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Description
Zillah created by 
Gojirasuchus horridus (Horrible Godzilla crocodile)
Out of all of the many species of zhili, none are as emblematic of the species’ success in Australasia than the zillah; instead of a meek generalist like its cousins in Asia, this beast is a titanic amphibious predator standing almost 25 feet tall and measuring nearly 47 feet long that terrorizes the coastal waters along the southwestern coasts of the Guinea Land Bridge, only matched in ferocity by the closely related (and actually slightly smaller) kasai.
Like its terrestrial cousin, the zillah looks like it stepped out of a Charles R. Knight painting, standing in a partially upright position on its powerful hind legs with its long, thick tail dragging on the ground behind it. The torso is sturdy and solid, with a deep barrel-like chest and a pair of fairly long, muscular arms with four claws on each hand. The neck is fairly short and thick, and the head is fairly small in proportion to its body, but it is still very blocky and solid, with a short, blunt snout equipped with robust jaws lined with thick banana-shaped teeth and fairly small forwards-facing orange eyes. Thick greyish-brown scales and scutes cover the great beast’s body, lighter on the underside than on the rest of the animal, and large jagged spikes of bone run down the back and tail, starting out between the shoulders, where they are at their tallest, and gradually shrinking as they go down the back, eventually becoming nothing more than jagged bony ridges about halfway down the tail that continue on all the way down to the tip of the appendage.
Despite their tremendous size and power, very little is known about the lifestyle of the zillah besides extremely basic information. They’re solitary animals that spend most of their time out at sea, preying upon any large marine creatures that they can find, often cruising near the surface of the water with their plates exposed to bask in the rays of the sun (Exactly why they do this is unknown - like all members of the zhili family, they’re endothermic). Specialized bioluminescent bacteria present on the zillah’s spines can be used to cause the plates to light up with an eerie blue glow, believed to be used to communicate over long distances with zillahs through regular pulses of this glow, to attract curious schools of fish, and/or to signal sexual maturity to potential mates.
However, these colossal crocodilians can and will surface and come on land, where they are fully capable of killing and eating all but the largest and toughest of megafauna. Clashes between zillahs are rare - the beasts stay away from one another thanks to signals sent out through ultrasonic frequencies - but when they do occur, they are truly sights to behold.
First, both beasts warily circle one another, sizing each other up, then simultaneously let loose with their distinctive wailing roars, which can be heard from miles away, and light up their back spines as bright as they can get. If neither one backs down from the other’s threat display, then the beasts will charge one another and collide head-on, making use of their powerful arms, crushing jaws, taloned feet, and bludgeoning tails to the best of their ability as they utterly tear into each other. Scars of these encounters are frequently found on older zillahs, but these often-horrific injuries don’t tent to be fatal if the zillah survives the encounter - like their Holocene ancestors, wounds inflicted upon these amphibious titans almost never become infected.
Exactly how zillahs breed and how long they live is unknown, but young seem to be born one or two at a time, and occupy a different niche than their parents to avoid competition. Only having jagged ridges where their back spines will eventually grow in and being quite a bit more lightly built, young zillahs are much more terrestrial than their parents, taking down large to midsized land-bound prey before eventually spending more and more time in the ocean as they grow larger. The exact lifespan of a zillah is unknown as well, but it's speculated that they can live for over a century.
Gojirasuchus horridus (Horrible Godzilla crocodile)
Out of all of the many species of zhili, none are as emblematic of the species’ success in Australasia than the zillah; instead of a meek generalist like its cousins in Asia, this beast is a titanic amphibious predator standing almost 25 feet tall and measuring nearly 47 feet long that terrorizes the coastal waters along the southwestern coasts of the Guinea Land Bridge, only matched in ferocity by the closely related (and actually slightly smaller) kasai.
Like its terrestrial cousin, the zillah looks like it stepped out of a Charles R. Knight painting, standing in a partially upright position on its powerful hind legs with its long, thick tail dragging on the ground behind it. The torso is sturdy and solid, with a deep barrel-like chest and a pair of fairly long, muscular arms with four claws on each hand. The neck is fairly short and thick, and the head is fairly small in proportion to its body, but it is still very blocky and solid, with a short, blunt snout equipped with robust jaws lined with thick banana-shaped teeth and fairly small forwards-facing orange eyes. Thick greyish-brown scales and scutes cover the great beast’s body, lighter on the underside than on the rest of the animal, and large jagged spikes of bone run down the back and tail, starting out between the shoulders, where they are at their tallest, and gradually shrinking as they go down the back, eventually becoming nothing more than jagged bony ridges about halfway down the tail that continue on all the way down to the tip of the appendage.
Despite their tremendous size and power, very little is known about the lifestyle of the zillah besides extremely basic information. They’re solitary animals that spend most of their time out at sea, preying upon any large marine creatures that they can find, often cruising near the surface of the water with their plates exposed to bask in the rays of the sun (Exactly why they do this is unknown - like all members of the zhili family, they’re endothermic). Specialized bioluminescent bacteria present on the zillah’s spines can be used to cause the plates to light up with an eerie blue glow, believed to be used to communicate over long distances with zillahs through regular pulses of this glow, to attract curious schools of fish, and/or to signal sexual maturity to potential mates.
However, these colossal crocodilians can and will surface and come on land, where they are fully capable of killing and eating all but the largest and toughest of megafauna. Clashes between zillahs are rare - the beasts stay away from one another thanks to signals sent out through ultrasonic frequencies - but when they do occur, they are truly sights to behold.
First, both beasts warily circle one another, sizing each other up, then simultaneously let loose with their distinctive wailing roars, which can be heard from miles away, and light up their back spines as bright as they can get. If neither one backs down from the other’s threat display, then the beasts will charge one another and collide head-on, making use of their powerful arms, crushing jaws, taloned feet, and bludgeoning tails to the best of their ability as they utterly tear into each other. Scars of these encounters are frequently found on older zillahs, but these often-horrific injuries don’t tent to be fatal if the zillah survives the encounter - like their Holocene ancestors, wounds inflicted upon these amphibious titans almost never become infected.
Exactly how zillahs breed and how long they live is unknown, but young seem to be born one or two at a time, and occupy a different niche than their parents to avoid competition. Only having jagged ridges where their back spines will eventually grow in and being quite a bit more lightly built, young zillahs are much more terrestrial than their parents, taking down large to midsized land-bound prey before eventually spending more and more time in the ocean as they grow larger. The exact lifespan of a zillah is unknown as well, but it's speculated that they can live for over a century.
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Comments13
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are they crocodile descendants?