FOUR FFFFs

In Aztec mythology, Cipactli was a primeval sea monster, part crocodilian, part fish, and part toad or frog, with indefinite gender. Always hungry, every joint on its body was adorned with an extra mouth. The deity Tezcatlipoca sacrificed a foot when he used it as bait to draw the monster nearer. He and Quetzalcoatl created the earth from its body.

David Kizirian

Benjamin Parrott

The Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) is one of only two species of alligator in the world. Fewer than 150 remain in the wild in China, and these occur in small populations at widely scattered locations. Habitat availability limits potential expansion of these populations, none of which numbers more than about 20 alligators. Meanwhile the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is considered one of the great conservation success stories, having recovered from overhunting and habitat loss in the last century. They were removed from the endangered species in 1987 and are now considered abundant throughout their range in the southeastern U.S.

Deep inside the skull of every one of us there is something like a brain of a crocodile. Surrounding the R-complex is the limbic system or mammalian brain, which evolved tens of millions of years ago in ancestors who were mammal but not yet primates. It is a major source of our moods and emotions, of our concern and care for the young. And finally, on the outside, living in uneasy truce with the more primitive brains beneath, is the cerebral cortex; civilization is a product of the cerebral cortex.

"Yes," said the other, "I have been a wild man—every man's hand against me—a companion of the dragons and the owls, this many a year. I have made my bed with the leviathan, among the reeds and the rushes. I have found the alligators and the snakes better neighbors than Christians. They let those alone that let them alone; but Christians will hunt for the precious life."

Dominic and Cymene talk about... whether humans will eventually try to breed chihuahua-scale alligators.