Eytera is a "goldilocks" planet; it's just the right distance from the sun to be Earth-like. It has ecosystems akin to Earth like forests, although it's rare to find any dry biomes on the planet. One of the big differences though is that unlike Earth, Eytera is further away from it's star, making the planet cooler in temperature overall. This is very fortunate though, as Eytera has nearly half the gravity of Earth, with a lower atmospheric pressure. The reason this is fortuitous is that if the planet were even a bit closer, all the water would evaporate and all the ice would sublimate; as the boiling point of water is lower. But the lower air pressure results in no extreme diurnal or seasonal temperature shifts due to a near constant cloud coverage.
Speaking of which, water makes up over half of Eytera's surface, and even more if you count the vast mud plains and swamps. These conditions have given rise to a planet whose local animal life is nearly all amphibious. The evolutionary advantages of being amphibious become quite clear as the lower gravity and large amount of water has made the mud and soil loose and easy to manipulate; making it the perfect home for these creatures.
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And now for some musings on how the creatures of Eytera might have adapated.
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Another one of the more unique aspects about this planet is has low atmospheric pressure. This has caused the skies of Eytera to be populated very differently than Earth. You see with next to no air resistance, flight is difficult. There are some avian creatures, but no where near the size of Earth's birds. Instead there are exclusively only small avians, around the size of humming birds, since birds would need to flap their wings more rapidly to make up for the lake of wind resistance. What doesn't help is that due to the low atmospheric pressure it tends to rain more frequently and for longer on Eytera.
These differences in atmosphere have been accounted for in nature as the creatures of Eytera have adapted. With flight being difficult a lot of the creatures have overcome this atmospheric obstacle by changing their methods of movements. Commonly these creatures will simply jump. With the gravity being lower, jumping higher is much easier. Some creatures even enhance this jumping ability by having apendages that allow for swinging between flora and fauna. One of the more uncommon methods of travel though, is air sacks. There are creatures on Eytera that have pockets of air that they store and then expel to receive a quick bursts of speed. What is even more rare though, are the creatures that store air and inflate like balloons to float in the air.
Another interesting permutation resulting from the atmosphere is that since there is a lot less resistance in the air, sound travels more slowly. As a result most creatures on Eytera don't have as nearly as sensitive as the creatures on Earth; it's not really that helpful to use to survive after all. There is something interesting that has arisen from this though. With the low atmosphere, smells linger longer in the air. This has resulted in smell being extremely useful for both navigation and hunting. It also serves as a great boon to creature ability to see with their eyes.
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