Beastiary

Skiffers

((For your viewing plea- nah I'm just fuckin' with ya, this is so you don't feel confused as hell when I'm talking about the changes in the physiology and bone structures.))

Creature before mutation: Rats and Mice

Size: 4-5 Feet long (Head to tail) 1-2 feet tall (When on their feet) Weighs about 200 pounds.

Appearance: Along with being much bigger than normal rats, they appear to not have grown much more fur, instead it just spread out evenly across creating a incredibly thin layer of fur, apparently adapting to compensate for the change in their size, as well as the change of their tail. They have adapted into a living weapon, -much like every creature that was mutated- making making it incredibly deadly, killing and dismembering with ease. ((So I don't have to explain this again, I'm not going to put in the mutated parts of it, but you'll just have to imagine it from the mutations section.))

Mutations/Adaptations to said mutations:

• As they mutated and grew, they quickly ran out of a food source, and adapted to conserve energy and became a carnivore to gain an energy source. To conserve energy,their digestive track digests the food more efficiently, converting not only carbohydrates, but lipids into glucose as well, using a synthetic form of self-replicating cortisol to increase the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins through the process of gluconeogenisis. The only downside to this is that they have naturally occurring hyperglycemia, so they they are constantly at the risk of heart failure, and tend not to live very long.
  In reference to becoming a carnivore: Since rats and mice do not have actual canine teeth for eating meat, the incisors became razor sharp, designed to tear through flesh, and the teeth directly behind the incisors became sharper as well, ensuring maximum destruction.
  Their tail no longer has nearly as much bone, instead, the lower third of it is purely flexible muscle, allowing them to grasp and maneuver it in a way to grasp objects and other creatures.
  To insure that they were as aggressive as possible, the scientists performed methodical tortures on the rats as they were mutating them, creating as much stress on the rat as possible, permanently increasing the amount of Fos-Labeled Cells in the hypothalamus, meaning that around the presence of anything that could cause it harm, they are incredibly aggressive. A side effect of this torture was the damage to the Circadian Rhythm, ((Biological clock that tells you when to sleep.)) making the Skiffer's sleeping patterns messed up in a way that they do not feel tired and sleep very rarely.
  A procedure was performed on the bone marrow on the bones inside the metacarpal and carpal, and their claws have mutated into gruesome talons, most up to several inches long, parallel to the ground, as to not restrict movement, the mutation to the carpal itself allows the entire paw to extend all the way back.
  Skiffers no longer need their eyes, and the Occipital Lobe of their brain has shrunk so much and been replaced by the Temperal and Perential Lobes, that they are now blind, but their senses of hearing and touch are such that they can actually determine their surroundings better.
  One fault is in the Skiffer's, a change in the RNA -caused by the scientists attempt to grant them the ability of regeneration- created a differentiation in their DNA, that they could not create Serine Protease Enzymes to coagulate blood to wounds, so their wounds and cuts, and any open skin will not heal naturally.

((Should be it, but if I make any changes, be prepared, and please do read this all, even if you skim, and if you have any questions, feel free to skype me.))