Saltwater+Crocodile+-+SuperCroc

**SuperCroc** //(////Silens Formidonis ////)//

Latin Name
//Silens Formidonis// meaning silent terror in English. It is named because of the way the SuperCroc swims silently, undetected in the water and how it strikes fear into the animals in the ocean.

**Description **

The supercroc is an evolved version of the saltwater crocodile found 25 millions years after the 21st century. Due to the continued use of fossil fuels Antarctica and Greenland has melted and the sea level has risen around 65 meters, covering a vast amount of land with water. Despite the extinction of the human race 10 million years ago, many animals still continue to live on earth. The evolved version of the saltwater crocodile, the supercroc, can grow up to 6 meters tall for males and 5 meters tall for females. It weighs around 3000 kilograms and is colored in deep sea blue. It still has some features of its predecessor, with rough scales and long tail with red spikes which covers around 30% of its body. These animals have now developed a behavior of moving on two legs instead of 4, giving it more features more like a human. It has sharp claws on all of its limbs, and sharp red spikes on its back. The white area of the saltwater crocodile before is also now smaller, only found below the chin and in a striped shape on the belly of the supercroc. It also kept some of its smaller armor-like on its arms as protection against other predators.

**Environmental habitat**


__Distribution__ Supercrocs are found in the southern regions of Asia. They are distributed along the eastern/northern regions of Australia, East coast of Papua New Guinea and around the eastern range of the Pacific Ocean. There will be no supercrocs living in Tasmania as it is now fully submerged underwater due to the rise in sea level. Smaller populations of the supercroc can also be found around the New Zealand coast, usually hunting and swimming in the Tasman Sea. __Habitat__ Due to the continued burning of fossil fuels, the future world in 3000 will have no swamps or marshlands as they all dried up due to climate changes. Therefore, the supercroc now live mainly in the ocean, only returning to land during the mating season. They spend most of their time in the open sea, only venturing near the coast once in a while to look for prey. Supercrocs still compete fiercely for their territory, but now they do it in the sea instead. A strong male will be able to claim several kilometers squared of the now fish infested ocean, whereas weaker supercrocs might only be able to settle near coastlines with little or no food. __Diet__ Supercrocs have lost their famous “death roll” over the last few centuries as they were driven from the swamps. They now feed mostly on large fish such as sharks, dolphins, other aquatic animals such as the manatee and various birds such as seagulls and the little brown cormorant. Sometimes a pack of 6-8 strong supercrocs might even attack a whale calf. These animals became one of the new apex predators of the ocean, along with the newly evolved killer whales. __Climate__ After the rising of the sea levels and the melting of the icecaps, the temperature will be extremely hot due to the massive layer of ozone in the earth’s atmosphere. Earth will be hot all the time, even in the colder seasons of the year. Despite this, the supercroc still follows certain patterns in order to maintain the continued survival of their species. Supercrocs spend most of their time living in the ocean, catching food and feeding in the dryer climate until the wet seasons comes. This is the mating season of the supercroc. Male and females will all swim towards to Australian coast to mate. The females will lay eggs on the sand and take care of their young until they are old enough to survive, as done by the modern crocodiles. Rather than this action, the climate does not affect the supercroc much, as they can hunt well even during storms or hot weathers.

The supercroc is selected through nature selection as it suit the needs of the new world. As the polar caps melted and caused a massive rise in sea level, most small islands or even large landmasses are submerged under the water. The saltwater crocodile is forced from its normal habitat of swamp and mangrove forests into the ocean. The now resource rich ocean provides food to the new species of crocodiles, and it quickly adapts to the environment. It forgets the “death roll” technique as supercrocs do not prey on land animals anymore. However, it quickly changes the color of its skin, from the previous grey to a new blue. That provides the supercroc the necessary tools in order to ambush its enemy. The supercroc also developed a new, scaly like skin to help it swim faster as it has less water resistance than the previous armor-like skin. It also developed webbed feet in order to help it swim faster in the ocean. Overall most of its adaptations are to do achieving dominance in the sea, as the supercroc now lives in the ocean most of its time.
 * Selection Pressure **

