|
This article, file, template, or category has been reviewed. |
|---|
|
Click here to see the review. |
Antarctica may seem like a barren ice covered wasteland, but it has a surprisingly large amount of endemic animals. All Antarctic animals can swim or fly and only a portion are permanent residents. Many other animals share their homes with skrylens. Some, like the Penguins, are hardly different to their home Earth counterparts, but some seem almost unbelievable. One such animal is the Antarctic Beach Comber, Antarctica's only living non avian dinosaur. Antarctic Beach Combers are found on the mostly iceless Antarctic Peninsula and the Falkland Islands, and will eat anything they can find, from seaweed to the carcasses of other large animals. Their genetic makeup suggests that they split from their closest relatives less than 10,000 years ago, and it is probably that the Antarctic population arrived there by chance in the last few hundred years, and will probably die out eventually. A species of Ichthyornithiform bird, possibly related to 'Satan's Scary Seagull', called the Kua, has been seen near colonies of other animals, and probably fills the niche of home Earth Skuas.
Sample species:
Mammals[]
- Cryovociferatidae sp. The largest animals found in Antarctica are the seal-like 'Skrylens', of the family Cryovociferatidae, meaning 'ice howler'. Though it sounds strange, skrylens are actually monotremes, though they seem to have split off rather early and still have well developed teeth. Skrylens still lay eggs, and have to leave the water to do so, to keep the egg warm until hatching, the female skrylen has a pouch the egg is laid into. For a monotreme, baby skrylens are rather large and well developed. Skrylens live in small groups, much like seals on home Earth, but actually resemble giant otters with small legs rather than seals. Like other monotremes, skrylens have a bill and electroreceptors, but the bill is not leathery in adults, unlike other aquatic monotremes. One species, the leopard skrylen, is a predator and will attack other skrylens, penguins and even small sharks, but is no match for a pod of Ssurcas.
Birds[]
- Penguins, p-Sphenisciformes.
- Kua, Neoichthyornis stercorarioids
Dinosaurs[]
- Antarctic Beach Comber, Cryonychus antarcticus