Hornear
The Hornear is a descendant of the Struti which fills a grazing herbivore niche. Its neck is proportionally shorter and more muscular, and it leans down to munch on small polyphs. It is about 6 feet long and about 2.5 feet hall at the hip. It doesnât run as much as its ancestor did, as it has a more energy-efficient defense against predators--sharp, cornified horns.
The Hornear is named for the unusual morphology of its ears and crests. In its ancestor, the boney crests served mainly to anchor ear membranes and display feathers. While these functions are not lost in the Hornear, its crests are much much longer--in addition to a longer, fully encircled external ear canal attached to the crest to allow it to hear predators better, its crests also have a sheath of cornified skin over them, forming a long sharp pair of horns--a necessary upgrade, as using them as a weapon without the protective sheath would cause the skin to tear and bleed. When a predator such as the wyvern hawk jumps in its back, the Hornear will swing its head back and attempt to stab the attacker. This isnât always successful, but it can be fatal to predators when it is. The horns are somewhat heavy, explaining its strong neck muscles used to hold up its head. The changes to its ear also necessitated a change to its ear feathers, now framing and extending the shape of the ear rather than flaring to the tip of the crest; this also helps prevent them from being ruined by the blood of its predators after it successfully undoes them.
The development of the Hornear's grazing habit is the result of competition for tall polyphs; its native environment is a desert, so large food wasn't always available. With the spread of Thanos' Grass in the northeastern parts of Zone E, switching to a different, more abundant food source was the most viable option.
As a result of its heavy head and grazing habits, the Hornear is a sort of âfacultative quadrupedâ. It can lean on the knuckles of its forelimbs while leaning down to graze or drink, but normally stands and walks bipedally like its ancestor did. As it cannot fly, its wing membranes are reduced and mainly used to anchor its display feathers.
Like its ancestor, the Hornear performs mutual sexual selection via elaborate mating dances, making heavy use of the now more numerous display feathers on its arms, tail, and ears as well as the bouncy fluff on its back (now dark in color rather than light to make it less conspicuous to predators, with no effect on its sexiness); the number of bright, healthy feathers on its wings and tail especially, as well as how well its ear feathers circle the ear, are seen as a signal of health to potential mates. It lays 2-6 eggs in shallow nests dug in the ground, and its young hatch out of the eggs after 8 weeks already able to walk minutes after hatching. The young stay with their parents until they are fully grown at about 8 months of age and can go out to find their own mates.
The Hornear is most commonly seen eating Thanosâ grass and Thanosâ shrub, but it will also graze on lower-growing leaves on a widowâs palm. Hornears living further inland may also feed on E. phylloakidus.
