Carnivorous Circuagodonts

above: a typical predatory-type circuagaodont.

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Like most herbivores, the stomachs of circuagodonts have few difficulties digesting animal protein; adapted to gain nutrition from coarse plant food, breaking down meat was comparably very simple. The main differences between herbivore wheeljaws and their carnivorous relatives, then, have been small. They include a reduction of toes from seven to five, a simplified stomach, eyes set more forward on the face, clawed digits on the forearms instead of blunt hooves, a wider gape, and some further specialization to the teeth - namely, the development of cusps in the rear of the teeth which shear together in a slicing motion, rather than the blunt grinders of their ancestors. A flat groove has developed in the middle of the lower tooth with rows of cusps on either side, while the tooth in the upper jaw has narrowed across its entire length in comparison to the very wedge-shaped one of other wheeljaws, so that as it slides back and forth within this groove it contacts with these cusps along its edges, where additional cutting blades have formed. The front of both teeth have changed little and still project from the lips as a shearing beak.

above: a cutaway showing the form and motion of a predator wheeljaw's teeth during the actions of biting and chewing. As the jaw opens, the mobile upper tooth slides forward and up, causing the wider cusped hind portion to slide between the cusps of the lower jaw. As the tooth slides back and the lower jaw closes, the tips of the teeth close in a scissoring motion which cuts another piece of flesh and slices it as the tooth slides back. When the jaw opens again, the meat is pulled forward and sliced a second time until it is in pieces small enough to easily swallow.

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Predator wheeljaws now feed predominately on animals, competing with spearrunners as well as their distant tribbethere relatives the dogbeasts among Serina's major land predators. Their proportions are still mostly in line with early herbivore cirguagodonts and they are gracile, with long limbs suited to endurance running. Instead of fleeing from other predators now, however, they use these adaptations to run down smaller molodonts. The anatomy of their mouths really only allows a single shearing bite, and so prey is usually bitten on the back so that the spinal cord is severed - small animals, however, may be cut literally in half, and a misplaced killing bite can cleanly take off a limb. Once disabled through one of these means or another, it is further dismembered in a few rapid shearing bites which are each further broken up by the grinding motion in the back of the jaws. The lips prevent food from being lost out the side of the mouth, but as these predator species require wider gape than earlier grazers the lips have become highly elastic. Though most predatory wheeljaws feed mainly on small animals, they are still omnivorous and also readily consume fruit, nuts, and small quantities of vegetation. On occasion, however, they will also hunt much larger prey animals, equal to or surpassing themselves in weight. To bring down animals as large as itself or more so requires a different hunting technique.

As far as hunting small animals, meat-eating cirguadonts and dogbeasts are similarly efficient predators with equally competitive hunting techniques. When it comes to larger prey animals, however, dogbeasts are much less successful. This is because cirguadonts are social animals which descend from a more advanced group of the tribbethere clade. Even most herbivorous species have larger brains relative to their body weights than the terrestrial dogbeasts, and carnivorous sorts are smarter still - able to utilize coordinated efforts to get their food.

All wheeljaws are social to some degree. Though most of the time predatory species hunt individually, they live in social groups known as clans, typically formed of one male (or several, if they are related) and several females and their young, that retire to a common den location after a day of foraging. Small prey items are eaten on the spot and not taken back to shared with the other adults in the clan but in such a group all of the hunting adults regurgitate food for the young. When hunting a large prey animal though, such as another species of circuagodont, several adults will go off together. They approach a herd and attempt to locate an easy target which may be young, ailing, or simply isolated away from the protection of its group, and attempt to run it down in close formation. A single individual would have a hard time bringing down such a large animal with a single bite without it escaping or turning back and savaging its attacker with its own teeth, but multiple hunters increases the odds. One individual will lead and attempt to hamstring the prey as it flees by cutting the tendon in a hind leg to make the prey lame. As it trips, it turns to defend itself, but is soon overwhelmed by the force of the attack and the predators simply bite repeatedly and deliver a series of scissoring jabs at the victim's body, aiming to wound it badly enough that it will go into shock from blood loss. Provided that the initial attack succeeds and the prey animal is captured, the killing method is crude but effective, though surely a horrible way to die - literally death by a thousand cuts. Once disabled, the animals dismember the carcass piece by piece and share it amicably.

