Alligatoris sapiens (Levarianqueva)

## *Alligatoris sapiens*

An adult male and female Alligatoris sapiens

*Alligatoris sapiens* (Yaksōnian: kētrō (NOM SG/DU: kētrō, ACC SG/DU: kētrōs, ERG SG/DU: kētrōk, DAT SG: kītrō, see Yaksōnian declension) ) are the dominant species on Levarianqueva. They are descended from American alligators who were imported to the planet from Terra during the Galactic Federation's existence. Approximately one billion gators live on Levarianqueva as of 2354 AC.

Anatomically-modern *Alligatoris sapiens* evolved around 210 thousand years ago in the Prorinian peninsula. Over the next one hundred thousand years, these anatomically-modern *Alligatoris sapiens* had managed to garner more intelligence and develop traits like the capability to form emotions, strong social connections, and languages (although the males evolved language first and the females evolved it later). From there, they spread into Qlurdak and the surrounding islands, causing the extinction of the non-Prorinian megafauna and the basal Qlurdakian gators, the latter of which interbred extensively with the *Alligatoris sapiens* and seriously impacted the gene pool; today, the highest amount of basal Qlurdakian admixture comes from gators from eastern portions of the Qlurdakian supercontinent and Meyāni (especially in higher castes, where basal Qlurdakian admixture is over half of the entire gene pool of most individuals), and the lowest amount of basal Qlurdakian admixture comes from those native to Tioroska and Yaksōn.

Before c. 󠀠10000 BC (10000554 on Terra), all *Alligatoris sapiens* lived as hunter gatherers. However, around c. 10000 BC, agriculture was independently invented in many areas around the planet, including the Yaksōnian plains, Tioroska, and the southwestern parts of Qlurdak. Not too long after, the gators started to found their own sedentary villages, small cities, and eventually, large civilizations. Agriculture brought on a surplus, reducing the amount of individuals needed to gather food and allowing for more scientific, technological, and magical breakthroughs. This surplus also allowed for the creation of governments, philosophies, and religions.

*Alligatoris sapiens* are omnivores and are generally capable of consuming pretty much any food source, and also have the capacity to use fire to cook their food since about 300,000 years ago. They are capable of surviving without food for over half a decade due to their well developed kidneys and their ability to reabsorb water via the gut. This minimizes the amount of water excreted and allowes them to survive solely on the water from food and never needing to drink at all, like Terran kangaroo rats and addaxes. They are generally nocturnal, sleeping during the day and being active at night, and are also capable of dreaming. Both the mother and the father work together to care for the offspring, a trait that is more common than in humans.

*Alligatoris sapiens* are highly intelligent and have a large, well-developed prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for higher cognition. They are also highly curious and have all of the features present in sapient life: the ability to categorize things, the ability to remember and learn from previous experiences, the ability to recognize themselves and distinguish themselves from the environment and other individuals of the same species, the ability to distinguish different quantities, the ability to interpret symbols and abstractions, the ability to attribute mental states to other individuals, the ability to use tools, and the ability to communicate and pass down information using complex language.

## Biology

*Alligatoris sapiens* have coevolved with humans, and share the same overall body plan and overall internal body structure. However, they are different to some extent.

Members of *Alligatoris sapiens* are nocturnal, meaning that they sleep during the day and are active during the night. This has led them to evolve a tapetum lucidum, a reflective membrane, on both of their eyes to see in low-light conditions, which causes their eyes to glow. The tapetum lucidum of this species, however, causes their eyes to glow yellow, making it easier for members of this species to identify each other and avoid danger from other nocturnal predators, whose eyes glow different colors. These tapeta lucida give members of *Alligatoris sapiens* superior night vision to humans, making it very easy for them to do activities in the dark without artificial light, and thus cities built by members of *Alligatoris sapiens* have little to no artificial light when compared to cities built by members of diurnal species like humans, resulting in reduced light pollution. *Alligatoris sapiens* used to see color like humans with red-green color blindness, but eventually, the gene went extinct in favor of color vision like normal, non-colorblind humans.

Like humans, members of *Alligatoris sapiens* are endotherms, but have feathers like in birds instead of fur or hair as in mammals through convergent evolution. *Alligatoris sapiens* had lost most of their feathers other than large ones around their skull, their head significantly enlarged compared to other crocodilians, and in adult male *Alligatoris sapiens*, large feathers are retained around their mouth, and small, thin feathers cover the rest of their body other than their head in both males and females. These feathers have also evolved to produce biological light, which is produced by chemical reactions. The nervous system can change the colors that are produced or deactivate the luminescants of individual feathers. The hues of these feathers can vary between the entire ROYGBIV sequence and is also the way this species expresses emotions. The brightness can express connections and isolation, with lighter colors representing a stronger connection with the rest of the social group and darker colors representing loneliness. Additionally, a mix of hues can express that the individual is feeling multiple emotions at the same time, and monochromatic colors can represent that the individual is not feeling any emotions at the moment.

Like most reptiles (and most animals), *Alligatoris sapiens* are oviparous, or egg-laying. During the breeding season (the spring to the fall in most environments), the females will try to mate with as many males as possible and then lay their eggs on carcuses. Laying eggs on carcuses puts a time pressure for the eggs to hatch before the carcus decomposes. As such, the juveniles are highly altricial, with a large portion of development occuring after they are born, and thus both parents work together to care for the young and ensure their survival to adulthood. The female *Alligatoris sapiens* have larger abdomens in order to store their eggs.

*Alligatoris sapiens* are omnivores and generally feed on fish, small animals, carion, fruit, gourds, and leaves. In the case that these food sources are not available, they will feed on rocks called gastroliths to aid in digestion, like what the extinct Terran pterosaur *Pterodaustro* and many modern reptiles do. The juveniles do not develop the necessary gut complexity to digest vegetation until a later portion of their development, and so the juveniles are more inclined to feed on meat than the adults. This results in the development of ontogenetic niche shift, switching between multiple niches throughout the life cycle.

*Alligatoris sapiens* have sexual dimorphism, where the two sexes have different characteristics. As discussed in previous paragraphs, the males have more feathers below the lower jaw than females, and the females have larger abdomens than the males. However, there are some more characteristics that differ between males and females. The males are taller than the females, a difference that is more present than in humans: the average height for a male is 4.76 meters (15.62 feet), while the average height for a female is 2.54 meters (8.33 feet), with the average height for the entire species at 3.65 meters (11.98 feet), which is still two times taller than the average human. Even though male and female *Alligatoris sapiens* have similar-sized skulls and brains, males are more likely to become geniuses than females.

*Alligatoris sapiens* tend to live longer than humans on average, which is simply due to the *Alligatoris sapiens* having not lost the longevity genes that humans and other mammals have lost. The average gator lives to be over 200 years old, with the females living longer than the males. *Alligatoris sapiens* also have infinite sets of teeth which regrow after another set of teeth is lost, unlike humans which have only two sets of teeth, and as such dental hygiene isn't as important as in humans. *Alligatoris sapiens* also have scales, a remnant of their archosaur ancestors, which grow and regenerate every few months.

*Alligatoris sapiens* are also very good swimmers.