Scuzzard

Snowsabers, because of their teeth, have difficulty making use of an entire prey animal and often leave the remnants of the carcass lying out in the open. In addition, large animals from the sea regularly wash up upon the coastline, and make for an easy meal for scavengers. The tundra's resident scavenger is the scuzzard, the pterosaur equivalent to the avian vulture. Any meat left exposed to the elements with quickly assemble a throng of these condor-sized pterodactyls. They are covered in thick silver hair except for their wings, which are also hairy but also blink dark red from red lumuole colonies that take up residence there. The lumuoles generate something like a thermal air current in flight, allowing the pterosaur to glide with ease across the frigid landscape. The scuzzard is magnificently adapted to its chosen habitat. A keen sense of smell allows the animal to smell an animal the moment it keels over; a dark, semi-transparent membrane can be closed over the eyes at will, filtering out snowglare but allowing the pterosaur to spot a dead animal from high in the sky. Finally, scuzzards have extremely thick, sharp beaks that are perfect for ripping into the hides of dead dinosaurs, exposing the cold flesh within. Once meat has reached the digestive system, part of it remains fermenting in the stomach acid for weeks on end. This is not an inefficiency in the animal; this is a defense mechanism. If a small predator threatens the scuzzard, the red-winged pterodactyl will open its beak wide and let loose a barrage of steamy projectile vomit, in some species heated to dangerous degrees by extra lumuole colonies in the stomach. This deters 99% of all the predators a scuzzard is likely to face, and is often used in displays for females during the breeding season. The scuzzard may be the only life form on Diaemus that doesn't see anything gross about this.