what life is this?

autumn: season of brown, yellow, red, orange, green and the golden sun. leaf litter carpeted the ground in a moist blanket, supporting such life as was alien and prehistoric. they crawled and slid and scurried to and from destinations, food an instinctive driving force, second only to coupling -- to the continuation of their kind. the wind had names for these creatures of the earth, though it confided in no other.