Content:Antimorph

From SporeWiki, the knowledge base dedicated to Spore

[edit] Oddball

Antimorph means "opposite form", and for a well justified reason. It's entire body is upside down. Antimorphs are ceiling crawlers that hang from the ceiling... so they developed into evolutionary oddballs to better suit this niche. The Antimorphs legs protrude from it's back and hold on to the ceiling with sharp, curved claws. Their feet are also sticky, allowing them to cling better. Hanging down from the chest are two grasping limbs with long, clawed fingers. These limbs were actually wings, sometime in the Antimorphs prehistory, that lost most of their membrane and formed hands. The tail curls up below the body, and is tipped with a sharp spike. The Antimorph's ears, which are large and very sensitive, point downwards instead of upwards. In short, it's entire body has been switched around so that it can hang from cavern ceilings and seize prey below.

[edit] Hunting

Antimorphs crawl along the cave ceiling silently, listening patiently with their large bat-like ears. Their hearing is excellent, and picks up the echoes of tumbling rocks or scrambling claws with ease. When the Antimorph detects prey, it approaches with it's wing-arms hanging down. When it comes to the prey animal, it siezes it with it's claws and lifts it off it's feet, shoving it towards it's mouth. The Antimorph's jaw is cartillagous, and each tooth can actually move independantly. The jaws can also expand via the teeth stretching apart from one another. The prey is tasted with it's long, slimey tongue- if the Antimorph likes what it tastes, it shoves it into it's mouth and devours it. The process of being eaten alive by an Antimorph is slow and incredibly painful. However, some prey are "luckier" in that regard. If the Antimorph's victim gives a struggle that could result in injury, it extends it's curled tail and jabs it's prey with the bone spike at the end of it's tail. The spike is hollow, and filled with venom. All internal organs are shut down by the venom- the brain stops functioning, and the heart ceases to pump blood. The prey dies quickly, and is spared the agony of feeling the Antimorphs teeth.

[edit] Evolution

The Antimorph's ancestors probably looked something like dragons. They'd have possessed four legs, wings, and a long tail. Over time these creatures must've learned to take shelter in caves, and found that they could find sufficient amounts of food there. Over time they began to spend more of their lives in the caves than the skies, and began a rapid, almost out-of-control evolution into what we know now as the Antimorph. There are very, very few fossils of the Antimorph's ancestors, so this evolution must have occured rather quickly. How and why is unknown.

---