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The history of evolution of species in the planet of Eden was a peculiar and intriguing one. Since the Fall that old species of animals that often-occupied small niches suddenly received a burst of population as they were able to fill in the niches of most of all extinct animals.
These species of animals were often smaller and not so strong, but as long as enough time was given to them, evolution took the job to shape them into all sorts of ways as they were molded by their own necessities and the best ways to achieve and adapt towards certain goals.
Evolution was a constant thing, it happened in every living being, and it constantly helped them achieve and complete their tasks more efficiently while ensuring reproduction and survival amongst them.
However, in extremely rare cases, natural evolution can give birth to sapience, intelligence. From an animalistic beast, consciousness emerges and develops that animal into a being… a person.
In such cases are extremely rare even across the entire Universe, the vast majority of sapient races found in exoplanets are all put there artificially, however, there are certain planets with their own original sapient species, often deriving greatly from the widely known races that had been introduced into many planets by superpowers around the Outer Universe.
The Cephalobidia could be said to be one of such types of sapient life forms, an alien race! Of course, they were kind of cheaters because they still descended from animals that Veronica and Ervas got from Kritias, so they were not exactly made out of the earth of this arid, atmosphere-less planet that wouldn't really be able to hold life on its own and perhaps might end up dying before it ever were to happen.
The Cephalobidia descent from a family of snails. Indeed, despite their bird-like appearance, their colorful and beautiful beaks, their colorful feathers, their graceful demeanor, and more, they're a race that descends from snails, and therefore, they're Mollusks. The history of their evolution is one filled with intricacies that had been lost in time.
However, the truth was that the snails that ended evolving into such complex sapient species ended this way through many years of evolution, they didn't started after The Fall, after all, a million years wasn't near as enough to make them into this widespread species of such derived lifeforms.
The snails that made the Cephalobidia were introduced by Ervas back then rather carelessly. He wanted to fill the recently purified and made oceans with some basic sea life, he introduced a few animals to make a descent food chain, introducing little snails that were only thought to be eaten at most, but that ended evolving in way more than that.
These sea snails slowly began to derive from their original niche as originally, even before The Fall, the sea was rather empty, there were a lot of fishes and other things, but they were mostly a single species. Making a lot of niches to be utilized.
Like the snails that once turned into squids and octopuses back on Earth (not in Kritias, as Kritias species were all created by Gods and none of them had the chance to naturally evolve, despite having the potential to do so), these snails evolved quickly, adapting to several other niches, turning faster, some even learned how to swim through the currents, and quickly after, the little tentacles they originally used to move across the sea floor and look for bits of food quickly grew larger, turning into an useful pair of tentacles that aided them in locomotion and catching prey.
They turned form bottom feeders to carnivorous predators, and thy developed sharp beaks made of keratin, the same material that make sup the nails of humans and other animals. These powerful beaks were able to tear apart their prey for them, and quickly evolved into all sorts of sharp hook-like forms.
At some point they became great predators of the sea, but of course, many other animals would end up evolving as well and turning against them in the race for survival, the little fishes turned into gargantuan predators, the little dolphins became specialized hunters of the snails' squids' descendants, and after their species experienced a boom in evolution and population, they slowly began to slow down for a bit, stabilizing more in various niches, although relentlessly staying in the seas.
The Cephalobidia's ancestors were indeed relentless, coming from the little snails they formerly were they had been fighting against vertebrate super predators and somehow still keeping up with the race of evolution and survival.
One of such species of squid-snails ended evolving a soft shell, which quickly ended becoming none as they developed a flexible body without the requirement for a shell. Those became large and swift predators, and were also capable of hiding in the crevices of the underwater… however, some of them did the complete opposite.
Indeed, the ancient ancestors of the Cephalobidia internalized their shells instead of losing them, as this would end up being the key to the bone-like structures that will keep their descendants standing in the strong gravity that the surface of the planet of Eden offered to those bold enough to walk their lands.
The vertebrate descendants of the fishes and dolphins had a very easy adaptation, even more the dolphins who were already able to breathe air, making it even easier for them to walk on land without the need of water to breathe oxygen through their gills, as they didn't had to begin with.
These snails that internalized their shells would then become the first pseudo vertebrates of the Mollusk family, slowly developing their internal shells as they realized the various benefits of having an internal bone structure. Some of their tentacles gained these bone-like shell growth, which gained complexity as it internalized bone marrow for the better distribution of nutrients and blood, while also gaining ligaments for an easier and more flexible movement.
This made of their powerful tentacles strong enough to one day… crawl outside the oceans, and stay in land indefinitely.
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