The Gojiranops

Hi guys!

Here's a piece inspired by a brilliant idea from fellow Godzilla fan and Deviant . He simply realized that you just can't redesign the character to make him seem scientifically accurate, and have him officially be a Dinosaur or lizard, without fucking up the traditional way Toho does him (having mammal like features).

So, he came up with the conclusion to re-imagine Godzilla mutating from a Synapsid (the so-called "mammal-like reptiles" from the Permian and early Triassic) rather than a Dinosaur. That way, you can be free redesign and update him, yet be consistent with proper Toho-style.

*Edit*
Instead of him having a full-fledged Stegosaur back like how Godzilla does, I've now given him a fleshy hump with elongated vertebrae inside. Once he mutates, the hump disappears, exposing his giant back-plates. The reason behind this edit is that I decided that having back-plates in normal form would simply make him a little overly reptilian, considering how close Therapsids are to modern mammals.

Here's my interpretation of story for this amazing species :

The Gojiranops was a living genus of Synapsid (mammal-like reptile) whose ancestors survived the Permian Mass Extinction event that occurred 245 million years ago and eradicated 95% of all life on Earth. Among the factors that helped Gojiranops' ancestor, Progojiranops survive was their small size, borrowing lifestyle and were able to eat a wide variety of food which ranged from worms, insects and meat scavenged from any animal they could find, including sea animals upon migrating to the ocean shore in times of famine. Speaking of the ocean, the Progojianops was highly adaptable and would temporarily sway from burrowing and begin swimming if it was necessary to find more food.

In addition, Progojiranops was remarkably intelligent for a Permian creature. The animals formed communities and utilized teamwork to achieve a common cause. Their intelligence also led them to develop amplified paternal skills, guaranteeing well-nurtured offspring.

As the Mesozoic went by, the Dinosaurs began their regime. Competing with Dinosaurs proved too much of a risk for the Gojiranopsi and would be bound for extinction if they continued to do so thrive on the mainland. Thankfully evolution had granted them improved swimming skills, which allowed them to migrate to several isolated islands in the Pacific to seek refuge, making it perfect lands for them to conquer with the Dinosaur's absence.

It was there where they encountered another species of predator that also immigrated to the region, ferocious Suchians (Crocodiles and extinct relatives) known as Anguirusuchus. For many ages, the two beasts formed a fierce rivalry akin to that between modern African Lions and Hyenas, for both food and territory. That lasted even after the Cretaceous Extinction, when they both stated to decline until the Holocene where only a few remained on a number of islands.

In 1944 during the Pacific Wars of World War II, a naval band of Japanese soldiers who established a base on Lagos Island claim to have encounters with what they described as "Feline-like Dinosaurs" and that some of them were even devouring the remains of deceased American soldiers. However, both their captains and mainstream science proclaimed the creatures as illusions from wartime stress and thus, non-existent.

By the early 1950's The Cold War was on the rise and the superpowers started testing nuclear weapons in countless areas in the South Pacific, including Lagos. Lagos also happened to be the last place on Earth the Gojiranops inhabited and exposure to radiation caused a mutation and thus Godzilla was born.

Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Chordata
Class : Synapsida
Order : Therapsida
Family : Gojiranopsidae
Genus : Gojiranops
Species name : Gojiranops Pronucleum
Length : 25 feet from head to tail
Weight : Approx. 700 lbs
Diet : Carnivore, feeds on fish, squid, birds, clams, crustaceans, slugs, beached whale corpses and even Crocodiles
Range : Ancestors originated in Antarctica in mid-Permian and soon spread eastward towards Australia in the Triassic and by the Jurassic started to migrate to Pacific islands to reside there until the Holocene.
Abilities/attributes : Teeth, claws, tail, adept swimmer, Extremely thick hide that can repel gunfire.

Please comment!

Godzilla is (c) Toho Co.ltd
Idea by
Art by me