The waters in the Western Atlantic, which included Skull Island weren't as muddy as the waters around Vilcabamba, and in fact in many cases they could be surprisingly clear. It wasn't quite as clear as the waters around Mieni, but then Skull Island, while close to the Florida coast, was just far enough out that the water was relatively deep. This meant that anyone swimming on the beaches on the Florida coast, or came to Skull Island to swim with the aquatic Dinotopians, would have some need of protection, particularly when dealing with possible interactions with Bull Sharks.
That was had Tyson presently swimming on a fairly standard patrol around Skull Island and up to the Florida coast nearby. Both Skull Island and the city that Skull Island was off the coast of ran some shark patrols, just to make sure that people were safe and that if something like a Bull Shark or Tiger Shark came into the region, it could be herded out and away. For those from the coast, this meant some boating patrols during the summer, but Tyson could actually do it by swimming. Tylosaurus was a relatively large Mosasaur and his nictitating membrane over his eyes also let him keep a fairly good field of vision, even under water. And while Tyson wasn't as big as Tylosaurus was in the fossil record, he had found he was big enough and fast enough to deter just about any shark and get away if the shark was too big for him.
So far, though, the patrol had been relatively quiet as many of his patrols had been. It gave him time to think on things as he swam along with his tail moving side to side behind him. Though the thing that he thought on the most was on his own conversion...
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Tyson actually whistled as he came into the top level on Skull Island and got his first real look at the underground mansion that had been found on the island. He'd seen some of the news reports and Animalia Ambassadoria clips, as they tended to come up as the first link with any search on Animalia. However, it was something else to see it in person and there were some things that were quite interesting. The top level that he was on had a central area that had a railing that would allow one to look down to the pool at the bottom level of the cavern, and with the lights on, he could see some glint of the water down there. Though he also guessed that the depth of the water was such there that jumping from the top level to the bottom pool probably wouldn't be safe. The best part of the view, though, was in the supports that had been brought in.
There were four metal pillars that had been brought in and sat underneath the top level where he was. They were further improved by welded pieces that actually made it look like that top level had an arched structure connected to the pillar and thus helped support the weight. He guessed that was probably done by the engineering teams to make sure that the top level didn't get weak and then fall into the pool below and likely taking much of the other top levels with it. Tyson could only whistle at that.
"You won't be whistling if you go over the side," a female voice said from behind him.
Tyson turned and blinked to see Molly standing there with a towel over one arm and a bright yellow bikini covering her.
"I wasn't planning on jumping," Tyson managed, "I'm here to convert and just paused to get a look at the view. They had to have done a lot to support all this..."
"Yeah," the Dolichorhynchops Dinotopian nodded, "Horizon paid to have a whole bunch of structural engineers come in and they had to do a lot of work... particularly as the original mansion was largely hand carved and done in an in precise manner. Thankfully things are strong enough to support everyone's weight... which is good for Nessa... but it did take time."
"Hopefully they have the strength to hold a Tylosaurus," Tyson gave a small smile.
"That's what you're going for?" Molly asked.
"Yeah... part of it is that it matches my name a bit... my name's Tyson, and no I'm not a boxer," Tyson answered, "I'm a former SEAL... and I'll even admit, a part of me figured becoming a Sealion Animalian, but then as Project Mesozoic became popular... I figured why not something that swam back then and still has modern relatives."
"Archelon?" Molly wondered, thinking of the late Cretaceous sea turtle, "Your middle name is Archie?"
"No, Tylosaurus," Tyson answered and then noted a slightly puzzled look on Molly's face with one brow-ridge of scales raised over her eye, "While Mosasaurs didn't survive the Cretaceous Period... they'd actually evolved out of a line of reptiles that DID survive... of the Order Squamata. In this, while most scientists frequently have to remind people that Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, and Plesiosaurs WEREN'T lizards, Mosasaurs actually were with Monitor Lizards being their closest living relatives."
"So... you're converting to eat sharks?" Molly wondered.
"Not necessarily... just to drive them away from the swimming areas," Tyson commented, "there were a host of attacks a few years back... and I'd wished I could have done more to keep people safe. I saw that even an Olympic swimmer got attacked... but they didn't mention what happened to her. I wish I could have been there to keep people safe... and now... I have a chance for that."
Molly smiled and gave Tyson a polite thank you before moving on, as she had some swimming of her own to do. As she left, Tyson took one last glance over the balcony ledge and then made his way about the route to get to where Horizon's medical and conversion center was. From there he went through the standard procedure to finish the filing for conversion and was then lead to the transformation room. As with Miki, the Horizon scientist was rather average, but friendly and made no comment Tyson's age.
"Here you go, Mr. Prior" the scientist said with a small smile and delivered the injections, "Two doses of Tylosaurus Proriger. Welcome to Dinotopia."
Tyson could already feel rather warm as the injection was delivered, but he settled to wait until the scientist had left the room. He was never ashamed of anything, but at the moment things were rather private and he preferred them that way. He'd already had to pull up one sleeve for the shots, and that had been as far as he would go for that. However, he also knew that that would change. Tylosaurus was not a small animal with larger specimens in the fossil record around forty six feet long. He knew he would be that size, but he did know that he would be well bigger than he was now by the time his transformation finished. Add in that all Mosasaurs had a long heavy tail and he knew that his pants and underwear would be destroyed by his tail as it grew.
