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| - It stands about 8 meters tall and is as lethal and as threatening as any bipedalien predator seen on Darwin IV. Its black-hided body is muscular and tight, and is surmounted by a large, pointed head which continuously swings back and forth in a meter-wide arc when pursuing such prey as thornbacks and prismalopes. With each swing it emits a pair of shrill, grating pings that target fleeing prey. Darting from its bony head is a red arrow-tipped tongue, serrated and glistening with saliva, which gives the animal its common name.
- Arrowtongues are one of Darwin IV's most ubiquitous apex predators. They are solitary hunters, roaming the plains in search of their next meal, usually a Thornback, Gyrosprinter, Littoralope, which they kill after an almost always fatal, short and furious pursuit. Most often, they can be spotted concealing themselves amongst beds of Electrophytes, where they take advantage of this colonial fauna's electrical discharges to discourage herds from getting too close to them. To aid in their camouflage, they have adapted an organic sonar system which emits ranging pings in concert with these discharges to obscure its point of origin from its intended prey; however, this sonar also has a use in attack, allowing them to terrify their intended targets to likely cloud their judgment and give the Arr
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| abstract
| - It stands about 8 meters tall and is as lethal and as threatening as any bipedalien predator seen on Darwin IV. Its black-hided body is muscular and tight, and is surmounted by a large, pointed head which continuously swings back and forth in a meter-wide arc when pursuing such prey as thornbacks and prismalopes. With each swing it emits a pair of shrill, grating pings that target fleeing prey. Darting from its bony head is a red arrow-tipped tongue, serrated and glistening with saliva, which gives the animal its common name. If a retreating prey animal, or two, loses its footing on the loose rocks, then the arrowtongue has a chance. The arrowtongue, for all its bulk, is enormously quick and is upon its prey before the stunned victims can regain their feet. Its tongue lashes out and spears a prey animal with such ferocity as to send a geyser of dark blood a meter into the air. The prey collapses with a gurgling sigh as its killer quickly retracts its tongue, turns and with a flick of its head, knocks a possible second prey item sprawling. The red blur of the predator's tongue finds its mark: and now, without withdrawing the organ, it crouches down and begins to feed. Powerful muscles ripple on the arrowtongue's sides and throat as it sends powerful digestive juices into the prey's body (usually into the chest cavity), and then withdraws the liquefied contents. Over the next half hour this process is repeated several times until the juices have completely cleaned organs out of the dead prey animal's body. Apparently the arrowtongue's diet consists of only the broken down viscera of its victims, for it leaves the prey's carcass intact for the scavengers. It might do this process immediately again with another caught prey animal. Again, the arrowtongue will insert its tongue. After another half hour, its belly distends, the glutted creature rises somewhat unsteadily and slowly strides off about 20 meters or less then lies down and rests. These are typically successful hunts and the fortunate arrowtongues can sleep through the night. At times, arrowtongues will gather in groups to accompany keeled grove-backs to prey on whatever they stir up (as was first observed late one night in Sinus Columbus during the First Darwinian Expedition). A predictable side eff ect of the travels of so large a creature as the grove-back is the flushing of enormous quantities of game. The arrowtongues opportunistically follow the huge beast, preying upon this game (even at great risk to themselves being crushed). Short moments after a grove-back's death, an arrowtongue appears, the first of many opportunistic liquivores to arrive at this easy banquet. Despite its power and ferocity, an arrowtongue can still be killed by an Eosapien, as first seen far downrange of the northern moors near Lacus Parry in Planitia Borealis during the First Darwinian Expedition.
- Arrowtongues are one of Darwin IV's most ubiquitous apex predators. They are solitary hunters, roaming the plains in search of their next meal, usually a Thornback, Gyrosprinter, Littoralope, which they kill after an almost always fatal, short and furious pursuit. Most often, they can be spotted concealing themselves amongst beds of Electrophytes, where they take advantage of this colonial fauna's electrical discharges to discourage herds from getting too close to them. To aid in their camouflage, they have adapted an organic sonar system which emits ranging pings in concert with these discharges to obscure its point of origin from its intended prey; however, this sonar also has a use in attack, allowing them to terrify their intended targets to likely cloud their judgment and give the Arrowtongue the advantage. They stand and walk about on a single pair of large, muscular, two-toed legs. They also have two muscular limbs coming out of their sides and facing backwards. These limbs can be pulled forward to make the Arrowtongue look bigger, whether to scare away a possible threat, or as a courtship display. It has a thin phallus in comparison with it's polar cousin, the Bolt-tongue. For personal defense outside of hiding amongst Electrophyte colonies, they have developed a symbiotic relationship with some unspecified microscopic organism, allowing them to utilize bioluminescence. These bioluminescent patches are aligned on their backs, and are used when attempting to frighten away intruders. The Arrowtongue gets its name from a retractable appendage on its mouth that it uses to attack and subdue prey, which pierces the victim's skin and injects digestive juices into the body. As with other liquivorous species, the victim's insides liquefy, at which point the Arrowtongue uses its 8m (26ft) long appendage to suck out this for sustenance.
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