Raharrs:Ecosystem

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Harr is a tropical world rich in flora and fauna. Textbooks and classification of species have to be constantly updated, since ecosystems and biomes are in constant flux and change. Life on the planet is divided into categories more or less identical to terrestrial: protozoa, plants, fungi, arthropods and animals.

The animal life of Harr is considered of phylum hexapoda divided into two large groups of animals, that have different anatomy structures. Researches do not fully agree to how that came to be; leading theory is that somewhere in early history of the planet, shortly after emergence of first multi-cellular organisms, continental drift caused part of the ocean to become completely isolated from the rest of the planet for a long time. That part was large enough to host it's own diverse ecosystem, and the isolation lasted long enough so that it evolved differently from the others. Easiest way to distinct these two clades is the skull structure. The ones that convergently resemble earth animals in structure are Unimandibulae, featuring a skull and one jaw that moves vertically. They share planet with Bimandibulae clade, these have a skull with two sets of jaws, articulated horizontally, like those of insects. They have further anatomical differences from the Unimandibulae, but they are not so obvious without a dissection.

Typical examples of Unimandibulae are raharrs themselves, and their companions, flydogs.

Bimandibulaes, despite having nearly one third of total population of vertebrate animals of the planet, are quite less "complicated" than their Unimandibulae peers, lacking many inventions that their neighbors had evolved. This prevents them from dominating the biosphere, but at the same time it gives them some resilentness that provides some edge in the competition.

Distinctive Species

Harrack

Harrack is a Bimandibulae species, and is one of the most dangerous animals on the planet, remaining the top predator of the food chain even with raharrs in the vicinity, and this situation was preserved through much of their history, until the invention of firearms. It is a large animal with massive set of jaws and tough armor-like skin. They are slow to grow and reproduce, and were relatively few and between even in early history, being solitary predators that claimed truly vast hunting grounds to soothe their appetite, but that nearly caused them to go extinct when raharrs invented gunpowder and become able to safely hurt the beasts from afar. Harracks have property that they share with many other Bimandibulaes - they do not get old. Harracks grow slow and steady, but seemingly indefinitely, as long as their hunting grounds are able to support their appetite. It looks like all harracks die either from injures or starvation, growing too big to find and catch enough food to supply themselves. Largest skeletons found by the researches imply specimens that were up to twenty meters in length at the time of their death, with estimated age of three to four centuries. Harracks carved themselves quite sizeable place in raharrs mythology, symbolizing invulnerability, rage and deadly power. One of the mythical varieties of harracks had several wings on it, although no such species were discovered in nature, obviously.

Flydog

Flydog

Small canine-size flying animal, that played similar role in Raharrian evolutionary history, becoming one of the first domesticated species.

Slow death

There's a plant on the harr, called Arknehashe Zannul, which can be translated as "slow death". It is stemming off distinct class of parasitic plants and resembles a wide bush. They use animals to not just spread seeds around, but eventually use them as fertilizer. After the pollination, plants develops pear-shaped (and sized) seed cases on it's branches. Each seed case contains one small needle-shaped seed, with a chamber behind it, that contains gas under a pressure. Seed cases are sensitive to a touch, and upon irritation they rapidly contract, increasing the pressure in the chambers. This in turn forces the seed to propel forward like a projectile, and with luck it penetrates skin of unfortunate victim. Once inside of body, under the influence of warmth and wetness, the seed starts it's parasitic part of life cycle. It sprouts and start to grow roots, that anchors it in the flesh and suck nutrients out. The process is slow and can take months in some cases (hence the name... Do I need to add that it is also becomes incredibly painful in late stages?). The result depends on where the seed hit the victim. With limbs the outcome often is "just" necrosis of the tissues and eventual loss of the limb, but if seed is in torso, then the root growth eventually reaches the vital organs of the victim, or clogs the arteries, causing death. After that plants continue to use nutrients available from the rotting corpse, and eventually the roots spread into the ground below. At this point the plant continues to grow normally. Before the invention of the medical surgery, the sting of the plant was often fatal (since the seed is so small, the penetration can easily went unnoticed, and the effects of infestation begins to be noticeable only well after the roots are already anchored in the flesh and start to become thick enough to fell like foreign objects), and even if seed is removed, remaining roots can still grow for some time, and then cause necrosis as they begin to decompose. To clean the affected body part from the roots without just cutting out the affected region is a challenge even with modern medicine. Still, plant's seed pods are quite durable and elastic, and were widely used by the raharrs.

Unnamed air feeder

___

Harr's atmosphere is a home for vast amount of floating photosynthesizing microorganisms, that are part of the reason of the green skies of the planet. Some creatures evolved to live off these clouds of aeroplankton. This species, called ____ (Do not actually have native name yet), they catch aeroplankton by spewing out a long tongue, that then unwraps into a web of sticky hair-like structures that catch the food. And it's not always only the plankton, ___ can and will swallow essentially anything that will stick to it's tongue, include flying creatures. On the back of the torso and lower part of the neck is a foldable fin, that doubles as an organ for heat management and it's bright coloration is very important during mating rituals. It's long neck allows it to reach up to 16 meters in height, making it one of the biggest, and by far the tallest animal to ever exist on the whole planet, but the first vertebrae fused together to support the neck, resulting in a very limited flexibility at the base. Essentially, the creature is unable to bend it's head down to the ground. It's main defense against predators that dare to attack such massive target is neurotoxin-producing glands in the legs, and the legs themselves - for animal of that size and lifestyle, ___ are surprisingly nimble and fast to react to threats. One of it's most notable adaptations, besides the tongue, is the second "heart". Even with a powerful heart it is not easy to pump liquid that high up in the air, so these species developed sort of secondary heart at the top of their necks. It consist out of long tube of muscular tissue around the main artery, starting at the base of the skull, that contracts rhythmically and thus acts like a valveless pump, helping the blood flow upwards to reduce the blood pressure.