Secrets Of The Monsterverse: What Are Skull Crawlers?

 This is the first article of a few I will be making in the future of my blog. In the "Secrets Of The Monsterverse" articles I will be talking about theories and secrets in the Monsterverse, the universe with 2014 Godzilla and 2017 King Kong. And speaking of 2017 King Kong, lets talk about the Skull Crawlers. The absolute coolest things on the Monsterverse Skull Island aside from Kong himself (well, OK that's just my opinion). But as cool as the giant, skeletal kaiju are, we don't really know a whole lot about them. Are they just giant lizards? Have we seen them before? What are these things?
 In the past, most of the main adaptions of Skull Island had two main creatures living on it: Kong, and dinosaurs. In the 1933 original, most dinosaurs on Skull Island were almost exactly the same as they were 65 million years ago (at least, from a 30s Si-fi point of view)
 

 In the 2005 version, the dinosaurs look similar to the classic T.Rex and Apatosaurus, but are different due to the lineage throughout the millennia.
 
 And now, in the 2017 variant, we see the Skull crawlers are the main antagonists of the island.

 Think they replaced the traditional Skull Island dinosaurs?
 If you do, believe it no longer. Skull crawlers are what the dinosaur descendants actually are and would look like. In this version of Skull Island, it appears that the dinosaurs dug underground to survive the KT extinction event (the event that supposedly killed off the dinosaurs). This would explain the sunken eyes, burrowing claws and skeletal frames of the Skull Crawlers. They look like that because they've been living underground mostly, for millions of years, to survive the drastic changes in the atmosphere. The million-year-old lineage would also explain how the Skull Crawlers got to be so big. Ramarok, the biggest Skull Crawler on the island, is almost as big as Kong himself. Remember also, the Monsterverse Kong is the biggest there's ever been, at 100 feet. This means, by estimate, Ramarok would be at least 92 feet in length. That's really big. At that size, the 2005 Kong, about 25 feet high, would have trouble against even a baby Skull Crawler. As would the dinosaurs from the 2005 Skull Island.
 The 2017 Skull Island has deliberately upgraded the size of everything. Kong, the living dinosaurs, which in the Monsterverse are called "Skull Crawlers", the giant bamboo spider, the yak things, even the size of the island itself seems to be enlarged. Maybe someday Godzilla will come to the island?
 But anyways, back to the Skull Crawlers. There is one seeming flaw in this theory, and that is the giant Torosaur skull on the island. In the valley with Kong's dead parents, we see a soldier stand on an oversized Torosaur (a relative of the Triceratops) skull among the skeletons of the Kongs and such. If the Skull Crawlers are what dinosaurs look like now, why would there be a ceratopsian (look it up) skull, that looks virtually unchanged, appart from the size.
 Well, perhaps they put it in as an Easter Egg, to commemorate the original 1933 movie. The temple that the natives built to Kong is inside a ship, called "The wanderer". This is also the name of the main ship in the 1933 original. So, maybe the skull is like that?
 Maybe, except for one detail: In the 1933 original, there is no scene with a Torosaurus. So if it is an Easter Egg, it's a little out-of-place.
 However, the Skull Crawlers as it happens actually aren't the only dinosaurs we see on the 2017 Skull Island. In the same scene with the mysterious skull, we see a bunch of bat-sized pterosaurs (flying reptiles). But could these creatures have adapted to live underground? Well, actually yes, they could. regular bats are nocturnal and spend a lot of their time in caves. So, with flying reptiles, it would be no different.
 But we can do even better than that. It may come as a surprise, but pterosaurs of that small size actually wouldn't need to live underground to avoid extinction. Small Pterosaurs, like the small mammals that survived the KT extinction would remain almost unaffected by the changes in the atmosphere, due to their small size. So the Skull Crawlers, the big dinosaurs, needed to live underground for a while, but mammals and small Pterosaurs would be fine.
 But none of this explains the Torosaur skull. Its size means it would definitely have to burrow underground, but it doesn't look a thing like a Skull Crawler. The bones are also too fresh to be from the KT extinction, so, what gives?
 The truth is, the Torosaur thing was a victim of the Skull Crawlers. the Skull Crawlers are predators. They need prey. And the bones of the Kongs are picked clean in the movie, so the skull crawlers would need other sources of food. The deer and wildebeests wouldn't be big enough to be anything other than an appetizer. The giant spiders and yak things might be on the menu, but if Skull Crawlers are nearly top predators, than they must have more options. The skull is also in the same valley as the skeletons of the Kongs, which were presumably the Skull Crawlers' victims, so it makes sense that all their natural prey would be in the graveyard too.
 Also, it is worth mentioning that the Torosaur skull is all we see of its remains. For all we know, it could have other, digging features.
 If you still doubt that the Skull Crawlers are dinosaurs, remember that no other reptilian species would be previously big enough to give rise to the 90 foot Skull Crawlers we see in the movie.
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