A second, unique hunting technique has also been observed in some predatory wheeljaws. It relies on the close resemblance of the carnivores to their herbivorous relatives to work. In this hunting technique one or two of the hunting party make themselves obvious in the open outside the edge of a herd of grazing circuagodonts and will nibble on the grass around them, only keeping a passing glance on the herd, while the rest of the party move around the other side of the group in a wide arc. This serves to catch the preys' attention, giving the others who have circled around the herd a better chance at sneaking in, but also lure the other circuagodonts into a false sense of security that they too are harmless herbivores. The ruse usually works because of the superficial similarity between the predatory and herbivorous clades, as they are not separated by more than a few million years of adaptation. While the herd keeps an eye on the decoys and determines they aren't threatening, they soon settle back down to feeding, and rarely even notice the other two or three individuals that have worked their way into the herd from the other side, every so slowly, with their heads also down to the ground in the posture of grazing.

It is now that the seemingly harmless grazers on the outside of the herd make their move, rushing them and taking them by surprise. The herbivores run, but some find their escape cut off by the rest of the pack which closes in from the opposite side. Having infiltrated the herd, they now launch a simultaneous attack from all angles on their chosen target, giving it little warning and even less room to maneuver an escape around them. This technique, when properly executed, often allows a single group of several animals to capture and kill two or three victims at once.

Because the herbivorous wheeljaws taken in this way are also relatively intelligent, though, this sort of attack can only be done successfully once to a given group of cirguagodonts. After losing a member to these wolves in sheeps' clothing, the survivors will become wise to the game and no longer trusting of the predators' tricks. In addition, it takes only a few wise individuals responding fearfully to the predator species to turn an entire herd that has never dealt with their carnivorous cousins fearful. This method of hunting is thus successful in the short term, but is destined to die out in coming eons, both as prey species as a whole develop instinctive fear of these predators as they have for others, and as evolution continues to change the hunters' appearance further away from that of their prey.

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The similarities in appearance and mannerisms between herbivore and carnivore forms due to their recent evolutionary history sometimes also results in unusual situations of cross-fostering. In general, herbivorous wheeljaws will not adopt orphan young; their social association is strictly for protection, and there is little invested in each other's well-being otherwise. Predator wheeljaws operate under a much more actively mutualistic behavior pattern, most obvious in the way multiple adults feed all of the clan's young. If a predator comes across a very young individual of a relative it would normally view as prey, its parental instincts may dominate, causing it to adopt the youngster and, assuming it also imprints on its would-be predator, lead it back to the clan. Once there it's likely its pack will be more inclined at first to kill the orphan, but in some instances the adopter's instincts are so strong as to cause it to protect the baby long enough that its scent becomes covered by that of the clan and the other adults also accept it. The clan then feed the orphan among their own offspring. The diet provided is very different than what their own mothers would feed them, but in many cases the young nevertheless survive until weaning age, just as the ancestors of the predator wheeljaws readily transitioned to a carnivorous diet. The eventual end of this cross-species fostering is usually a sad one, however, as the orphan matures having imprinted on a deadly predator. It inevitably leaves the clan at maturity, either intentionally or accidentally. Though it may have been adopted by one individual clan, others will show no affection for it except as prey, and it will typically be killed attempting to approach unrelated individuals or even its own clan after an extended absence that has caused it to lose the protective scent of its adopters, making it no longer recognizable.

Because most predators feed on animals very different from themselves, where the prey does not look or act like the predator, these are situations not well documented in nature, but presumably occur relatively regularly immediately after the radiations of all animal groups into different distinctly carnivorous and herbivorous lineages. And in rare cases, cross-fostering - usually less successful, can occur even with much less closely related predators and prey when the instinct to nurture manages to overcome tens of millions of years of evolution and turns what should be food into family.