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.

36. The Salagator

Salagator (Gulosaurus paradoxus)

As mentioned before in the entry for the Lardamander, Skull Island is one of two final bastions of sanctuary for the temnospondyls, the possible ancestors of modern amphibians. These ancient tetrapods once dominated the waters from the Carboniferous to the Triassic, evolving into a plethora of odd and fantastic forms. Unfortunately, temnospondyls' reign over aquatic ecosystems was toppled by reptiles during the Mesozoic, with the last continental members of their kind going extinct during the Cretaceous in what is now Australia and Antarctica. How temnospondyls were able to reach these two islands and survive into the modern day is still unknown, but the most plausible explanation is that Cretaceous temnospondyls (a family called the Koolasuchids) were carried to these infant islands on vegetation rafts during a massive storm. Since then, various temnospondyls specialized into many forms when they reached their new homes, and one of Skull Island's is no different; the Salagator (Gulosaurus paradoxus).

The Salagator was the first of Skull Island's temnospondyls to be discovered by modern science, its species name referring to its status as a seemingly anachronistic creature. It is the largest temnospondyl on the island, weighing up to 60 kg and measuring as long as 2 m. It also has the most conservative body plan and lifestyle, retaining traits seen in its Cretaceous ancestors such as a broad head, a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth, a massive tail for swimming, short limbs, and its hunting strategy of waiting for an animal to drink from a stream and lunging forward, its mouth like a massive bear trap. Also, like other temnospondyls (and many of today's amphibians), it goes through metamorphosis, with its tiny larval form displaying feathery gills.

Though this animal seems completely unchanged from its ancestors, it must be remembered that evolution doesn't work like that, as all organism lineages, in some way, go through changes, no matter how miniscule they may be. This is definitely the case with the Salagator as many field studies have uncovered many bizarre behaviors of this ancient beast. Much like its namesake, the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), the Salagator has sometimes been observed climbing into low-hanging trees in search of different food sources. While primarily carnivorous (as many of these arboreal meals are animals like birds, lizards, snakes, megapedes, and small mammals), Salagators have sometimes been seen eating fruit when they venture into the understory. Although this practice is seen in Salagators, it unfortunately also puts them at risk from being eaten by larger arboreal predators, which they cannot hide from because of the lack of a body of water.

Author's Note: The Salagator is based on a diplocaulid from The World of Kong: a Natural History of Skull Island called the Inox.