Mudlick

(this is exactly the kind of imaginary critter I like, big, weird, ugly and mean, like myself)

Genus & species: Grima vermiglossus
Meaning of: Grima Wormtongue (literally) after a J. R. R. Tolkien character
Ancestral creature: Alligator Snapping Turtle Macrochelys temminckii
Size: up to 300 lbs
Activity cycle: diurnal
Habitat: temperate woodlands and coastal marshes
Social structure: solitary
Diet: birds, small mammals, small reptiles

The mudlick strongly resembles the ancestral alligator snapping turtle. It is much larger, however, and once mature lives almost entirely on land. To support its great weight, the mudlick has developed stumpy, elephantine legs. Bony nodules protect the exposed neck, limbs and tail. The mottled brown and green coloration, the thickly ridged carapace, horns and warty outgrowths form an effective camouflage. When immobile, the mudlick is easily mistaken for a mossy boulder or chunk of rotten wood.

Like its ancestor, the mudlick sports a pair of brilliant pink tendrils on the tongue. The turtle lays immobile with its jaws gaping and twitches the appendages, which look like a squirming worm. Prey literally walks right into the mudlick’s mouth. All it has to do is snap its razor-edged jaws closed, with such force that larger specimens are capable of shearing off a man‘s arms. These turtles are extremely aggressive, and should be approached only with great caution, if at all.

Juvenile mudlicks hatch in batches of 60-100 from eggs laid near the water’s edge. They spend their early years hunting any freshwater organisms they can catch and getting their growth on. At twelve years old and about thirty pounds they move onto land. It takes almost forty five years for a mudlick to reach sexual maturity, and they have been known to live several hundred years. The rate of growth slows but never entirely stops - there may be enormous specimens lurking in the unexplored backwoods.


Design notes
This is basically just a terrestrial alligator snapper that lures birds and things instead of fish. I love those things, even though the ones in our pond used to eat our ducklings. 7 or 8 pictures were combined to make it - note the galapagos tortoise legs, since this sucker doesn't swim any more.