THE RECIPE OF THE CROCODILE E-Book

Steffen Pichler

• Herausgeber: ZEIS
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

For over 250 million years, the "crocodile" in the sense of a form of life occupied the top of the food pyramid between water and land. However, this included many different species, most of which were not linearly descended from each other despite enormous similarity. Often, they were even only very distantly related in the huge family tree of reptiles. Now Steffen Pichler shows that this pronounced convergence must be grounded above all in a recurrent selective orientation towards one specific goal: namely, the broadest possible "ecological harmony". Based on years of observations of free saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia and the evaluation of palaeontological studies, he proves that this manifested seamlessly in every aspect of physique and behaviour. The heavy body can glide almost turbulence-free on mirror-smooth water surfaces. The all-day existence is so extremely unobtrusive and quiet that disturbances caused to other creatures are close to zero. The killing of prey is done in an utmost surprising way and mostly within seconds. In addition, there are many positive effects, such as those as "health police" through the automatic selection of diseased fish or even that of an indirect "protector" of the well-rehearsed ecosystem against disruptive intruders. The author explains that with real observation and a little "thinking around the corner", the ecological harmony of the crocodile becomes as obvious that there can be no stable counterarguments and that even the best engineer could not find any potential for an optimization. However, in the public alienated from nature, artificial factors like focused slow-motion films of the mostly tiny moments of killing prey form the dominant impression. This and some other distracting influences make not only the layman miss a chance to use the crocodile for very deep insights. Pichler shows how the reflection of the crocodile form reveals a whole structure of most fundamental natural laws, which were literally missed by the civilising sciences, although their exploration would have been of highest importance for mankind. And he takes the logical conclusion so far that it eventually even reaches beyond the boundaries of space and time.

Leseprobe

 

 

STEFFEN PICHLER

THE RECIPEOF THECROCODILE

A success story unique in the history of evolution reveals the overall context of nature and life

ZEIS

  1. Edition, February 2023ZEIS Verlag e. K. Frankfurt a.M., GermanyAG Frankfurt a. M. Reg. - Nr.: HRA 49701ZEIS Verlag c/o Steffen PichlerKurmainzer Str. 16165936 Frankfurt am Main, GermanyWebsite: www.zeis-verlag.deE-Mail: [email protected]: Claudia Waigel

Translated from German by ZEIS Publishing 

© Copyright: Steffen Pichler

ISBN: 978-3-947430-33-8

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This book was written to explain fundamental contexts of living nature to a general audience. The descriptions are mainly based on true encounters with the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) in its original habitat in the far north-east of Australia. However, this is not meant as a manual for entering these areas, especially not with a sea kayak or canoe. We, ZEIS Publishing and the author, Steffen Pichler, warn anyone of dangers of entering remote areas in the way described, which are mentioned only superficially or not at all in this book. We hereby deny all responsibility for accidents or damage that may result from ignoring our warning.

In general, tourists and other visitors of areas that are inhabited by crocodiles should thoroughly read and strictly abide by all recommendations published by the relevant local authorities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Important Note

Foreword

Chapter 1: First encounters with free saltwater crocodiles

Chapter 2: The reality of nature and illusions of civilization

Chapter 3: The saltwater crocodile – mirror of natural laws

Chapter 4: The saltwater crocodile – absolute apex predator

Chapter 5: The extreme evolutionary success of the life form “crocodile”

Chapter 6: The seamless ecological harmony of the crocodiles

Chapter 7: The crocodile – hunter with least possible causation of suffering

Chapter 8: Definition of the natural laws mirrored in the crocodile

Chapter 9: Consequences of not recognising the laws of nature

Clarifications on possible counterarguments

Sources and picture credits

FOREWORD

The “crocodile" in the sense of a form of life offers a window, through which a huge space of potential knowledge gets visible that has so far been unnoticed by our natural sciences. This includes the overall context of nature and life with a whole structure of fundamental laws. And it stretches up to an opportunity to extend logical conclusions even beyond space and time.

To find the window it can at first be presupposed that there must be a highly valuable recipe for success which has ensured that the “crocodile form” came up in numerous species due to natural selection over more than a quarter of a billion years. And, which allowed many of them to reach and sustainable hold the evolutionarily contested top of the food pyramid in the valuable transition zone between water and land.

