Since most of your takes on Godzilla goes with the traditional dinosaurian route with his origins, let me do my own, this time aligning him with the Synapsids and to an extent us mammals. Here we go.
Godzilla (Gojira, ゴジラ)
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Chordata
Class : Synapsida
Order : Kaijunopsida
Family : Gojiradae
Genus :
Basiloteras
Species :
Basiloteras Gojira, or “Monster-king, Godzilla”
Length : 8 meters from head to tail (pre-mutation), 70 meters (post-mutation)
Standing Height : 6 meters (pre-mutation), 50 meters (post-mutation)
Weight : Approx. 10 Tons (pre-mutation), 55,000 tons (post-mutation)
Diet : Carnivore (pre-mutation), Radiovore (post-mutation)
Bio : Godzilla, the infamous alpha among the Earth’s monsters needs no introduction. A creature that is truly a force to be reckoned with and to defy its wrath is an almost-certain death wish for virtually any person or other monster alike foolish enough to do so. What fascinates many circles of researchers is this beast’s origins. Often perceived as a dinosaur as erroneously with many (once-thought) extinct reptilian animals who in reality did not match such a classification, Godzilla just so happens to be one of them. Specifically the animal is widely agreed by experts to be a Synapsid, the quasi-reptilian precursors to modern mammals, which dominated the terrestrial landscape from the Early Permian right up until the early Triassic.
The Basiloteras, or “Monster-king” was a living genus of Synapsid whose direct ancestors first emerged in the Early Permian, specifically branching off simultaneously alongside the Therapsida branch of the family tree (who would be the direct precursors to modern mammals). The group in question that radiated into its own distinct order during this time has come to been known as
Kaijunopsida, which is also believed to include the Baranosdragon (Baragon) genus. While not reaching the same level of success as its sister order, Kaijunopsida was not a clade without its own collection of meritorious animals. Little did they know that history had enormous plans for their particular group. As the Permian Era came to an end 245 million years ago, along with it came the single greatest Mass Extinction of multicellular life of which 95% was completely eradicated. Like with all non-microscopic organisms, Kaijunopsida was hit hard, yet a select few species proved to have what was needed to survive. Just one species was an animal known as
Progojira progenitor. Native to the most southeastern regions of Pangea,
Progojira had many features that helped it survive in addition to its small size and burrowing lifestyle.
The animal was remarkably intelligent for a late-Permian creature, forming communities and utilized teamwork to achieve a common cause. Aforementioned intelligence led them to develop amplified parenting skills, guaranteeing well-nurtured offspring. It also proved useful in outsmarting other less intelligent species that would attempt to compete with them. Their diet was vastly arrayed to ranging from virtually every invertebrate they could find, animal carcasses and in times of famine, would often venture to coastal areas in search of washed-up sea life. As more and more marine animal species underwent the curtain of extinction, their remains littered coastlines everywhere. As food became scarce within the inland regions
Progojira inhabited, the creatures would fully migrate to coastal regions for a better opportunity at maintaining sustenance. This development would prove instrumental for the creature’s continuing legacy.
As the Triassic era went by, the derived species of
Progojira,
Eogojira began further evolutionary breakthroughs for their kind. One such aspect was further intelligence as well as the ability to temporarily rise up and stand both hind legs. The latter ability proved useful in intimidating any given attackers. However, even with the Synapsids’ newfound evolutionary advantages, it seemed they would not be enough to compete with a certain group of newly evolving reptiles who would come to be the dominant form of animal life on land. These neighbors were the Dinosaurs themselves.
Much of Earth’s large fauna of the era made valiant attempts to compete with the Dinosaurs, but very little availed. As their neighbors began consolidating their dominance,
Eogojira, Had no choice but to flee the mainland almost completely or be outcompeted and face extinction like many unfortunate creatures. Thankfully evolution had granted them adept swimming skills nearing migratory capabilities with
Eogojira adapting further to their new lifestyle over the next few million years right into the Triassic/Jurassic boundary. The animals would continue to seek refuge on the near endless supply of islands in the future Pacific Ocean. As one island sunk breath the waves with the passage of time, they would simply migrate to whatever new island they could find to call home. Once again evolution seemed to truly be in their favor.
Over the remainder of the Mesozoic, the semi-aquatic synapsids remained almost completely isolated from the outside world and faced virtually no competition. In light of this, they began to reach sizes rivalling mid-tier continental megafauna. While continuing a migratory life-style,
Eogojira, now evolved into
Mesogojira turned the heart of the Pacific into their domain. This would continue to be the case when Earth faced its next major extinction, the Cretaceous extinction of 65 million years ago, which felled many species, including the non-avian dinosaurs and pterosaurs just to name a few. Just like its ancestors, The Mesogojira would appear to be extinction-proof in the face of any great world-scale cataclysm.
As the Cenozoic Era arrived, the
Mesogojira began evolving further into
Cenogojira. In the wake of the K/T extinction, little had changed for the species and the world they inhabited. Their evolution began slowing down at this point as they were very well-adapted and specialized to their particular niche. In the middle of the Cenozoic, otherwise known as the Miocene, things began to change as the last non-mammal Synapsids reached their modern form,
Basiloteras. Their newly evolved form reached lengths up to 8 meters from head to tail and 6 meters when standing upright. Starting roughly 20 million years ago,
Basiloteras would make attempts to colonize the mainland of the continents along the Pacific.
However, none were successful and the creatures were almost always met with fierce resistance from the local large now full-blown mammalian fauna. In addition, the gradual cooling of the Earth’s climate made a continental life unfitting for
Basiloteras, as the species was long adapted to perpetually warm, tropical environments, of which benefited from the ocean currents of which they based their migratory paths upon. And so it seemed they would remain being forced to maintain grip on their island homes.
