Seavyrn
With competition for food in the desert being fierce, a population of D. volturcephalus turned their eyes to zone 25, a sea of abundant aquatic life. It developed long narrow wings, a lengthened snout, and conical teeth, and all this combined with an already short tail allowed it to begin soaring over the open sea and hunt for seafood with greater efficiency than any seabird before it. It regained a feathered head and neck to keep itself warm as it soared. It is about 3 feet long and has a wingspan of 10 feet, and it stands at about 2 feet tall at the hip.
Though not as colorful as its ancestor, its black and white coloration is a necessity for hunting--its white underside is very difficult for any of its prey to see when they look up to the sky, and while it is diving for prey in the water. To make up for losing its ancestor’s display features, its mating ritual now involves vocalization--the clearer its call, the better health it must be in, and therefore the better mate it would be. As a result, it has developed a fairly loud, superficially bird-like “whoop” call. It also shakes the short dark mane on its head during the ritual to show off the health of its feathers, which in turn also causes its now-feathered dewlap to jiggle and show off how well-fed it is. It nests on the shores of Zone E, where like its ancestor it partially buries its eggs in the sand and guards them. It lays 4-8 eggs at a time with a somewhat high mortality rate due to predation, with half on average not making it to maturity.
Its chicks are altricial, solely relying on parental care until they are 2-3 months old and can be taught how to fly and fish.
D. ptisipteryx primarily feeds from Zone 25, where it swoops down to catch various aquatic life: S. primus, M. kelpcamotus, S. kelpcetus, D. armorgedonensis, S. purlaglowus, and S. cannibalisii; in the case of very large prey, a mated pair may work together to kill it, with one diving at the head and the other for the tail so they can wrestle the prey somewhere where it's easier to kill. It will also sometimes raid the nests of A. tropheus nesting on the shore. Its own nest is sometimes vulnerable to being raided by D. volturcephalus, but it will fiercely defend its eggs and young in such an encounter.
