So, the article on ichthyosaurodons is almost ready, so I'm posting the first part (where ichthyosaurodons live, general characteristics and about their ancestors).

I hope that someone will read this at least out of respect (after all, it took me 2 years to come up with it).

WHERE DO ICHTHYOSAURODON LIVE:

The habitat of ichthyosaurodons is a planet called Ivatan.

And now - a little bit about this planet. Then we will move on to the main topic - ichthyosaurodon.

Ivatan is a planet slightly larger than Jupiter, it is located in the solar system of Shemali (Iota of the constellation of the whale). The full name of this star is Deneb Kaitos Shemali.

Shemali is located 275 light years from the sun. There are 5 planets in the Deneb Kaitos Shemali solar system - Ivatan is the 3rd of them. The other 4 planets are named Urodong, Tan, Zanussi and Rayhew. There is nothing and no one on 3 of them, but Rayhew is an inhabited ocean planet, the entire surface of which is covered with water.

Shemali is 15 times the size of the sun and emits an orange light. So the lighting on Iwatan is a little different in color than on earth. The sunsets there are also different - the sunsets on Iwatan are not orange, as on earth, but red or, in rare cases, crimson. The starry sky at night differs a lot from the terrestrial one - in the constellation of ceta (in which the star Shemali and Ivatan are located), the galaxy NGC 1055 is located, which is 100 million light-years from earth, but Ivatan is naturally closer to this galaxy and it is clearly visible from there.

Ivatan has a ring like Saturn and 3 moons (one of which is destroyed and its fragments are scattered across the sky).

The atmosphere of Iwatan differs from that of Earth only in that it contains 30% oxygen, not 20%, as on earth.

More about the atmosphere. There is a so-called "Radioactive shield" in the thermosphere of Iwatan. The entire thermosphere of this planet is actually "poisoned" by radiation and radiation also affects the colors of the northern lights on Iwatan. The Northern Lights are very bright there and the radiation ions do not turn it blue-green, as on Earth, but a bright green color.

Radiation ions in the thermosphere also affect life on this planet.

The evolution of all Ivatan species is very fast. If it takes millions of years on Earth, then a new species can form on Iwatan in a few thousand years.

Of course, the radiation level on the surface of the planet itself is not as high as in the thermosphere, but it is still higher than on earth. If the normal radiation background on earth is from 20 to 50 µR/h, then on Iwatan the usual radiation background is from 60 to 80 µR/h.

This is already enough to make evolution happen faster due to various mutations. It is quite expected that all plants, animals and microorganisms are much more resistant to radiation, but not so much that changes in the type of leaf shape in plants or color mutations in animals are very rare.

All kinds of defects in animals, such as polymelia (an excessive number of limbs, in Ivatan animals, the mutation almost always affects the forelimbs) or the absence of something (but usually individuals with the absence of something die, unlike, for example, individuals with the same polymelia - such often remain alive) are not rare.

Such cases occur much more often in the inhabitants of this planet (respectively, in ichthyosaurodons too) than on Earth, but this usually does not affect the viability of an individual.

Gravity on Iwatan is several times less than that of Earth.

Now about the climate. There is no winter on Iwatan, snow falls only at the poles and in the rest of the planet the temperature never drops below 10 degrees. The highest temperature on Iwatan is +54 degrees. Eternal cold reigns at the poles and the temperature there ranges from -30 to -50 (at the north pole) and from -30 to -80 - at the south pole.

There are 2 large continents on Iwatan, one fairly large island and a great many small islands (I will immediately make a reservation that there are no ordinary land-based ichthyozvrodons on the islands - only sea Shan). There are no continents at the poles, and what looks like continents from space is just a frozen ocean.

The landscapes of Iwatan include jungles, fields, mountains, volcanic mountains and crystalline deserts.

Volcanic mountains are places where volcanoes erupt very often and everything around is at least 10 kilometers covered with a black crust of frozen lava. Crystal deserts are ordinary deserts, but the crystal shield of Iwatan (the Earth also has this shield, but it consists of other rocks) It is too close to the surface and the crystals come out through the sand. However, not everything is so simple. The crystal shield of Iwatan is not just crystals sprinkled with sand. Only the largest crystals reach the surface. All crystals have a "root" that goes down 2-3 kilometers and only at this depth connects to the crystal shield.

Moreover, the "root" of the crystal at the junction with the crystal shield is very large, and only the "crown" of a really very large crystal looks out from the sand. But the crystal shield is located close to the surface not only in deserts. In the woods and so on. crystals can also come to the surface in places, but there are few such crystals - the crystal shield is located close to the surface only in deserts. Crystals can also grow on the ocean floor - only there the crystal shield is too close to the surface and the entire bottom of ocean basins is usually strewn with crystals, like raisins.

