Rovett
Descended from a population of V. acrotyrannus which travelled to Zone F in search of more food, V. genikus is distinguished from its ancestor in that it will eat a much larger variety of prey--an adaptation it needed with the extinction of half its ancestor’s prey. It also has the ability to consume polyph matter to make itself vomit, clearing its digestive tracts of irritants such as bones and exoskeleton from its tarate and sukopod prey, respectively; this ability is a learned trait which parents teach to their offspring, originally from an individual which got a whiff of the stomach contents of its prey while eating it, which then caused it to vomit when it ate them anyway, thus and it made the connection between the smell of leaves and vomiting, leading it to intentionally consume leaves to clear a bad stomachache. It is a little over 2 feet long not including its tail feathers and stands about .8 feet tall at the hip.
To be more effective at eating meat, V. genikus’ teeth are serrated in a fashion similar to the teeth of real-world dromaeosaurs. Although it doesn't hunt in large groups like its ancestor, they have defined territories containing several breeding pairs with distinct hierarchy determined by non-lethal combat. They will fight outsiders sometimes, but as there is less competition within the species for food, they do this far less than their ancestor did and as a result the territories of different groups commonly overlap.
V. genikus, no longer swimming as much as its ancestor did, no longer uses its air sacs for floatation, though their thermoregulatory function remains to some extent; it has been mostly replaced by denser plumage, however, thus the air sacs are smaller, though it still retains the instinct to inflate them in water. It has lost the "bone membranes" of its ancestor in favor of anchoring its plumage directly to the arms as there is less risk of injury from the membranes being caught in things. It has 4 fingers--the pinky being mostly hidden by its long arm feathers.
V. genikus hunt in mated pairs. Young single males fight over single 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. V. genikus reach maturity in just under a year, just in time for the next mating season. They are sexually dimorphic, though not as extremely to avoid predation; the male has a distinct green fade on his face which the females lack.
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V. genikus is a generalist predator; as such, it preys on varied types and sizes of prey, including V. aborealus, V. eggus, S. sourcus, F. flavos, F. achiensis, N. morphensis, and N. socius, and rarely larger prey such as V. aquacanthus and A. aboriginii. It will also scavenge for food whenever available, though it prefers freshly-killed meals. When hunting larger prey, it grapples with the long claws of its forelimbs.
