Squotters

Metamorph birds, sometimes still known as changelings, in the middle Ultimocene remain among the most successful and diverse birds ever to live, with unprecedented variety from tiny insect-like forms to enormous megafauna. Metamorph birds became incredibly specious and diverse after they evolved their worm-like larval lifestage, which effectively allowed their members to re-start their evolution from the vertebrate baseline, allowing - among other things - birds which could walk on their forearms (ornimorphs and placental birds), breathe underwater (eargills), and even breathe through their bones (Osteopulmas). And while they started off tiny, by retaining these attributes gained in their small larval life stages through adulthood, many such representatives were able to reach huge sizes. Archangels still fly the skies, sharkbirds swim the seas and until very recently, even the huge boomsingers still walked the land. Metamorph birds remain diverse even in a cold, changing world.

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Some metamorph groups have nonetheless fared poorly in the face of catastrophic global cooling. Ornimorphs, metamorph birds which evolved a highly prolonged maturation between an aquatic larva, a terrestrial juvenile and a winged adult, produced another distinct branch of aberrant birds in the late Pangeacene known as squaves. These birds matured as terrestrial quadrupeds, losing the winged adult life stage and instead competing with reptile-like tribbets as mostly cold-blooded, lizard-like animals. Even though they evolved ovoviparous live-birth ( hatching their eggs internally), they were not well adapted to survive cold. As might be expected, the sudden ice age was largely catastrophic to these creatures.

But one small group stood out as successful survivors. Some of the least specialized, earliest forms to evolve, these did not fully lose the ability to generate body heat or the genes to produce insulating plumage. Before the ice age they were never very numerous, representing a sort of living-fossil clade, similar to ancestors of the more derived, reptilian species that have since largely died out. Living somewhat like tree shrews as small arboreal predators, this ancestral group, the squirves, lived in the temperate regions of Serinarcta where seasonal temperatures could be bitter. When such a climate overtook the world, this one branch of the squave lineage survived, moving south along with the last forests, and then learned to eke out a living without them. 

They are now known as squotters, and they are the last of the squaves. Chubby, somewhat superficially mammal-like animals with sturdy hooked beaks and webbed feet, they have adapted to find food along the southern coasts of Serinarcta, seeking refuge like so many others in the last healthy, productive  ecosystem on Serina at this time. Squotters still have the genes to produce some feathers, but no longer can grow advanced ones as their ancestors have not flown in so many millions of years. Their integument is instead simple, unbranched filaments, sort of like insulating down and similar to the very earliest feathers to evolve in bird’s dinosaur ancestors. As squotters are aquatic to varying degrees, their coats are greasy and waterproof, like the fur of an otter. In addition to their plumage, squotters are very rotund and insulated with a thick deposit of brown fat to keep warm in cold water. Squotters are the only living birds with three fingers on the forelimb; other metamorph birds which have re-evolved digits have only two, which is also the case for the bumblets, even though both of these latter groups evolved their fingers independently through different means. 

The most primitive squotters basically live as beach-combers and shallow water foragers, scavenging, hunting small fish and crabs and eating birds’ eggs and chicks while the more derived species are virtually marine and rarely rest on land. All species rely mostly on scent to find prey, with a very well-developed sense of smell that leads them toward blood or decay wherever it might be found. They are carnivorous and aggressive, bold enough to dominate larger animals away from carrion and to frighten nesting mothers away from their young. Unlike many of the most successful animals of the era, they are both fiercely solitary and relatively unintelligent, demonstrating that there are multiple very different ways to survive in the face of harsh environmental conditions. They are not stupid per se, but rather have slower metabolic rates than most comparable birds and so cannot afford equally massive, energy-intensive brains; on the other hand, they can eke by on less daily food than most other birds of the same weight. Squotters are extremely territorial, with each sex fiercely defending their home ranges from others and only tolerating the opposite sex during brief mating trysts. They fight aggressively over resources, and large windfalls of food such as beached sea animals attract many individuals and are the regular stages of ferocious battles where the animals brutally bite at one another’s heads and necks with their sharp beaks. Such intraspecific combat has led to the evolution of scale-like skin along these body parts, even while the rest of the body is smooth and entirely free of scales - even the toes, which are still  scaled in nearly all other Serinan birds.

The more terrestrial squotters behave similarly to carnivoran mammals, like hyenas or cats, while the aquatic species are very similar to otters, albeit are not at all social. And like these mammals, squotters give live-birth, which is highly beneficial in a cold climate. Unlike mammals however their young are born precocial and able to fend for themselves, just a few ounces each, and are not cared for by the parent; in this respect, squotters are still most akin to lizards. 

above: the skuorc is a relatively small, more terrestrial species of squotter that feeds on anything it can catch including crustaceans, birds' eggs and even the young of molodont colonies. They are capable swimmers with webbed-hind feet but are still well-adapted to walk on dry land. Skuorcs have a thin coat of oily hair over their plump bodies to keep warm in cold air. Though they put on an impressive show of aggression to get what they want, skuorcs are more bark than bite with most larger animals - they are, however, a constant bane to breeding colonies and extremely persistent predators of defenseless young.

below: the urutrel is a nearly completely aquatic squotter that does not generally leave the water. Resembling a mixture of a giant petrel, an otter and a crocodile, they are formidable carnivores that will go after anything they can catch and brutally bludgeon even quite large prey with their sharp, heavy beaks.  Urutrels are not especially intelligent but have good memories of where food can be found and have recently learned to take advantage of gravedigger's nets and traps to steal food before the rightful owners can collect it. They are considered dangerous, and will also eat the gravediggers themselves if they find themselves in the water. These squotters are mostly featherless, and rely on their body fat for warmth; they are thus sometimes hunted and used as a source of fuel oil, though being relatively uncommon and solitary there are more readily available animal resources used for this purpose.