Animal life on a planet orbiting a red dwarf

I am envisioning a world around a red dwarf star. The planet has violent and accelerated (due to higher geological activity) plate tectonics and has a magnetic field about 75% the strength of the Earth's. The planet (we'll call it GF10) is roughly 40% the size of the Earth. The planet used to be nearly entirely covered by oceans but they eventually evaporated.

The planet had a relatively flat surface and 80% of that surface was covered by 20% of the water found on Earth. Most of said water evaporated, making a dense atmosphere that traps heat. There is only a sea the size of South Africa running horizontally along the planetary equator.

The planet has two moons roughly the size of Phobos. Orbiting the planet elliptically. The planet is gravitationally locked and orbits widely. During the summer weeks it is in the habitable zone, but its orbit takes it dangerously close to a gas giant (as well as to the edge of the habitable zone) to the point that it is viewable from the surface.

My question is this:

How might animal life (assuming life can be relatively easily divided into animal/plant categories) evolve to live on such a world?

I might not have described the orbit correctly so here is a map.

Map of orbit (not drawn to scale):

posted about 9 years ago

JDSweetBeat‭

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