Sauceback
| Sauceback | |
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| First Appearance | |
| Progenitor | |
| Canon Information | |
Saucebacks are a major group of fauna on Sagan 4 Alpha. Originally conceptualized by Oviraptor during Week 3, they were named for the fact that the first sauceback, the Golden Sauceback, looked like it had sauce on its back.
Controversy
Saucebacks are, as a group, generally uncontroversial; quite the opposite, in fact, to the point that Sagan 4's contributors diversified them so much early on that there were simply too many apex predators in one place, resulting in the sauceback plague.
Common Misinterpretations
It was very common, for most of Sagan 4's history, for the ring of nostrils around a sauceback's face to be misinterpreted as eyes. In reality, the vast majority of saucebacks don't have eyes. The "eyestrils" of some modern groups such as the ornitheres were directly inspired by this misinterpretation.
The jaws of saucebacks have been misinterpreted as immobile tusks several times independently. There are also several cases of artists straight-up forgetting that saucebacks have teeth.
It's somewhat common for new artists to miss the spiracles on the tail.
References in Other Projects
Sagan 4 Beta's so-called "notbacks" were inspired by saucebacks, and even originally bore the name "neosaucebacks".
Sauceback knockoffs were, for a time, a common sight in Spore-based worldbuilding projects. They frequently had a ring of eyes instead of nostrils, though whether this was due to misinterpretation or an intentional attempt to set them apart is unclear.