Thus, once the scientist was out of the room, Tyson was quick to set about undressing himself. His head itched and tingled a little bit, but that was likely going along with his human hair falling out. He really didn't too much to complain about that as most of his hair had fallen out some time ago. He couldn't see it, but his ears were also shrinking and pulling slowly back onto the sides of his. As the last of his hair fell out, the skin that had made up his Human ears lost their cartilage and folded forward before forming into a scaled membrane that would keep his inner ear and ear drum dry. It would be sensitive enough that he could still hear through it, but firm enough to prevent water from throwing off his equilibrium. Tyson wasn't focused on this, though as he undid his shoe laces.
His focus was on his hands and to some extent on his feet, though for the moment he could only feel what was happening to them. He wiggled his toes up and down and could feel them move, but it felt like something was moving between his toes and his shoes were getting a little tight. At the same time as he looked to his hands, he could see gray scaled webbing starting to grow between his fingers and it steadily progressed outward from the base of his fingers and moved forward toward the tips. He got his shoes and then socks off to find that something similar had happened with his feet. Scaled webbing had formed between his toes and had gotten to the point where they looked more like a flipper than his foot. His hands, however, didn't have the webbing go down all the way, which would allow him to keep some of his dexterity. Like his hands, the scales were a dark gray in color with a small mottling of black spots along the outside of his feet.
"Interesting," Tyson managed to say slowly, knowing that Horizon had also been working with various paleontological groups that with the various de-extinction projects, which both Project Mesozoic and Project Cenozoic counted as, had wanted additional information on Dinotopians and Cenozoic Animalians, largely as a test for what they would look with skin and muscles attached as the bones themselves couldn't tell scientists entirely what an extinct animal looked like.
Though he didn't get much time to actually think on that as his clothing situation became ever more acute. He could feel his body growing larger and more developed. This development could easily be felt as his muscles pressed against the cotton cloth of his shirt and even the denim of his jeans. He'd done his best to stay in shape after he retired, but the Korean War and his retirement from the Marines and Navy in 1964 were a long time ago, and as his shirt began to press upon him, he could tell that he was bigger than he was even in his prime. Thus he began to quickly set about undressing himself. He might need new clothes, but that didn't necessarily mean he wanted to destroy the ones he had. Thus he began quickly with pulling his shirt off, and that came off easily.
Things were more pressing when he got to his pants, as there, somethings began to pinch a bit as he could feel something beginning to grow out behind him. It was only a nub at the moment, but he knew it would be his tail. While the webbing on his fingers made working his pant's button a little bit more difficult, he did manage to get them down without trouble and his underwear followed suit. He managed to kick them free and they landed on the floor with a small clatter but not much more than that. In the process though, Tyson fell back and landed on the bed and managed to look down. He could easily see well sculpted pectoral muscles, all signs of aging gone and reversed, and they in fact looked even bigger than they were in his prime.
He also noted the coloring of his now scaly body. The base color of his belly scales was a light gray in color, though he also noted that at the edges of what would be his ventral side was a line of scales that was actually a sort of yellowish shade, a yellow-gray mix that was in a narrow band and on the outside of that bad, moving toward his dorsal side, the scales were a darker gray and seemed to get gradually darker, though Tyson couldn't tell for sure. His neck was proportionately about the same size on him as it always was and thus he couldn't see his back. He also noted that as he looked down there was a lone slit that was there between his legs. At first he panicked and thought that he might have lost his manhood. He reached down with one hand as another surge in his transformation hit him. This new surge actually felt good as he felt his tail begin to grow longer behind him.
"Oh... yeahhh…" Tyson managed as he sat up and then managed to stand up as the transformation actually began to feel pleasurable now that he wasn't being constrained by his clothes. At the same time, his hand touched the outer spot on that slit between his legs and to his surprise his body reacted as that spot opened slightly and allowed his penis to slide out and growing erect with blood as it did so, confirming that his manhood was still there. It looked a bit different, like there were certain features that were more in line with some of the papers and guidebooks he'd had to read that then delved into speculative anatomy. For the moment there wasn't much in the way of moving air, but his breath was enough to send a tingle down it, which only turned him on more. "Oh... th...at … fe...els… good."
Tyson blinked at that as his face suddenly cracked and snapped forward, his lips pulling back and longer to allow the growth of his muzzle. The growth didn't hurt, but it did interrupt the other sensations as his penis returned to the internal space that male reptiles carried all their equipment. He didn't even notice the growing length of his tail or how tall he was in comparison to the ceiling of the room. His tail moved slowly from side to side, even as bands of cartilage pushed up at the base of the tail and soon formed a fairly fish-like fluke. His focus was on his growing muzzle. Running his tongue along his teeth, he found they had grown longer and pointed. While they weren't thin and blade-like, like Mr. M's teeth, they were still sharp. In addition to this, Tyson was even more surprised to find an extra jaw developing in the back of his mouth, separating itself from his palate, and it too was complete with teeth.
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Dealing with the extra jaw took a little bit of effort, but Tyson managed. He even found that they helped him mash up food and pull them deeper into his throat. And on the whole his strength and new tail enabled him move easily through the water and patrol the waters around Skull Island to keep sharks at bay. It was something that gave Tyson some means of self assurance that he could do more to protect swimmers from Skull Island and the Florida coast near it. It meant some measure work with the local Coast Guard and lifeguard groups and Tyson felt glad at that.