Spectember 2: Cold Blood

Five million years after the demise of Man, Earth experienced an even more destructive mass extinction. A rogue dwarf planet, similar in size to Pluto, shot through the inner solar system, passing close to Earth's orbit and disrupting it. That incident was enough to lock Earth in a permanent ice age, with only the tropics remaining un-frozen. Reptiles and amphibians, dependent as they were on warm temperatures, were almost completely wiped out. But not entirely.

One reptile that has thrived in this frigid new world is the Tsuchinoko (Pinguisaurus asiaticus), which is found from Siberia to Japan. Despite its appearance, it is not a snake, but an enormous legless lizard. This in and of itself is not unusual, since a number of modern-day lizards, such as glass lizards and worm lizards, are legless. The Tsuchinoko's ancestors were probably glass lizards, which are so named for their fragile bodies that snap off their tails like glass when handled. The Tsuchinoko itself, however, lacks this adaptation.

In appearance, it is chunky and sausage-shaped, growing up to four feet long. Its thick shape is made up of muscle, not fat; as a reptile it lacks insulating brown fat cells. Instead, its shape regulates its temperature by giving it a smaller surface area relative to its size, causing it to lose heat more slowly. It also spends the coldest parts of the year hibernating underground, where the soil and snow provide insulation. When it emerges in spring and summer, it is an ambush predator of small mammals and ground-dwelling birds, and relies on energy from the food it eats during this time to sustain it over the winter.

The Tsuchinoko gives birth to live young, usually no more than two at a time, and these can be up to a third the size of their mother. Once they are born, the babies require no care and are immediately able to live on their own. However, Tsuchinokos are cannibalistic, and it is not unheard of for adults to eat younger, smaller individuals if they come across them. In their harsh ecosystem, nothing is sacred.