#spec evo

A Tracer brings home a crystal of energon to feed its three sparklings, who rest in a nest of tangled wirevines atop a cliff overlooking an ocean of solvent.

Descended from Onyx Prime, Tracers are capable of powered flight and have sensitive eyesight and energy-signature sensing. Little does this villager, who has left his village for the time being to roost knows, that his descendants will become one of the most specialized Cybertronian lineages, capable of extreme speeds and boasting incredibly potent tracking abilities.

In this setting, Cybertronians have their genetic information encoded in their t-cog, the same part of their biology responsible for their ability to transform. Because of this dual responsibility, over their lifetimes, certain factors such as modifications to their frame and alt-modes scanned can actually alter their genetic information. This means that Cybertronians have a form of soft inheritance closely resembling Lamarckism, allowing evolutionary progress despite their low rates of sexual reproduction and the incredibly long period of time it takes for them to reach adulthood

Due to Cybertron's unique status as a living planet, multiple abiogenesis events have occurred separately from one another, creating disparate kingdoms of life only linked by their connection to Primus. One of the most notable and persistent lineages are what human researchers have dubbed vita filum, or living wires.

Like all Cybertronian life, living wires are sustained on energon. Their first form was mere root-like mats of branching metal that criss-crossed on and near sources of liquid energon. Eventually, some incorporated plastic from their environment to form small bulbs capable of storing energon for when energon sources dried up. Over time, in one lineage the trait of larger and larger storage bulbs was selected for. The end result is a wirevine, a plant-like organism that wraps around rocky

outcroppings near energon lakes and streams. The frayed metal taproot reaches towards the life-giving liquid and absorbs it into the storage cable. Lengthy piles of these cables grow longer and longer throughout the wirevine's life.

speculative evolution of a mudwing

i know not exactly a dragon because no wings but can't quite give a hippo wings eh

forgot to mention the spots/eye markings whoops

kinda forgot that mudwings don't live in sunny places and instead live in bogs so whoops x 2 my brain somehow thought mud = oases or desert places with lots of dirt also the red colouration of some mudwings i've seen made me think of like a desert and camouflage and stuff

i know not exactly a dragon but neither is my seawing lol

i wanted to try my hand at a speculative evolution of a leafwing but as you can see it's mostly a hummingbird

i imagine leafwings would be similar to a hummingbird and having a long tongue for nectar and stuff, maybe their sharp beaks could be used to pierce fruit. i know that leafwings in the original book can use photosynthesis but honestly not sure how this would work with this thing

their wings plumage and stuff resemble leaves because yknow leafwing, and i imagine they're actually more like prey animals.

Long legs indicative of a degree of cursoriality allow them to save energy from flying, and instead jog across the landscape to hunt down any small game they may find. When active hunting yields nothing, they scavenge as readily, using other flying scavengers as beacons to a potential meal.

At their size, they are vulnerable to predation by larger, more powerful carnivores. In response to such threats, they've evolved a neck covered in hollow spikes. When rattled, they create an impressive intimidation display. If this fails, they can provide defense in another way. If any predator attempts to secure a bite, these spikes would shatter, lacerating and puncturing the inner mouths of the attacker.