Ekleipsiosaur

The Bakunawa
Scientific Name: Ekleipsiosaur
Discoverer: J. Bantigue

Ekleipsiosaurs are omnivorous marine reptiles that have lived through the Pleistocene Epoch, having been frozen alive in the oceans during the Ice Age and eventually revived during the late Iron Age.

Early natives of the Southwestern parts of the Philippine Archipelago were said to have seen this supposedly extinct creature, which later on became one of their basis for their mythological beliefs of the god of the underworld, the Bakunawa.

Ancient Filipinos described the Bakunawa as a giant sea serpent with a mouth the size of a lake, having two sets of wings, one set being larger than the other, and a giant sea turtle as a sister. They also believed that the creature swallowed the moons. This being said is proof that what ancient Filipinos have seen is an Ekleipsiosaur.

Ekleipsiosaurs were marine reptiles equipped with a long neck and two sets of flippers similar to pleisiosaurs. What is intriguing about the ekleipsiosaur is that its skull and flippers pretty much resemble a modern-day sea turtles'. Scientists believed that the ekleipsiosaur was the direct ancestor of the sea turtle.

Ekleipsiosaurs were said to grow larger than adult brachiosaurs; usually bigger than an island. In fact, witnesses would mistake the creature as an island itself.

An ekleipsiosaur's dorsal skin experienced constant shedding, making its skin fine and gritty like sand. Unnaturally, vegetation and corals were said to have grown on the creature's dorsum, allowing life to live on the creature itself. Sea turtles were said to have swam to the ekleipsiosaurs' island-like bodies and laid their eggs there.

Its head was always mistaken by fishermen and sailors as a rocky reef surrounded by dangerous waves. Its skull, as described before, is almost similar to that of the sea turtle's, except that majority of the ekleipsiosaur's skull bones have protruded from its skin. The waves that the fishermen described are caused by its mouth as it sucks nearby plankton, fishes, and even sharks and small whales whole.

The food travels through its long neck and into the furnace inside its body. The ekleipsiosaur later expels wastes through the volcano-like opening at its dorsum. This opening is also where the ekleipsiosaur inhales and exhales.

Ekleipsiosaurs normally do not travel due to the size of its body. It would, however, need to constantly move its flippers for it to remain in one place and afloat. It is nocturnal and therefore, most of its activities are mysteries.

In ancient tales about the Bakunawa, it is said that the creature would eat the moon, causing eclipses.

This mystery was explained later on as a call (or sometimes, a mating call) by one ekleipsiosaur to another, as no two ekleipsiosaurs share an area of the sea. Talk about nobody being an island, metaphorically and literally. An ekleipsiosaur was said to call another only during eclipses, raising its head above water.

When the Bakunawa appears to eat the moon, ancient Filipinoes would use their pots and pans to make noise and scare the Bakunawa away.

Due to the fact that its head and neck are heavy, an ekleipsiosaur does not lift its head for very long. Gravity would tip its front side of the body and would have kept the greater part of its neck in the water. Ekleipsiosaurs are also said to have sensitive sense of hearing, which enable them to hear sounds from many miles away. Noises produced by pans and pots would probably irritate the ekleipsiosaur but not scare it away, thus probably explaining the titles "moon-eater" and "man-eater".

Legends of the Bakunawa and mysteries of the living dinosaur: Ekleipsiosaur were lost in the future of men. Natives forgot about the Bakunawa. Filipinoes that were gifted with technology and internet believed it was only a legend and a myth. Scientists assumed that the Ekleipsiosaurs eventually died because of age and because they weren't able to reproduce.

But have you looked at the seas lately? Do you know where the wastes in the rivers end up? Pollution has probably already killed the Ekleipsiosaurs. However, I know it is still not too late to save the Ekleipsiosaurs. There is still hope.

Repost from older account. This was a submission for a Komikon 2009 Contest.