Cryptocledius (クリプトクレディアス Kuriputokurediasu?) are a species of a plesiosaur kaiju created by TriStar Pictures that first appeared in the 1998 Godzilla: The Series episode, Leviathan.
Origins
Cryptocledius were aquatic long-necked reptiles, or plesiosaurs, that went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, in 65,000,000 B.C. However, it seems a number of the Cryptocledius somehow survived extinction.
History
A Cryptocleidus appeared and attacked H.E.A.T.'s submarine until Godzilla appeared and started to fight it, just as H.E.A.T. discovers a Tachyon ship in the bottom of the ocean.
When H.E.A.T. get out of the Tachyon ship, another Cryptocledius appears. Zilla Junior tries to evade them and eventually hits a rock formation, causing the two Cryptocledius to be crushed by the rock slide.
During the event of Monster Wars, one of the Cryptocledius survived and was spotted swimming towards Site Omega. It attacked H.E.A.T.'s boat and was tricked into fighting the Giant Bat. After the fight was broken up, both mutations traveled to Site Omega. Once the aliens began their assault, Cryptocledius attacked Hong Kong. When the alien control was severed, Cryptocledius was killed by the Tachyon ship's beams.
Appearance
The Cryptocledius has the appearance of a gigantic plesiosaur, it is gray-blue in color, has 6 limbs, its front fins end in 3 sharp claws, its head looks like a skull, it has 4 spikes almost at the end of its tail.
Abilities
Swimming: The Cryptocledius is an excellent swimmer and can stay underwater for long periods of time.
Teeth: The cryptocledius teeth are designed not to let its prey escape, as seen when it bit the Giant Bat on its wing and it could not free itself.
Claws: It has claws on its front flippers that allow it to damage its opponents and help it move on dry land.
Supersonic Roar: In the video game Godzilla: The Series: Monster Wars, the Cryptocledius has the ability to launch a powerful roar that damages Godzilla.
Trivia
- It's possible Cryptocledius survived the Tachyon beams, as he dived down to the depths to escape injury. This is determined as Godzilla did the same thing and survived.
- If this is true, then Cryptocledius might still be living among the depths of the ocean, or was captured soon later and is living on Monster Island.
- Besides its oversized appearance, Cryptocledius is depicted inaccurately in the series.
- Its shown to have an extra pair of clawed flippers, when no vertebrate has six limbs.
- While its origins state it survived the KT extinction, real Cryptocledius died out 100 million years before the KT extinction. To be more accurate, the closest plesiosaur to live near the KT extinction was Elasmosaurus, a distant cousin of Cryptocledius.
- Its shown to be able to move across the land, when it couldn't do it in real life. (This is a possible reference to the third episode of Walking With Dinosaurs, where they were shown to hull themselves onto land for safety).
- The head of Cryptocledius is similar to that of the Skullcrawlers in Kong: Skull Island.
- It is possible that Cryptocledius is an homage for Titanosaurus from Terror of Mechagodzilla.
Video games
- Godzilla: The Series: Monster Wars
Gallery
