertilization. They have a ritual where males rattle scales and show the golden heads for the females to choose. The males and females touch their cloaca for the male to release sperm. The adults don’t directly guard the buried nests, however they set a territory of approximately 70 m in diameter around it so they are near the young when they hatch and can protect them. After 6 weeks the eggs hatching into 3 cm long young which start making rather low pitched calls, as the hearing membrane of A. polyphagos is still limited to lower frequency sounds. These calls alert the parents, who will start searching for the young. They take between 1.5-2 years to reach maturity.

• Adaptations: The jaws of A. polyphagos have larger and stronger muscles, which allows them to crush polyphs more easily and more intimidating to predators. Since it does not rely on prey and has no predators, the species has become less cursorial than the ancestor in favor of a more robust body and thicker, more muscular legs to support the larger size.

• Behavior: Once they have found a partner A. polyphagos live together life. A. polyphagos is tolerant of other species with the exception of Avianaquarius avianbeakus, due to predation pressure on their young, and A. gigaswampa, who compete for food resources with A. polyphagos. Aggresion towards A. gigaswampa only occurs when A. gigaswampa are feeding on the same polyphs as A. polyphagos. A. polyphagos will only chase off A. gigaswampa when they are in pairs because an individual A. polyphagos is easily threatened by an A. gigaswampa. They will chase off or kill A. avianbeakus, sometimes eating the carcass to supplement their diets. They intimidate other muscals by raising their scales to look larger and sometimes rearing up on their back legs, if this doesn’t work they may resort to biting and ramming.

• Coloration: The main body is a brownish-grey, with the scales on it being a dark dull blue. The scales on the head are golden and the stripes are a bright orange-red on the face which fades into a dull blue towards tail.