Thread by @am_anatiala

NEXT UP:
#1 seed Orinoco crocodile 🐊
VS
#16 seed praying mantis! 🙏🏽🦗
#2018MMM

The croc & mantis diverged ~797 mya (timetree.org). Around this time the Earth went through an ice age that covered the entire world.

This might have led to the rise of algae due to glaciers grinding up stone into nutrients! #2018MMM cosmosmagazine.com/geoscience/how…

The praying mantis showed itself to be a stealthy predator of the bigger goldcrest in the wildcard battle (here's a play-by-play of that battle: wakelet.com/wake/45f524b8-…). #2018MMM

FLASHBACK, A WEEK AGO:

Praying mantis: is this your wildcard pick?!

#2018MMM

But now the mantis goes against a much larger killer.

The Orinoco croc (of Colombia's and Venezuela's Orinoco River basin) can get up to 15 stoats (17ft) long, 60x as large as a large mantis.

#StoatsAsMeasurement #2018MMM

These dudes once got up to 20 stoats (22ft) long! However, intensive hunting for Orinoco croc hides has taken out all the larger specimens of this now critically endangered species.

credit: M. Watson #2018MMM #StoatsAsMeasurement

These crocodiles lay eggs during the dry season, when the water is at its lowest. Crocodile mamas are some of the best mamas in the world, guarding their eggs and then their babies, for years! #2018MMM

Adult crocs aren't picky, eating large and small mammals, fish, & birds.

Baby Orinoco crocs probably like to snack on smaller prey, such as insects & small fish, like other baby crocodilians. See this dietary study on caimans in Puerto Rico (reabic.net/journals/mbi/2…)

#2018MMM

Yes, I did say insects. #2018MMM

BUT! We aren't dealing with a cute, squeaky Orinoco youngling here. We're actually dealing with an adult male, fresh in his prime. Much like my beautiful baby boy, Kylo. #2018MMM

EXTERIOR:

Southern Venezuela, where in 1982 a wild population of the Orinoco crocodile was found, obliterating the thought that they were extinct in the wild (…ls-cdn-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/00063207859008…).

#2018MMM

It is mid-October, and the water is beginning to drop as the dry season comes upon the crocodiles. Though it be a mild day, perhaps 78 degrees, things are getting heated in the water. #2018MMM

ZOOM IN:

To our adult male croc, patrolling an edge of his territory. This catches the attention of another male croc, who believes that this is actually *his* territory.

This croc slaps his head against the water. Square up, C. #2018MMM

MOVE TO:

Our praying mantis, who is once again hunting. This time, its hiding spot is in a clump of veg overhanging the water. The praying mantis feels it chose well, as there are a lot of insects flitting over the water. #2018MMM

NARRATOR: It did not choose well. #2018MMM

Our male croc has indeed squared up. He squirts water out his nose (called narial geysering: researchgate.net/publication/23…; thx @AlongsideWild for fact check).

Unfortunately for the mantis, it is directly in the path of the nose-water projectile.

Into the water it goes. #2018MMM

Right in the middle of a head-slap/feint lunge-fight between two territorial male crocodiles. #2018MMM

Despite its valiant efforts to reach the surface, the mantis is knocked deeper and deeper into the water as the two reptiles clash. Eventually, it stops fighting, and succumbs to its fate. #2018MMM

ORINOCO CROCODILE DROWNS PRAYING MANTIS!!!!!! #2018MMM