Skull Island: A Documentation of the Most Terrifying Place on Earth

by SomethingWittyIGuess

In the summer of 1889, a British Naval ship sails from India to Australia, however a tropical storm causes it to wash up on a lost island in the Indian Ocean. The crew dubs the landmass Skull Island and they take note of the odd and even deadly fauna and flora that call this place home. Since then, several expeditions were made to explore this land and what lived there.

25. The Aquaroo

Aquaroo (Ornitherium amphibius)

When it comes to Skull Island's native mammals, none seem to be quite as strange as its resident macropod marsupials. While Australia and Papua New Guinea are already home to a wide selection of different macropods, most (aside from the jungle-dwelling tree kangaroos) tend to have very similar traits; chiefly large, hind paws used for jumping, a sloping tail for balance, and a herbivorous diet. Skull Island, on the other hand, is home to a very different cast of macropods (discounting Tiger Island's native tree kangaroos); the primarily carnivorous ornitheres. This bizarre group of marsupials is best represented by the hypercarnivorous Marsupial Dhole, but this island is home to several more members that descended from the same population of Miocene omnivorous kangaroos that brought us the Marsupial Dholes, the subject of this journal entry being one of them; the Aquaroo (Ornitherium amphibius).

On the surface, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the Aquaroo and the Marsupial Dhole other than the smaller size. However, a closer look at this strange mammal shows its unique adaptations. Judging by its species name, the Aquaroo is semiaquatic, with sharp-clawed front paws for grasping slippery meals, flattened, webbed hind paws for swimming above water, a very short tail to reduce underwater drag, and a thin, elongated snout filled with sharp, needle-like teeth used for catching fish. In fact, much like other ornitheres (translated roughly to "bird beasts"), the anatomy and behavior of this odd kangaroo is a case of convergent evolution with piscivorous birds (as evidenced by its posture, diet, and locomotion).

Unlike their larger grassland cousins, aquaroos do not see other large, terrestrial animals as food. Although, when threatened by a terrestrial predator, they will diligently fight back using its sharp claws and teeth, which can potentially cause severe blood loss if the wound is untreated. While swimming, this marsupial, unfortunately, cannot fight back against submerged hunters, thus forcing to use its powerful legs to swim away as fast as possible to dry land. Typical prey items of the aquaroo consist of small fish, aquatic reptiles, juvenile brackish octopuses, small mammals, amphibians, invertebrates (especially worms and insects), and (rarely) the eggs of ground-nesting birds.

As with all macropods, female aquaroos have foreward-facing pouches used for raising tiny, bean-sized joeys until they are roughly three months old. Once a joey reaches this age, it will live with its parents (adults mate for life) until it reaches sexual maturity, in which it will put the survival skills it learns from its parents to good use. Although female aquaroos usually give birth to a single joey at a time, occurrences of twins are not uncommon. Twins regularly fight each other, but, in order to keep them from accidentally killing one another, the parents use their high intelligence to prevent further conflicts.

Author's Note: The aquaroo is based on the Ambulaquasaurus from The World of Kong: A Speculative History of Skull Island. It is a piscivorous dromaeosaur-like dinosaur said to be related to the Venatosaurus from the same book.