All Ivatan vegetation is purple in color. There are plants with yellow or with the usual (for our eyes) green color, but there are quite a few such species and they do not make up most of them.

And now let's move on to the ichthyosaurodon. Let's start, perhaps, with their general characteristics.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

Ichthyosaurodon is a creature 3.5 meters long, 1.8 meters high and weighing 280 kilograms.

Ichthyosaurodons have a long snout, four paws, a fin on their back and a very long tail. There are 5 fingers on the front paws, 4 on the hind ones (but the 4th finger is small and attached from behind, like in dinosaurs).

There are 50 absolutely not small teeth in the mouth of ichthyosaurodon, 4 of which are large canines. Ichthyosaurodon's palate is not flat, but concave upwards, which creates more space for the tongue and allows ichthyosaurodon to make many sounds - to simulate the sounds of prey, etc.

The eyes of ichthyosaurodon are a bright turquoise color, sometimes with a greenish or bluish tinge.

Ichthyosaurodon females are always darker than males - males are blue and females are ultramarine or just blue.

One might think that ichthyosaurodon leads a semi-aquatic lifestyle, but this is not the case. If there is water nearby, ichthyosaurodons really lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle, but if there is no water, ichthyosaurodons can do fine without it. The fin on the back of an ichthyosaurodon is just an atavism in some parts, but in another part it is easier for a male with a high fin to find a female.

Ichthyosaurodon live in colonies of 100-200 individuals in burrows dug in the ground.

Ichthyosaurodon is the highest predator of the planet Ivatan. Although not the largest, but the highest. How not the strongest creature managed to become a top predator - we'll figure it out later.

The skin of ichthyosaurodons is covered with a thin layer of mucus. The skin itself feels like rubber and does not cut as much as it may seem.

In the neck of ichthyosaurodon there is a black gland in which Black Carbonic Acid is stored and produced. A black "acid tube" comes out of the sac-like gland into the mouth of ichthyosaurodon, it opens into the mouth under the esophagus. Ichthyosaurodon can "spit" acid at a distance of up to 3 meters.

Ichthyosaurodons hunt prey either singly or almost as a whole colony (depending on the type and size of prey. Other inhabitants of Iwatan will be mentioned later).

Now let's move on to a more detailed description. Let's start from the very beginning - the ancestors of ichthyosaurodon.

THE ANCESTORS OF ICHTHYOSAURODON:

Ichthyosaurodons began their evolutionary path in the depths of the sea. The very first creature, more or less similar to the modern ichthyosaurodon, is a Palakai, a small inhabitant of shallow waters. Palakai appeared 3 million years ago. They were quite small (only 60 centimeters in length) and had nothing in common with modern ichthyosaurodon.

Palakai had tails like mosasaurs, and the flippers of the hind legs were very long (like modern Shaani), the jaws were longer than those of modern ichthyosaurodon, and the front paws were very small.

But what prompted the ancestor of ichthyosaurodon to come out of the water? Since the Palakai lived in shallow waters and there were rocks in abundance in shallow waters, the Palakai developed a special hunting strategy. They drove the fish to the rocks and when the fish jumped on the rocks, they climbed on them and ate the fish.

This is how the process of landfall in ichthyosaurodons began.

After 300 thousand years, Palakai evolved into Andtodonts - already larger creatures 2 meters long, but with about the same short legs. Anthodonts lived in the ocean, but multiplied on land. And if the Palakai did not have acid, then the Anthodonts have already started the process of acid generation. Firstly, their bodies have already become more resistant to different types of acids due to a protein that is similar to Teflon. Secondly, the Anthodonts already had a neck bag with acid (but not with carbonic acid, but with hydrochloric acid).

The anthodonts used acid to soften the shells and extract the clams from them. But several thousand more years passed, the acid sac became larger, and the muscles that compressed the sac became stronger, and the Anthodonts began to use acid to "shoot" fish. The acid got on the fish, it was corroded by the acid, could not move and the Antodont calmly swallowed it.

The anthodonts were somewhat similar to the Palakai, but there was just a round fin at the ends of their tails, of course they were larger in size, the flippers on their hind legs were not as long and they had acid.

On the Anthodonts, evolution stopped for quite a long time - for 500 thousand years, but then the process of conquering the land by the ancestors of ichthyosaurodons accelerated again - and so, the first ichthyosaurodons began to dig holes in the land of Iwatan.

However, the ichthyosaurodons split up. The anthodonts, who lived on islands rather than near continents, continued their evolutionary path in the form of Marine Ichthyosaurodon Shaani.

Now the Shaani live not only in the seas, but also in rivers and even lakes, but a couple of thousand years ago the Shaani lived only near the islands.