Average Height: 5'-6' when standing upright

Average Lifespan: 60 sols

Maximum Life Expectancy: 110 sols

Time taken to reach maturity: 7-9 sols

Sensory abilities: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Touch and Taste

Psychic abilities: Quite Rare

Genetic cross reference: Carbon based life form of the montaroid band

Physiology: Based on appearances, the Dateno look like very large rodents of about the same mass as a Human, especially rather like that of a Gerbil. Their hind quarters are much larger than their front paws and they walk around on all fours in a kind of hopping motion. Do not be fooled by this though, as Dateno are capable of quite a turn of speed at full sprint (over 40mph on average) and because of their powerful hind quarters can jump up to several times their own height.

However, their front limbs are not just legs. Their 'paws' end in five dexterous digits, each ending in a sharp claws, but they can use these to grip and manipulated a variety of objects with an amazing degree of accuracy. Dateno can stand upright on their hind quarters, but because of their design, they can not move around much like this, at best being able to shuffle around a little.

Dateno have sharp teeth which grow continously throughout their life times. For this reason, Dateno can often be seen gnawing on pieces of wood or mineral stones to keep them down, though the more vane Dateno will instead regularly have these filed instead.

Dateno are covered in a thick covering of fur, which covers their whole body and their tails. This is usually slick naturally, though some Dateno choose to style this, especially their tails, into all sorts of bushy appeals. Dateno fur comes in a variety of colours and patterns, from black to white, red to blue. Strips and patches are not uncommon and this is a result of genetics inherited from parents.

Amongst this fur though, Dateno have a number of hidden skin pouches into which they can store a variety of stuff. There is one main one around their stomach's, but there is two around their cheast and one on either of their sides. They also possess cheek pouches in which they can store food (or anything else a clever Dateno wishes to hide).

Dateno also have very alert senses all round, picking up on anything and everything on going on around. However, they can be dazzled by bright lights, high pitch noises or strong odours. Along with this set of alert senses, they also possess a keen and intelligent mind, capable of understanding beyond that of most sentient species. Curious by nature, they are also not fool hardy, carefully assessing every situation before allowing their curiousities to get the better of them.

Dateno reproduce sexually and give birth to litters, usually of 5 to 15 young at a time. Their young are born with complete fur and their eyes open and they mature very rapidily. Within five to ten days of being born, most Dateno are capable of walking and running around and within a sol, they normally learn to talk. Maturity is reached at the age of between 7-9 sols.

Dateno do not have seasons or a gestation cycle. Instead, mating stimulates ovulation and a Dateno can breed from about the age of 5 sols right up to the time their die. Like other races of their genetic cross reference, Dateno also possess what is described as very flexible genetics, which means things like inbreeding cause less problems on a genetic level than it would for other races. Pregnancy lasts about four months.

A Dateno can live on average upto 60 sols, though some have been known to reach 110 sols naturally. As they grow older, so their fur begins to show signs of white if it hasn't done so already and the Dateno begins to loose a lot of energy. Older Dateno also have a rapid drop in their immune systems, more so than other races, and it is usually simple virus's and diseases that can end up killing them in the end.

Females tend to be smaller and slighter than Males, but the female is quicker and more agile than the stronger male. Both are very calm however, only rising to any form of violence if heavily provoked and prefer to talk their way out of situations where they can.

Dateno organs are fairly easy to replicate, though the risk of rejection of organs is still evident in Dateno due to their genetical evolution.

History: Dateno history is one that has always astounded Resque historians. When the colonisation fleet originally came to C69, the Dateno were not even recognised as a primative sentient race. They were still evolving on their homeworld admidst an array of dangerous and deadly predators.

However, these dangerous predators spurred Dateno evolution on and in 82'547 SC, the Dateno were recognised as being a sentient race in the early stage of cave man like evolution. Fairly straight forward stuff and the Resque scientists prepared to observe the growth of this new race with much anticipation.

They were not to be disappointed, for grow and evolve they did. Within three millenia of being classified as being nothing more than primative sentient life forms, the Dateno built their first FTL engine. Their history on their homeworld proved to be a rapid one, one which held very few wars like other sentient races had experienced in their growth as the Dateno strove to develop their science to fight off the fastly evolving predators of their homeworld.

Thus it came to be that the Dateno in 85'686 SC encountered the people of the nation of Resque and after a mere two decades of deliberation, the people of the Dateno signed up to join Resque proper, finding themselves amongst people of like mind with a deep curiousity for science.

Since that day, the Dateno have grown rapidily in numbers, now out numbering any other race in Resque while also being firmly established within the nation as being one of it's key elements.

Dateno within the Nations:

Resque: Since their first emergence as a space bound race, the Dateno have been heavily involved in Resque. There innate appitude for science and tinkering have allowed them to blend right into the nation, becoming engineers and technicians within the mighty structure of this nation.

The Independant Nations: Very few Dateno actually leave Resque for Resque suits their natures down to the ground. One may find the odd Dateno community in the Independant and Independant nations star systems near to Resque but normally never in huge numbers.

Dateno Crossbreeds:

Karteno (Dateno - Karearan) Though a rare coupling, it has occurred once or twice. The offspring of when these two races mate comes as a cross between these two races, usually able to walk upright like a Karearan without hassle yet also able to sprint like a Dateno on all fours. Sometimes they have pouches and sometimes they don't but they usually have some trace of both Dateno technical abilities and Karearan reflexes to varying degrees.