The midnight cat’s diet consists mainly of various species of tree frogs, particularly the Amazon milk frog (Trachycephalus resinifictrix), which it climbs up trees to find, sometimes climbing as high up as the canopy. Because its preferred prey lives in trees near slow-moving permanent water sources (“Mission Golden-Eyed Tree Frog”, n.d), the midnight cat has developed several adaptations to suit its semi-arboreal lifestyle. Mycospondylus has ball and socket joints on both its scapula and its pelvis, with extra muscle attachments on both of these bones that allow increased rotational motion. This motion is supported by a highly muscled back and powerful hind limbs, as well as extremely elastic ligaments that can stretch to allow Mycospondylus rotate its limbs outwards to climb even the widest trees. It does this by wrapping its limbs around the trunk of the tree and using its powerful hind limbs and its very large and strong claws to “scoot” itself up the tree. Tropical trees tend to have bark that is thin and not very textured (“Amazon Forest Ecology”, n.d), so in addition to its strong claws Mycospondylus also has paw pads that are laterally ridged to provide traction to help the midnight cat climb up even the smoothest and slipperiest of trees. It also has elongated phalanges in both its fore and hind feet with no webbing between them, allowing it to splay its paws out quite far—extremely useful for climbing wider trees. As in most felines, its claws are fully retractable and so its elongated foot structure has the additional advantage of having space to accommodate the large claws when they are pulled into the paw.
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