Contrary to what is sometimes erroneously assumed, the numerous species of the largely same crocodile form were quite rarely connected by continuous hereditary lineages. Often, they were only very distantly related despite extensive similarity. Many disappeared in the huge timeline, and in the mass extinctions at the ends of the Permian, the Triassic and the Cretaceous periods most of them were probably also affected. But while other larger forms of the animal kingdom, such as the enormous range of terrestrial dinosaurs or the aquatic ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, hardly reappeared in similar ways after their extinction, the largely identical crocodile form crystallised again and again in natural selection at the transition of water and land – starting from often only small surviving remnants, which sometimes initially lived purely terrestrially or aquatically.

The picture above shows a palaeontological reconstruction (by Dr Jeff Martz) based on fossils of Smilosuchus adamanensis, which already existed more than 230 million years ago; the photograph below shows a present-day saltwater crocodile. Smilosuchus was not an ancestor of today's crocodiles and is not placed in the same categories in science, already because they were only very distantly related in the vast family tree of the reptiles. In taxonomic science it is also not common to use the terminology of a “crocodile form” as done here in this book. However, a layperson could hardly distinguish the shown species as well as many others.

In biology, the phenomenon of far-reaching similarity of different species, which is not primarily based on kinship but arises through other influences, is called “convergence”. And it is nothing unusual. There are many empirical studies on this topic, from all areas of the ecosystem, ranging from viruses, microbes, plants and up to the animals. If, for example, two not related animal species concentrate on the same food source or a life in the same niche of the environment, it is a matter of logic that in natural selection similar characteristics are likely to arise. A layperson can easily see the results of convergence by looking at the similarities between swallows and swifts or those between blindworms and snakes. But as far as the crocodile form is concerned, there is an unusual correlation of extreme peculiarities.

First, it is the unimaginably extended period of its history. Even when the land masses were still united in the supercontinent Pangaea and today's continents were far from existing, the crocodile form inhabited the shore zones. Then there is the similarity of so many species, often reaching simultaneous into numerous small details of their physis. And finally, almost without exception over all periods, some of them occupied the top of the food pyramid at the transition zone of water and land, which is extremely important in terms of life history and ecology. In these and some other respects, the crocodile form is an unprecedented evolutionary success story. No other large form of life has even rudimentarily entered the land surface of the planet as an apex predator over such enormous periods of time. Only in the open ocean, with the sharks, is there something halfway comparable, which I will come back to in later chapters.

It will be shown in my explanations that the evolutionary recipe for success of the crocodilian form is indeed the key to open the mentioned window. So now the question is, what exactly did it evolve towards again and again?

I will deliver the answer in the chapters of this book. And I can promise here that it is not something vague, but something clearly definable, which becomes solid recognisable once it is understood what it is about. In various regards, even mathematical verifications are possible.

During my presentation I will rely largely on extensive practical encounters with the biggest species among crocodilians existing today, the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus). This species alone already has a history of probably at least ten million years as the absolute top of the food pyramid. And it is not only today’s largest crocodile on the planet but has a reputation among humans for being the most aggressive and dangerous. In addition to my own observations, I will use an evaluation of palaeontological studies on many prehistoric species.

Now, the reader might assume offhand that the success of the crocodile form is due precisely to what corresponds to the reputation of the saltwater crocodile: aggressiveness and dangerousness due to a huge body, just as much strength and big teeth. In addition, the advantages of a haematocryal body, efficiency in the utilisation of food and some other things that are conducive to a stable existence. Deeper reflection, however, reveals quickly that there must be something else involved. Such qualities as haematocryal body and efficient metabolism might be undoubtedly advantageous. But as for heavy body mass, high physical strength and large teeth, these cannot be the main ingredients of the recipe. There have always been numerous smaller species of the crocodile form that were not at the absolute top of the food pyramid. And many of the larger species were specialised in preying on smaller animals with rather discreet dentition. Today's Ganges gavials, for example, which have existed for millions of years, can reach a body length of up to six metres, but with their narrow mouths they only prey on animals up to the size of a duck.

Also, a closer look at the history of other forms of the animal kingdom shows that great body size, high strength and evenly physical danger are unlikely to be the main ingredients for a solid evolutionary recipe for success: Among the dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs mentioned above, numerous forms evolved as huge and very strong predators – all of which disappeared and then hardly ever return in similar ways. There are indeed real descendants of the dinosaurs existing today and evolutionarily they are even extremely successful. In the present, they populate almost the entire planet with numerous species. But these are, ironically, the birds, most of which have been oriented in selection towards a small and light phenotype, often with only a few grams of body weight.

