Sion Land Animal Family
   
Rocky Shore

About 9 million years ago, Sion-Rockcrabs in the rocky shore of Amun continent made a journey to the dune sand area of backshore seeking foods. The backshore is a terrace above the high water line that slopes gently seaward. Throughout this new journey, Sion-rockcrabs found coconuts lying under coconut trees on the sands. They ate coconuts that they never tasted before and they fell in love with the delicacy. This is how the coconut crab evolved in the dune sand and became a land animal.

Sion-Rockcrab

 

1st Environment

The Sion-Rockcrab slowly adapted from the rocky shore to this new habitat over time, and then it became a quite different species than Sion-Rockcrab. Now, Sion-Rockcrab's descendant, the Sion-Coconutcrab feeds on its favorite food, coconuts and other plants like Sion-Phytes growing in the backshore. They developed much longer and more powerful claws and legs to climb coconut trees and to get its favorite food, coconuts. When it reached the coconuts in the top the palm trees, it used its powerful sharp claws to cut the coconuts down. It used its massive claws as a kind of tool like a hammer to crack the coconut shell to open and eat the sweet contents. Although they lived around coconut trees on the dune sands, they needed to drink seawater once a week to keep up their salt levels. Outside Sion-Coconutcrabs are covered with a horny carapace. As they grow bigger they must shed this hard carapace and grow a new one. While It took a month to grow a new carapace, the Sion-Coconutcrab hid in the pile of cracked coconuts. Sion-Coconutcrabs grow very slowly. At the age of 4-8 years old they can reproduce by eggs. One matured Sion-Coconutcrab weighted about 2 pounds and lived for over 30 years. After mating, the female stored the eggs under its abdomen and carried them for two months until it finally dug a hole and hid the fertilized eggs underneath the sands just one week before the eggs start to hatch. During this hatch period, male Sion-Coconutcrabs pause their hunts for coconuts to protect eggs from predators like land turtles who favor crab eggs as their food.

Sion-Coconutcrab
2nd Environment
Seven million years later, Sion-Coconutcrabs did not need to drink sea water once a week to keep up their salt levels any more as they progressively adapted to the dune sand. In addition, they were tired of cracking and eating coconuts. So they made another journey further inland to search for new foods and a better habitat. Finally, they reached the grassland with abundant foods such as grasshoppers. After that time, Sion-Echidna evolved from Sion-Coconutcrab. Sion-Echidna showed interesting adaptations by which it got smaller in size than its ancestors in the open place with many predators. A matured Sion-Echidna weighted 1 pound. It no longer had those powerful claws and long legs because it no longer climbed trees for coconuts like its ancestor, Sion-Coconutcrab. Those powerful claws and long legs were transformed into four short legs necessary to walk on the ground. Also its horny carapace was transformed to sharp spines that look like grasses to disguise itself and protect itself from the predators. When being attacked, it curled itself into a ball to disguise itself as a chestnut burr with showing only spines to its enemy. Those spines contained poisonous substance that were deadly to the predators. In addition, Sion-Echidna developed a long beak to pick up its food like grasshoppers easily. The female Sion-Echidna developed a pouch right on its belly. The start of the mating season was in summer. After mating the female laid 1 soft egg into this pouch. It took 10 days for an Echidna to hatch from the egg.
Sion-Echidna
 
3rd Environment
Seven million years ago, volcanoes near the grassland of the continent Amun had huge eruptions and then the grassland became a fiery killing field to animals living there. Most of Sion-Echidna died by fires, but some of them escaped luckily and then headed for the north for the safety. They reached to the rain forest where volcanic activities diminished in the north of Amun continent. In this new habitat, Sion-Antsucker evolved from Sion-Echidna. It transformed its beak to long snout with a sticky tongue to suck its available foods such as ants and insects from the underground. The size of a Sion-Antsucker was similar to a small dog and it weights about 15 pounds. Sion-Antsucker can roll into a ball like its ancestor when being attacked. However it no longer had the back with poisonous spines, instead its back was covered with hard leather that can not be penetrated with sharp predator's teeth. In addition, it developed long nails to dig dirt in searching for foods. It used Its long tail in order to spread out the dirt dug out in terms of searching for insects. Unlike Sion-Echidna, Sion-Antsucker was a mammal that gave birth into its developed a pouch on its belly after six months of pregnancy. It carried a baby in the pouch about six months, and then later it carried the grown up baby visible in size until the baby became fully indepedent for its own life.
Sion-Koala
Table of Animal Facts
Cold Blooded Animal
Animal
Weight
Kcalories
Eat It Kcal
Sion-Coconutcrab
2 Lb.
90
1,600
Warm Blooded Animal
Animal
Weight
Kcalories
Eat It Kcal
Sion-Echidna
1 Lb.
45
900
Sion-Antsucker
15 Lb.
675
13,500
Diagram of Animals Relationships
         
 
 
 
1. Sion-Rockcrab/Rocky Shore
2. Sion-Coconutcrab/Dune Sand
 
     
 
 
 
 
4. Sion-Antsucker/Montane Rain Forest
 
3. Sion-Echidna/Grassland
 
   
   
         
This page is created by Joseph Choi
 
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