“Interiorly, the snout is odd too, in both species. That gentle swelling behind the nostril slits is a chamber filled with cilia. Hairlike projections, but flesh. And they’re rife with bloodvessels. So are the organs that seem to correspond to lungs. Filled with cilia. Like a nest of worms. They expel water when they come up from a dive: they sit on the shore and heave and it comes out the nostril slits. So they’re taking in water; and they’re getting oxygen out of it. Gills and lungs at once. They can handle river water and estuary water, but no one’s observed them diving at sea. They may have relatives that do. We’re a long way from knowing how many different varieties of lizards there are. But the present count is about fifty‑two species under the size of the ariels. And a lot are aquatic.
“There are flying lizards–for the naturalists among you that know what bats are–rather like bats and rather not; warmblooded, we reckon–the probe crew never caught any, but the photo stills” (Slide) “–rather well suggest bats; that’s a terrene form. Or Downbelow gliders, of which no one’s yet got a specimen. We don’t know a thing about them, but their agility in the air, along with the fact that calibans and ariels are warmblooded–suggest that they’re the world’s closest approach to a mammal. This is the item we’ve got a particular caution on. They’re fairly rare in the area, but they do swarm. The wingspan is half a meter, some larger. They could bite; could carry disease: could be venomous–we don’t know. Because they might be something like a mammal, we’re a little more concerned about contamination with them. There’s no good being scared of them. I’m talking about remote possibility precautions. Everything’s new here. You don’t find easy correspondences in lifeforms. All the can’ts and won’ts you ever heard can be revised on a new world. Nature’s really clever about engineering around can’ts. Insects can’t get above a certain size…except that insect is a terrene category term, covering things with chitin and certain kinds of internal structure; but what we meet in the Beyond can differ quite a bit. And our world has some oddities.” (slide) “Like the hoby mole. That’s a meter long, half a meter wide, engorges earth like a burrowing worm. That tiny annular segmentation is chitin, and they’re very soft. Yes, they are something like an insect, and if you put a spade through one by accident, don’t touch the remains. They exude an irritant that sent a member of the probe team to sickbay for two days. So there’s also a caution out on this one.
“There are snakes. They’re coldblooded and they’re constrictors. At least the samples were. We don’t rule out poison. Possibly we’re being alarmist in that regard: human prejudice. But poison in a legless structure seems to be a very efficient hunting mechanism and it’s proven so on two worlds besides Earth.
“And the fairy flitters.” (slide) “These little glider lizards are about fingersized, the wings are really rib extension, and if you set a lantern near the trees, you’ll get a halo of flitters. They don’t really fly, mind, they glide. The iridescence lasts as long as they live. You only see it in the photos, not in the lab specimens. They eat putative insects, they’re utterly harmless, and probably beneficial to the farming effort. They’ll cling to anything when they land, and you just disengage them gently and set them back on a branch. They’ll fly right back to the light. As long as there’s no trees near our camp lights, we won’t have trouble with flitters piling up there. But they’ll be all over you if you carry a light through the woods, and I’m afraid we’re going to have trouble with vehicle headlights. It’s a shame to think of killing any of them. They’re far too beautiful. We’re going to try to devise something that might drive them off. Ideas are welcome.