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Walrooster

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Description

The Walrooster (Marepsittacus occinerator) is the largest of the seaguins thanks to its mass, even though the sleek predatory Emperor Seaguin is technically speaking longer. This large hesperornithiform of the arctic seas has adapted to durophagous molluscivory, which is reflected not only in its hooked beak and crushing teeth but its dense bones that act as ballast while diving for clams, crustaceans and occasionally ammonites. It roughly fills the same niche on Spec as walruses, though its feeding method is quite different.

If you know enough about how bird beaks work, you'll notice that I got the walrooster's rhamphotheca wrong in this drawing. There should be no keratin covering the tooth-bearing parts of the jaws, but of course I knew nothing about that in 2001. I should also have made the eyes a lot larger. (Fun fact: I originally named this taxon the sea parrot and even the original scan of the drawing bears that name, but I came up with walrooster while coloring the image and decided to go with that at the last moment.)

Read more about the (aberrant) behavior of walroosters here.
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Coelotitan's avatar
I remember this guy. I think it was also pretty large at like 4 meters long or so.