Despite all odds
Basiloteras was pitted against, the great beasts managed to survive past the Last Ice Age roughly 12,000 years ago. The Pleistocene may have ended, but not their desire to find to lands to set foot and make themselves at home. One such species they would encounter were none other than Homo Sapiens, better known as mankind. As our own species migrated across the Pacific, once in a lifetime was their an encounter with
Basiloteras, well into the era of recorded history. The most notable example being the basis for the legend among the denizens of Odo island, an relatively isolated an small island found southeast of the Japanese archipelago. The Odo islanders, having a distinct culture, customs and language from the Japanese mainland saw the various legends of the creature the
Basiloteras species, or “Gojira” as they called it, roughly meaning “God Incarnate” of upmost importance when learning to live in accordance with the local way of life.
However as Odo Island became more and more open to the outside world, the locals began dropping their local tongue and culture in favor of that of mainland Japan. This included no-longer being stringent adherents of the lessons and morals as established by the “Gojira” myths. Coincidentally, sightings and even rare encounters with
Basiloteras and the local populations would take place, though few lived to tell the tale when meeting the animal in the flesh. Older generations believed the frequency of the animals being active in the Island’s waters was a bad omen imposed by the gods to punish the people for not following the traditions of their ancestors. Younger people however refused to belief such nonsense, or so they thought…
By the early 20th century, it had seemed the
Basiloteras species had finally entered its twilight with just one population remaining on the South Pacific island of Lagos. It just so happened that the nearly-inaccessible island found itself falling into the Pacific theatre of the Second World War. In 1944, the Japanese naval garrison stationed on the island documented many of its members claiming they would sometimes lay eyes upon strange creatures engaging in various activity ranging from swimming in the water, to devouring the remains of enemy soldiers. They described the creatures as “Wani” after the mythical Japanese sea-dragon. However, such claims were declared by both the witnesses’ senior officers and mainstream science alike proclaimed the creatures as mere illusions from wartime stress.
By the early 1950's The Cold War was on the rise and the then two main superpowers, The United States of America (USA) and The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) started testing then-recently invented new weapons of a destructive capability yet unheard of. These were nuclear weapons, whose effects were ever long-lasting wherever they were used, resulting in devastating consequences for the natural environment. As the USA and USSR flexed their muscles by testing their horrifying tools of destruction, the radioactive fallout from said tests mutated and awoken many preexisting mysterious creatures hardly ever seen by human eyes, including
Basiloteras. Even Lagos was not spared from being a testing ground, with the nuclear explosions and subsequent radioactivity plaguing the area, while killing all but a few members of the species, the few who survived were transformed forever… Their bodies mutating into physics-defying proportions, nigh invulnerability among other attributes. Thus, man’s ego brought forth a nail in the coffin for his time as master of the Earth… A monster was born. That monster was Godzilla.
Appearance : When the earliest known basal Gojirid,
Progojira first arrived on the scene, there was sparsely anything noteworthy about its physical appearance. Upon first glance, one may assume it was just your typical smaller-scale Permian Synapsid and not give the creatures much thought. However, it’s facial and cranial features will vaguely invoke Godzilla on one’s mind upon closer inspection, most notably slightly elongated canines. The species was not much larger than the modern rat.
Following the Permian Extinction, the creatures began to evolve rapidly into a somewhat more familiar form. Near the tail-end of the Triassic, Progojira, now evolved into
Mesogojira was now the size of a slightly larger than average modern dog. With its acquired ability to briefly stand upright, it now reached over 4 feet in height. Due to being an intermediary terrestrial-into-semi-aquatic animal, additional features such as webbed feet, along with a flatter and broader paddle-like tail were key aspects of this animal. In addition,
Mesogojira’s spinous process on each segment of the spine began to elongate, indicating the development of a hump of which the aforementioned bones will provide support to.
The Mid-Cretaceous saw the next important step in the Gojira lineage’s evolution. While not drastically different from its previous evolutionary stage,
Mesogojira had a few features helping it stand out. Firstly, the animals were now roughly three times the mass of a modern human. Secondly, a fleshy hump on the back and spinous process underneath were both fully evolved and worked in tandem with one another to assist the creatures in both buoyancy and maintaining their body’s moisture reserves. Secondly, the animals canines and lower jaws began to grow larger. Lastly, The nasal cavity started moving higher up the skull as a means to act like a snorkel, paralleling the evolution of cetaceans.
By the Miocene,
Basiloteras the most-modern form of the Gojirans were mostly fully evolved and their physical sizes now rivalled large continental megafauna. To accommodate for their enormous sizes their bodies grew to be much more bottom-heavy and smaller heads for lesser amounts of blood to acquire for the brain. Another feature they evolved was with their skulls, in which bony cusps protruded from the beasts’ brow ridges. No one knows what function such a feature served, but theories include sexual display and/or intimidation. When viewed from certain angles, the growths resembled a crown like a medieval monarch on its head, thus, earning the name “Basiloteras”, meaning “monster-king”.
Upon exposure to massive doses of radiation, the animals underwent a nightmarish metamorphosis. Their bodies suddenly grew to the scale of a typical mid-20th century skyscraper, reaching up to 70 meters long from head to tail and 50 meters when standing on its hind legs. The fleshy dorsal hump of
Basiloteras would melt away almost completely, revealing the enlarged oak-leaf-shaped bony protrusions that lay underneath. Lastly, it’s naturally smooth skin was severely charred in the atomic blast and replaced by a texture than can best be described as linear bumps.
Do you like what I wrote guys? Does my imagination hold a candle to you wrote? Feel free to critique and give suggestions.