So now it can already be assumed that beyond all those traits and characteristics of the crocodile form which are usually discussed, there must be something like a deeper fundament. One that let the own existence become secure and solid and that even provides the opportunity to reach and hold the evolutionarily contested top of the food pyramid for almost unlimited time frames. I myself only dimly recognised this fundament as the recipe for success at first. It takes something like “thinking around the corner” to realize it. But once I achieved that and began to subject the arisen suspicion to a thorough and analytical examination during my practical observation of free saltwater crocodiles, everything else went quite fast and almost automatically. For it did not matter at which point this reflective examination took place, namely on which aspects of the behaviour, the body or the overall effect as an apex predator on the other creatures in the environment, the result always remained the same. Everything has aligned itself to the recipe for success via evolutionary selection. Coincidence is completely out of the question.

I will try to explain this recipe for success in the following chapters as simple as possible without using scientific language. The overall context is not really complicated anyway. However, most people will still have difficulty understanding. And some will find it absurd, even so they cannot show up with any real counterarguments. There are various reasons for this problem of understanding, which I will later discuss in more detail. Some have to do with the effects of our civilisation on the other forms of life and thereby especially those which are in captivity. But also, if you have never observed a free crocodile and instead during your life you often came across focused slow-motion films and photographs in which the reptile is portrayed as spectacularly as possible while capturing food, a massive reality shift has inevitably taken root in your mind. The killing of the prey, which only lasts a few seconds in the average, is then the dominant impression; the unknown everyday effect of the reptiles on other living creatures and the entire ecosystem, on the other hand, cannot be included due to a lack of testimony.

In the centre of my explanation, there will be a systematic analysis of various aspects of the body and the behaviour of the saltwater crocodiles, whereby I will also use my own photographs. To open the mentioned window on this basis, I will widen the description to different other fields. Due to this, the said overall context of living nature will get visible including most fundamental laws that have so far not been investigated by our natural sciences. Finally, this gap of knowledge will get recognizable as a most tragic factor in the history of our civilisation. For if such a system increases its physical strength by half-knowledge without being aware of the overall context, this strength will lead to escalating destruction – until the point where it reverses and destroys the system itself.

In advance, I assure you that in my explanations there will be no form of esotericism, spiritualism or morality involved. It is about natural mechanisms and correlations that can be well observed and stably proven and that are logically comprehensible.

Steffen Pichler, Frankfurt am Main, February 2023

Chapter 1

First encounters with free saltwater crocodiles

This book is based on my own intensive encounters with the largest existing reptile on Earth, the saltwater crocodile. Between 2004 and 2009, I travelled with my sea kayak along the uninhabited coastline north of Cooktown in far north-east Australia five times, each trip lasting three to four months. The overall duration of the journeys was about one and a half years, in which I sustained myself mainly by fishing, crabbing and collecting edible plants.

The area in question is one of the last tropical seashores where there are no roads and no houses for hundreds of kilometers. I rarely met people; several times I didn't see or talk to anyone for two or three months. Instead, I encountered many other animals on a daily basis. This in itself was nothing new for me; I had undertaken such expeditions at the coasts of other continents with long stays away from civilization for many years. But the encounters with the saltwater crocodiles related to completely new experiences. This included the simple fact that my position in their habitat was no longer at the end of the food chain and that I had to adjust to a much stronger life form in other respects. In this regard, one could say that the crocodiles pulled me down to earth from a civilizational arrogance that still existed in me up to that point. And finally, some other aspects around the huge reptiles caused drastic changes in my perspective on all animals and on the whole of nature.

In the new perspective, I realized with enormous clarity that the perceptions, the felt pleasures, and the entire horizon of experience of free animals in nature are far greater and much more intense than most people within the current civilisation system could still experience for themselves or even just imagine. This in turn led me further to the realization that the entire living nature has always been ordered by fundamental laws, which are aimed at producing exactly these great experiential horizons and pleasures, while on the other hand any states of misery and infirmity are constantly pushed back to a minimum. So, it is really about fixed laws of nature whose importance could not be greater. Once they are understood, nature can be recognized as a bubbling fountain of free development and intense enjoyment for hundreds of millions of years.

