Phase 2:Xalather Kin'toni Clan

History

Psychology

Biology

The Xalather are adapted to the harsh, hot, dry Goya Mesa. They are lean and wiry of build. Their limbs are long and slender for passive cooling. This allows them to stay cooler in the desert. The downside of this is being significantly less able to absorb impact from high-velocity blows or falls. The skin is dark brown in color, and thick and dry. It has an super-keratinized epidermis. These are adaptions for camouflage and to stop moisture loss. The hair grows in thick, short patches and is sparse and coarse.

The eyes are small and recessed and a deep bronze in color. It has heavy brow ridges. The ears are small, pointed and flat flat against the skull. These ears are coated in a dense, short hair dense, short hair to protect the canal. It has an thick layer of insulating, heat-resistant tissue around the cochlea to protect against the high ambient temperatures. The downside of this is being less able to detecting subtle, distant sounds. The nose is downward pointed, long, narrow and has nostrils that can seal almost completely into fine slits.

It has an thick mucus membrane used to re-condenses and retain exhaled moisture. The teeth are short, and blunt with wide, robust roots. These teeth are adapted for resisting the pressure of crushing small, hard-shelled desert creatures. These teeth have an dense, thick layer of hydroxyapatite (a natural mineral component of bone/teeth). This is to resist thermal expansion and contraction from temperature extremes.

The downside of these teeth is that being blunt, they are poor weapons, and the hydroxyapatite makes the teeth slow to regenerate if broken. The claws are tough, blunt and short. These are for adapted for gripping sun-warmed rock and scraping for prey. The windpipe and larynx are adapted with fine, internal filtering hairs as to stop fine sand and dust particles from entering their lungs. The claws have an tough, heat-resistant proteins in the claw matrix that allows them to be heat resistant.

These claws are brittle and prone to breaking. The hands and feet have pads that are composed of a heat-resistant keratin layer to allow for grip on hot rock surfaces without pain. These pads have poor traction on wet and icy ground. The armpits and groin have small, spongy organs that can condense minute amounts of water vapor from the ambient air. They also have small, highly specialized pockets of water-rich gelatinous tissue. Most are under the skin of the back and shoulders. These are for emergency hydration.

The lymphatic system is good at recovering and recycling essential salts and minerals from waste products. The blood has an high amount of salts and proteins as to reduce water loss via diffusion across cell membranes. The cells are adapted to be highly resistant to rupture or damage such as that of extreme cellular dehydration. These adaptions together allow them to need little in the way of drunk water. Under the skin are specialized vascular channels for circulating fluid used to cool the body by releasing heat in the shade.

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