Giant toraton

The **giant toraton** (*Inanistestus bengalis*) is a species of tortoise that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout India and Southeast Asia to help boost biodiversity. The toraton is by far the largest member of the ancient tortoise family, which dates back to the Pliocene epoch of the Neogene period. Since 220 million years or so before the human era, in the Late Triassic period, their order has thrived. Their basic shape and lifestyle were so successful from an early stage in their history that they hardly evolved. Now, due to genetic engineering by SciiFii, the effects have encouraged a huge increase in the toraton's size, enabling them to exploit the incredible mass of vegetation. The toraton is a cold-blooded reptile, so it does not face the problem of overheating that would confront a similarly-sized mammal. With an average body weight of 120 tonnes (132.25 tonnes), this is the second-biggest animal known ever to have existed on Earth, surpassing even the blue whale (95 tons, or 104.6875 tons), and surpassed only by some sauropod dinosaurs. Due to its sheer size, an adult Toraton has no predators, and no longer has any need for a shell for protection. Sections of the ancestral shell remain, however, forming an external support for the creature's muscles, which its ribs and vertebrae alone cannot carry. In addition, the legs have moved from a sideways position, in most other reptiles, to underneath the animal, to support it, like four great pillars as it walks along, just like with an elephant's legs. Any animal bigger than a tonne has to support itself with legs directly under its body, not out to the side, otherwise it would not have to strength to stand up. Once the Toraton has developed this gait to accommodate that form of locomotion, it could get bigger and bigger. These adaptations allowed the Toraton to grow 7 meters (22.875 feet) high, 12 meters (39.25 feet) long and reach a whopping bulk of 120 tonnes (132.25 tons). While most tortoises mate on top of each other, Toratons do not because a female will not be able to support 120 tonnes on her back. They solve this problem by mating back to back. They back into each other, and face away from each other, during courtship and mating. Once the male and female are back to back, they both raise their tails to reveal their cloaca, and the two cloaca actually touch, and that is when sperm is transferred from one to the other. Young Toratons emerge from eggs so tough that the mother helps them out by cracking the shell with her beak. Before they graduate to eating true greens, hatchling Toratons will often eat feces from the adults in order to acquire the essential microflora to digest their low-quality herbivorous diet. Youngsters are cared for by their parents for the first five years of their lives. With no predators big enough to threaten them, healthy Toratons can live 120 years or more. They are the colossi of their own environments. The conservation status of the giant toraton is **Vulnerable** due to some habitat loss and historic poaching, however, thanks to conservationists, the giant toratons have since made a comeback and are easy to care for in captivity (if there's enough room to keep and care for the giant toratons).