|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
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
|
| |
| Return
to land plants page
Back to top |
|
|