Euthecodon (SciiFii)

The African gharial (Euthecodon brumpti) is a species of long-snouted crocodylid crocodilian that originally lived in Africa from the Miocene through the Pleistocene and was once extinct, but has since been brought back from extinction by SciiFii and reintroduced throughout the modern rainforests, wetlands, and large riverbanks across tropical and subtropical parts of Africa to help boost biodiversity. The African gharial is large for a crocodilian, growing to a maximum size of about 10 meters (32.8 feet) in length. Hence its name, it has a narrow rostrum that is unusually elongate with deeply scalloped dorsal margins, similarly to gharials of Asia. The skull table, however, is proportionally small and is almost square in shape. The jaws are lined with isodont, or slender, similarly sized and shaped, teeth. Unlike nearly all other crocodilians, the African gharial possesses only four premaxillary teeth. Because they are sharp and bicarinate, they are an adaptation for a piscivorous feeding habit, or a diet that includes fish. It is one of the most thoroughly aquatic crocodilians, and leaves the water only for basking and building nests on moist sandbanks. Adults mate at the end of the cold season. Females congregate in spring to dig nests, in which they lay 20–95 eggs. They guard the nests and the young, which hatch before the onset of the monsoon. The hatchlings stay and forage in shallow water during their first year, but move to sites with deeper water as they grow. The conservation status of the African gharial is Vulnerable due to some habitat loss and historic poaching, however, thanks to the conservationists, the African gharial is a protected species.