100,000,000 Years Hence - The Bengal Swamp
We were walking on the waters of a massive brackish swamp. It was blistering hot and humid. We were sweating like pigs.
Me: Whew! It's hot!
Lori: You're telling me. This is literally the most humid and hot place I've been too.
Lola: It sure is.
Aylene: But this swamp is amazing.
Lisa: Indeed. These plants and vegetation are amazing specimens.
Lana: What is this cool swamp?
I form a holographic globe in my hand and show everyone where it is.
Me: This is the Bengal Swamp. It's located where the city of Calcutta, India used to be.
Nico: Wow! This is a huge swamp.
Lori: It's amazing. What kind of creatures live here?
Me: We'll see soon. The temperature here is 102 degrees fahrenheit and the humidity is always at 99%. It's about as big as the country of The Ukraine.
Lisa: That's the equivalent of 235,700 Square Miles.
Me: Exactly.
Lana: This is an amazing swamp. I can't believe that continental drift made it.
Laney: Me neither. I would not want to live here though. It's way too hot.
Me: I know. It's hot as Phoenix, Arizona and it's as humid as Hawaii. A horrifying combination.
Lori: It's literally a hot place.
Me: I know.
We come to land and we came across a family of strange octopuses.
Laney: Are these Octopuses?
Me: They are descended from Octopuses. These are Swampus.
Lola: These creatures are octopuses? But they have 4 arms. What happened to the other four?
Me: That's the interesting part. Because of evolution their last four arms became runners. Making them amphibious.
Lincoln: But don't octopuses need to be in the water to live?
Me: That's normally the case, yes. But they have a special sack inside them that keeps them moist and helps them breathe on land for 96 hours.
Lana: That is so cool!
Me: It is.
Lori: But aren't octopuses usually salt water creatures?
Me: That's normally the case in our time yes. But in 100,000,000 years we think that the Swampus will have adapted to living in Fresh Water. This whole swamp is a fresh water swamp.
Lola: That is amazing. It now is an amphibious octopus.
Lisa: That's correct Lola.
Laney: What's that special vase plant?
Me: I'll show you.
We go up to the plant and we look inside it and in it was Baby Swampus.
Me: This plant is a nursery for their young.
Lola: They are adorable!
Lana: This is so cool!
Laney: It sure is.
Me: Yes, but it also gives the Swampus something they need.
Lori: What's that?
Me: The poison for their poisonous bite.
Lola: Octopuses are poisonous?
Me: That's right. All octopuses in our time are venomous to an extent. The most venomous octopus of them all is The Blue-Ring Octopus. It has a venom that is 10,000 times more powerful than cyanide.
Lisa: Correct 2nd elder brother. Hapalochlaena lunulata; street name, the Greater Blue-Ring Octopus is the most venomous of them all of the 4 species of the Blue-Ring Octopus. It's poison is powerful enough to kill 28 adult people.
Lori: That is lethal.
Me: Yes. The plant that nurtures the Swampus generates a powerful bacterium which the baby Swampus ingest and it becomes the progenitor for their poisonous bite.
Aylene: That is a potent venom.
Me: It is.
Suddenly we heard and felt a thunderous stomp.
Me: Whoa!
Lori: What was that?
Me: Something big that's for sure. Lets go check it out.
We go out onto a meadow and saw a huge heard of dinosaur-like creatures.
Aylene: Whoa! What are those creatures!? Are they dinosaurs?
Me: No they aren't dinosaurs Aylene. Those are Toratons and they are descended from Tortoises.
Lana: Those big creatures are turtles!? Awesome!
Lisa: What fascinating specimens.
Lori: Those creatures are literally the biggest animals I've ever seen here in the future!
Me: And they're also the heaviest creatures on land. In the Jurassic Period at 140,000,000 B.C. the largest and heaviest dinosaur that ever lived was Argentinosaurus, which weighed 106 tons. The heaviest animal on land in the 21st Century is the African Elephant. They can weigh up to 14,000 pounds. The heaviest animal in the ocean in our time is the Blue Whale and they can weigh up to 100 tons. But the Toraton in 100,000,000 A.D. weighs at 120 tons! That's 240,000 pounds!
Everyone: WOW!
Laney: That's amazing!
Aylene: These creatures are incredible!
Lori: They are literally amazing! I never even knew that the tortoise would become like this.
Me: Well again Lori we don't know. Nobody knows what the future has in store for us.
Lisa: Correct.
We go into the swamp waters and it was an amazing world underwater. We saw a Swampus and it was being chased by a huge fish with spines on its head and back and it had a huge mouth.
Me: See that big fish right there?
Lincoln: I sure do.
Laney: That fish is huge!
Lana: What kind of fish is that?
Me: Believe it or not, that's the descendent of the electric catfish - The Lurkfish.
Lori: That fish is the descendent of the Electric Catfish? That is amazing.
Lisa: What a magnificent specimen.
Lana: Aren't electric catfish usually small fish?
Me: Yes that's normally the case. But in 100,000,000 years it will become the ambush predator called The Lurkfish. They can grow up to 13 feet long and they have a very clever camouflage and ambush method to get its prey.
We see a Swampus swimming passed us.
Me: Watch this.
We see the Lurkfish go after it and it did something and the Swampus was stunned. Then it swam up and swallowed the Swampus in one gulp.
Lori: That is literally amazing. How did it catch the Swampus?
Me: With electricity. The Lurkfish can generate up to 1,000 volts of electricity and whenever its prey comes near it, the Lurkfish shocks it and stuns it with 1,000 volts of electricity. Giving it a chance to eat it before it gets away.
Laney: That's powerful.
Nico: That's clever too. But how does it camouflage itself?
Me: It blends in with the plants on the swamp floor. Much like the weedy Scorpionfish in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
Lincoln: That is so cool!
Lisa: Indeed.
Aylene: The Lurkfish looks like a creature from the prehistoric times.
Me: It does look that way doesn't it.
Lincoln: It sure does.
We walked on to our next destination.
Continues in Part 4