Vapour+Fox+-+David+Thomson


 * <<<Arctic Fox<<< (Modern Animal) ||

Vapour Fox //Vulpes Vaporus// (coming from the Latin word Vapor meaning steam or water based)//,// informally known as the Vapour Fox will be located off the coast of Alaska, Canada and Russia, particularly in the Bering Sea. It is the only known true fox (Vulpes) that resides in an aquatic environment. The Vapour Fox is known to be an aggressive creature, attacking things much bigger then itself such as descendant of the dolphin. Scientific Classification
 * **Level** || **Classification** ||
 * Kingdom: || Animalia ||
 * Phylum: || Chordata ||
 * Class: || Mammalia ||
 * Order: || Carnivora ||
 * Family: || Canidae ||
 * Genus: || Vulpes ||
 * Species: || V. vaporus ||

Source Image: [] ||
 * [[image:Vapour_Fox.jpg width="800" height="617"]]
 * (Vulpes Vaporus) ||

Habitat The Vapour Fox lives in an aquatic environment off the coast of the Russian/Alaskan Border, and down along the side of Canada (see figure 02.) Due to the speed at which the population of Vapour Fox are increasing it is not uncommon to see the fox in more tropical areas to the south. The Vapour Fox is a non-migrating creature. The main prey of Vapour Fox is the fish that reside in the Bering Sea, as well as some crab species that are present. There are very few predators for the Vapour Fox due to them being steered away by the cold temperatures. There are still however some predators, such as certain shark species. The climate in the Bering Sea is about -10°C all year round, due to the temperature rises of global warming. The weather can be clear to stormy, and the seas are known to be quite dangerous at times in terms of randomness. The vegetation found in the Bering Sea includes things like kelp and seaweed, as well as many types of hardy coral. The Vapour Fox lives on a diet of mainly fish, with some vegetation (e.g. Blue Coral) when meat is scarce. It is typically described as a not fussy creature in terms of diet, and has been known to eat scraps of meat left behind by sharks (similar thinking in terms of its ancestor the Arctic Fox). Red denotes Vapour Fox locations Adaptations

The Webbed Feet of the Vapour Fox are designed to increase swim speed. With increased swim speed the Vapour Fox can achieve up to 15 knots, while still retaining its natural ability to be extremely agile. This allows the Vapour Fox to catch extremely quick prey. The Webbed Feet are webbed between each of its 4 toes, as well as along its now extended back paws. Because the Vapour Fox has these webbed feet it will also be able to avoid dangerous predators thus leading to the continuation of its species. The environmental factor that caused the webbed feet to develop was the speed of its prey, without webbed feet it could not move as fast in the water, thus being unable to catch prey.
 * Webbed Feet **

The Vapour Fox is a descendant of the Arctic Fox some 50 million years ago. The Arctic Fox was known for its thick fur coat. Since the rise in temperature from global warming, there has been little need for the fox to keep its fur, so as the creature evolved into the Vapour Fox its fur dropped off and instead it developed a thicker skin instead. This skin is both insulated and cooling, allowing the Vapour Fox to survive in its natural environment more comfortably while preventing overheating or freezing to death and therefore allowing it to continue to breed. The environmental factor that caused the Vapour Fox to develop thick skin was the heat of the oceans being higher than it previously was, as such the thick fur they used to have was causing them too much trouble, as such having just a thick skin was sufficient.
 * Thick skin **

The Vapour Fox has a frilled-neck similar to that of the frilled-neck lizard. It was developed as a defensive/territorial mechanism, such that when another Vapour Fox entered their territory they would flare their frilled-necks up and growl at each other. It is sometimes also used to scare away smaller creatures whom the fox finds undesirable in terms of food. While the frilled-neck itself does not generally help the Vapour Fox survive it does widen the range in which the Vapour Fox breeds (as newborn foxes will eventually find their own territory), therefore the possibility of finding a suitable mate is increased, hence the frilled-neck can be described as an indirect mating tool. The frilled neck was developed due to the fact that all the ancient Arctic Foxes had moved into the ocean, causing a huge population spike of these Vapour Foxes, thus territorial disputes were more common, and these frilled necks were seen as an advantage.
 * Frilled neck **

In order to more easily survive in an aquatic environment the Vapour Fox developed a set of Gills in place of its lungs. This has allowed the Vapour Fox to more easily hunt prey more easily. It is also partially a defensive mechanism in that you can more effortlessly escape predators (rather than coming up to the surface to breath). This allows further reproduction as it will be able to catch more food, and avoid more dangers leading to a longer life with more reproductive seasons. The environmental factor that caused this was global warming, as the ice melted from the Arctic Foxes natural habitat it learned to eat fish instead, slowly over time it developed gills as this made more sense for the fox to possess gills instead of lungs.
 * Gills **

The Vapour Fox will develop an ink pouch stored above the nasal passage, which will give it an enlarged head shape. This ink will be used as a defensive mechanism where it is shot out of the nose in order to create confusion to escape from predators. This adaptation was developed in order to escape from predators that have also changed over millions of years. Because the Vapour Fox can escape from more predators it will be able to safely carry on reproducing in steady numbers. The environmental factors that led to this happening was the fact that as the oceans heated up they also cleared up, making it a lot easier to be spotted in the ocean, therefore the ink would work more effectively for the Vapour Fox.
 * Squirting Ink **

Evolutionary Factors The key reason why the Vapour Fox came to be is [|global warming.]As the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere rose, so did the temperature of the Earth. This caused much of the Arctic to melt meaning that its ancient ancestor, the Arctic Fox, no longer had a place to live. This meant that the Arctic Fox had to adjust to the warmer environment. The general population moved further towards the east coast of Russia, resorting to catching fish that was disoriented by the heated oceans. Eventually the Arctic Fox evolved into the Vapour Fox, developing the adaptations listed above.

Bibliography Wikipedia (2010) //Amasia (continent) // Retrieved 23rd June 2011 from: [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amasia_(continent)]

Sens Agent (2009) //Amasia (continent) // Retrieved 23rd June 2011 from: [|http://dictionary.sensagent.com/amasia+(continent)/en-en/]

World Lingo (2010) //Amasia // Retrieved 23rd June 2011 from: [|http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Amasia_(continent)/1]