Already between the expeditions at that time I began to review my discoveries also theoretically, by comparing their details with empirical studies from different scientific research areas. And it did not matter where I looked, for example in cognitive research, evolutionary science, or paleontology, I never found anything really solid that was able to refute my findings gained in the reality of nature. Conversely, I found so many confirmations that there can be no reasonable doubt that I had really arrived on the ground of reality at that time and that the seen overall context is true.

So, with this book I will try to give an explanation as understandable as possible about what I have discovered under the influence of the big crocodiles. And these reptiles themselves will play a central role in this task. They were the real starting point for my new insights. For in fact, in the process of evolution they have adapted so precisely to the said fundamental laws of nature that these can be seen in them, as in a cleanly polished mirror.

All pictures of saltwater crocodiles in this book are photographs that I took during the mentioned trips. They show only free individuals, which were neither in captivity nor manipulated by feeding. This is very important. Because only if the giant reptiles unfold their entire original being completely free, those connections become visible at them, which will be the subject here.

It may sound a bit pretentious now, but friends who have always lived in the north of Australia and who know the pictures have said that probably no one has ever taken more authentic photographs of large, free saltwater crocodiles in or by the ocean in so many different situations of their everyday life. They show, among other things, various methods of hunting for food, playing for pure pleasure, curiously observing their environment, using "psycho-games" to scare away intruders, or simply the quiet and peaceful existence that largely defines the daily life of these reptiles.

I only had a small compact camera with me on three of the tours, which mostly remained stowed in the kayak. There was never the intention to publish something like reportages. My journeys away from civilization have always been a personal matter, born out of my intense interest in nature ever since I can remember. Without the discoveries I am about to report here, hardly any reader of this book would ever have heard of me.

There are certain reasons for the unusual number of such pictures of free saltwater crocodiles on the coast. One of them has to do with the fact that these animals are very cautious, shy, and extremely alert there on the ocean shores. It should be noted here that most pictures of saltwater crocodiles on the Internet, or elsewhere, show specimens in captivity, that is, on crocodile farms or in zoos. Otherwise, it is almost always individuals from such river sections, in which they are used to people and where they are often fed for tourist purposes. In such ways, only some traces of the original being can be recognized.

Someone traveling by motorboat or in a group of several people along a coast untouched by civilization will rarely see a large saltwater crocodile in the sea or on the shore – let alone get close enough to photograph it. The reptiles notice such intruders long before they notice them. If a crocodile had been lying on the beach sunning itself, it would then slide into the water and dive down to hide. And if the intruders set up camp just there, the animal – remaining further under the surface of the water – will move unnoticed to another place where it is out of sight, and it will only come back when the intruders are gone.

Saltwater crocodiles do not live permanently in the sea, they also spend a lot of time in rivers and other watercourses, and their breeding grounds are always in fresh water. But especially the large specimens like to stay in the ocean for weeks or even months. They sometimes undertake long journeys, which can take them to islands several hundred kilometers away in the open ocean. However, most of the time is spend around favorite coastal spots, which are often not far from the area where they grew up.

If one is not in a group of people or with a motorboat, but alone with a quiet kayak of just sixty centimeters width, then one is perceived differently by these animals and situations arise that would otherwise be impossible. The saltwater crocodiles are not only extremely attentive and cautious. They are also very curious. Because of my rather quiet position, I was not perceived as such a high-level disturbance and threat as a group of people or a motorized boat. When I moved with the kayak along the coast, the reptiles also noticed me already before I saw them, and then slid into the water and dived down. I could recognize this at first only by traces, which they left in the sand and which I found at most of the beaches that I landed on.

But when I had set up my camp, it often happened that they reappeared soon after on the surface of the water or a little further away on the shore to curiously observe from a safe distance this strange visitor. Later, when it was dark and I shone a strong flashlight on the water surface at the level of my camp (which was always behind the vegetation line), I often discovered the very bright reflections of crocodile eyes within a few seconds. (Note: I did this nightly spotlighting only on the first two trips). Saltwater crocodiles can see well even in moonless darkness: they are equipped with something like a strong residual light amplifier. And obviously they were still trying to catch a glimpse of me well into the night.

Now most inexperienced people would surely assume that all this happened not because of the curiosity of the crocodiles, but because they probably considered me as potential prey and wanted to eat me.

---ENDE DER LESEPROBE---