__Structural Adaptation 1 - Large lung capacity__ Description & How it helped the animal survive: The supercroc has a pair of large lungs in his body, able to gulp down enough air for it to stay underwater for more than 90 minutes. Its lungs also evolved so that it can use oxygen more efficiently, thus its ability to stay underwater for a long time. This ability allowed the supercroc to go into deeper waters and stay underwater for longer amounts of time, which increases its chances to catch food. Environmental pressure: As supercrocs now mainly live in the ocean, it will need to feed mainly on fish and other aquatic animals. Because the supercroc does not have a gills like a fish, it will need to constantly resurface to breath like a whale. Therefore it has developed larger lungs in order for it to be able to remain underwater for a longer time.
 * Adaptations **

__Structural Adaptation 2 - Blue scales__ Description & How it helped the animal survive: Supercrocs now possess much smoother scales compared to its predecessor. The greyish color also turned blue due to the color of the ocean. The smooth scales will allow the supercroc to catch up to fast moving fish as it now has less water resistance. The blue color will act as a camouflage so that the supercroc will be able to sneak up to its prey without being seen. Environmental pressure: The saltwater crocodile’s uneven skin evolved into a smoother scale in order for it to be able to swim faster in the water. Its scales also turned blue because the grey skinned supercrocs all died out as its prey can easily see it coming, and will swim away. __Behavioral Adaptation 1 - Swimming with tail and Claws__ Description & How it helped the animal survive: Supercrocs swim in the water with their tails and hands, moving somewhat similar to the human breaststroke way of swimming in the hand motion and a fish flapping its tail for the supercroc's tail. As it has yet to develop fins of its own, it will need its tail to propel it forwards. With its massive tail it will be able to catch up to fish long adapted to swimming in the ocean, therefore increasing the chance of survival. Its claws will also give it more maneuverability, making it able to turn sharp corners should its prey decide to escape this way. Environmental pressure: As the supercroc now lives in the water most of the time, it will have to learn to catch up to the swimming speeds of many different types of fish. To increase its speed it has evolved so it allows the use of all its limbs in swimming to gain the maximum speed. The strong maneuverability of the supercroc's aquatic prey also forced it to use its claws to gain a better control at swimming. As such it has developed this type of behavior. __Behavioral Adaptation 2 - Teamwork__ Description & How it helped the animal survive: A team of 6-8 large supercrocs will often band up together to mobilize for an attack on a whale or a large prey. They will move to attack small whales by trying to injure it from all sides. The sharp claws of each of the SuperCrocs will make it easy to penetrate the skins of the whale but there will be need of lots of injuries before the whale will die. Therefore they will attack in turns, biting and clawing at their prey until they die. It helps them survive because it allows supercrocs to attack larger prey such as whales when there are no small fish  available. It will increase their range of food so there will be less chance of them starving to death.

<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Environmental pressure: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sometimes when there are no small prey available, the supercrocs will have to hunt larger animals for food. Because they cannot take down prey as big as whales on their own, nature forced them to team up and attack together. If successful, the meat on the whale will prove to be more than enough for a team of supercrocs.

__Physiological Adaptation - Extremely big heart__ <span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Description & How it helped the animal survive: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Supercrocs has an extremely big heart, able to do lots of anaerobic activity such as sprinting in the water before it get tired. Its heart is still a 4 chambered heart, so it will be able to maintain stable blood pressure throughout its body. By having a bigger heart the supercroc will have a more oxygen pumped though its veins when its hunting, therefore giving its muscles a better chance to preform, thus a longer stamina. By having a longer stamina it will be able to hunt constantly and chase down prey as it takes more work for the supercroc to get tired.

<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Environmental pressure: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The large heart of the supercroc is developed because of its previous weakness of being easily exhausted from anaerobic actives. As the environment requires the supercroc to move around more frequently, it has developed a stronger heart thus being able to do more work before it gets tired. It will also be able to move around its habitat in fast speeds should a cloud of fish try to escape.

**Bibliography**

 * Global Issues. (2011). //Climate change and global warming.// Retrieved June 26th, 2011 from []
 * Library Thinkquest Organization. (2011). //Global Warming.// Retrieved June 26th, 2011 from []
 * Merel Dalebout. (2001). //How long can killer whales stay underwater?// Retrieved June 26th, 2011 from []
 * USATODAY organization, Jack Williams. (2004). //How much would sea levels rise if the polar ice melted?// Retrieved June 26th, 2011 from []