Species Profile: Mantis Stork

The first teams sent to the southern micro-continent reported intense uneasiness as soon as they stepped foot into the dense lycopsid swamps of the northern peninsula. When a worker vanished, leaving behind nothing but his tent, uneasiness turned to distress. Rumours began circulating of a tall humanoid creature that was following the expedition team, which would use its scythe-like arms to make short work of any person left on their own. Though individual legends varied, the common thread was its grotesque bird-like head, adorned by a malicious grin. With the capture of a mantis stork a few months later, expedition team Schoedsack found truth to be stranger than fiction.

Anatomy and relationships

Mantis storks (Falcecheira australis) are a clade of cheiropod pseudopod, characterised by an extra segment in the front limbs. It is hypothesized that these joints arose from the same mutation that gave early antiarchs segmented pectoral fins, though more research needs be to done before any conclusions can be reached. Curiously enough, they use their front limbs, instead of their back limbs, to walk. This gait is not directly comparable to any extant Earth creature, but somewhat resembles the stride of large ratite birds.

Though extant cheiropods are represented only by tiehes, of which the mantis storks belong to, they once dominated most major terrestrial niches across the south of Dome 4. Cusiously enough, though, predatory cheiropods in the fossil record were never particularly successful, having dissapeared completely 100 million years ago, whereas the first tiehe only appear in 45 million year ago. A 55 million year ghost lineage is not impossible, but judging by the morphological similarities between tiehe and the more recently extinct tractipod browsers, a more compelling explanation might be a case of a horizontal niche leap, similar to that of the skewers on the northern micro-continent.

A possible factor contributing to the success of the tiehe is the loss of one of their armour plates behind their mandibles. The exposed muscle and skin allows for a wider range of free jaw movement, and in some species, have even grown into wattles for display.

Ecology and behavior

Mantis storks seem to occupy an intersectional niche between piscivory and carnivory. This is unsurprising, as the swamps and waterways it inhabits are rich in massive tetragnath 'fish'. Contrary to popular belief, mantis storks are not named after mantises, but mantis shrimp. Instead of trapping prey between two spiked leg-segments, mantis storks jab at them in a harpoon like motion. Once caught, their prey are usually repeatedly attacked by the free hind-limb or stomped on by their legs until they are not much more than a bloodied mess of flesh. This cruelty is not needless. The inflexibility of the antiarch body plan means that they cannot send captured prey directly to their mouths; in order to eat anything, they first need to place it on the ground and then lower their bodies towards it. Lest their morsels run away, it is better safe than sorry.