Life of the Harp Steppe

In the southeast of Serinarcta 265 million years hence lies one of the world's most megafauna-diverse biomes, the harp steppe. A long but narrow stretch of land named for its crudely harp-like shape when viewed on a map, the steppe is an expanse of cool, temperate grassland. Becoming dry heading north along the edges of the cactaigalands, the southerly ranges of this steppe are damp prairies, often intermixed with stands of tall needle-leafed sunflower tree forest.

Temperatures in the northern steppe are seasonal and harsh, with long snowy winters with long periods below zero degrees Fahrenheit. Summer temperatures are rarely above seventy-five degrees at their extremes and usually top out in the mid sixties. The southerly reaches of this biome nearer to the equator lack the harsh winters but still don't experience very warm summers, being cool and wet with relatively minor seasonal change throughout the year with average temperatures ranging from around thirty to seventy degrees, and more significant temperature swings between each day and night than from summer to winter.

The harp steppe, particularly the southern edge, is one of the most productive eco-regions left on Serina as it heads into the ice age. A relatively close proximity to the icebox seaway to the south brings almost abundant rainfall, usually at night, and misty mornings quickly burn off by midday as a near-equatorial position means abundant sunlight year round. Cold-adapted grasses thrive in this wet climate, growing quickly during mild days and producing antifreeze in their sap to rest through the colder nights, and they support a wide assortment of grazing species and in turn predators. The southern steppe is crossed with stands of forest and forms a matrix of open and closed environments and numerous edge habitats that maximize the environment's habitability for both woodland-dwelling and plains-living wildlife.

above: a small sample of the diverse avian and tribbethere fauna of the southern Harp Steppe; a truculent bumblebear, among the largest land carnivores, usurps the carcass of an adolescent thorngrazer from a mother cutthroat and her cub. A fierce ambush predator descended from the much smaller chiselers of the early Ultimocene, the cutthroat hunts and feeds much like a leopard, pouncing on her victims, killing with a debilitating neck bite and then - ideally - dragging the kill to safety in a tree. But this kill was simply too large. The bumblebear, weighing nine hundred pounds and standing up to eight feet tall at the head on all fours, may be powerful, but even he is not guaranteed to keep what he has stolen. The commotion attracts unwanted attention in the form of pesky scavengers - a pair of grisly carnackles, a riverine muckodile, and a variety of sparrowgulls - both petrel-like primitive species and small crow-like advanced forms - all interested in a piece of the kill. Though none of these animals could take him on individually, so many opponents looking for an opening at once makes defending his prize complicated. Unable to go after any one of them lest another swipe the carcass whilst he is distracted, he can only stand his ground.

Not involving themselves with the unfolding drama, a herd of mammoth trunkos pass by, alert but confident in their safety with the predator already occupied with a kill. Giant archangels come for a landing in the meadow beyond, among the last large representatives of their kind, while their smaller and more successful relatives the ptundra pteese graze and socialize unconcernedly along the river's edge. To to the right a mother birchbark boomsinger and her juvenile offspring pass uneasily toward the forest beyond, where they will shelter and feed. One of only a few species of these giant placental birds still extant, these giraffe-sized animals are the smallest and most gracile among them, adapted to feed along the heavily vegetated edges of forests and to slip away to safety in thickets where bulkier predators cannot follow.