Zamahem
Large, dinosaur-like creatures native to Zatrides, the Irziell homeworld.
In the past, the zamahem were the natural predator of the irziell, but with rapid technoogical advancement of the latter, they became hunted rather than the hunter. Though they have a large, armoured head, the irziell could still throw or fire projectiles at the body which should either injure it or discourage it from attacking irziell.
They can grow to a height of about 10m and are surprisingly versatile, able to reach places that many other large species cannot, finding prey in caves and narrow areas despite the armoured head. They will grow to this large size after about 30 years but reproduce relatively quickly as long as there is enough food. They require a lot of energy to reproduce. The female can lay large eggs, the eggs being a valuable food source to the irziell, if hard to obtain. For this reason, some irziell have domesticated and farm them through some periods of history to recover the zamahem large, tasty eggs. This led to a large number of accidental irziell deaths.
Although they have been hunted to near-extinction, the invention of the replicator saved their species as it was easier to replicate Zamahem eggs than poach them. They have recovered, but as the irziell are now very powerful they might never thrive like they did before.
They can change their metabolism rate depending on food availability. At higher speeds they will have more energy but require more food. They can only lay eggs when their metabolism is close to its fastest rate for a few weeks. At this rate they would require about a third of their body mass daily.
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