of the story is a hermaphroditic giant, almost as big as the Rita itself, weighing in at 30 tons. This Gill-man is both cold-blooded and warm-blooded and also has a long whiplike tail. The gigantic creature is dubbed "AA", for "Advanced Amphibian", by the expedition team members. After slaying most of the team members, destroying a Sikorsky helicopter, and kidnapping Kay more than once, the Gill-man is killed by the crew of a United States Navy torpedo boat. Time's Black Lagoon In Paul Di Filippo's novel Time's Black Lagoon, the Gill-man is depicted as descending from a race of extraterrestrials who came to Earth during the Devonian period on a giant spaceship called The Mother, which crashed on Earth. The Gill-People have the ability to communicate telepathically among themselves and among the human characters. Alphas such as "Fleshmolders", "Mudshapers", and "Fishcallers" are highly telepathic individuals in their tribal communities, who each choose a successor from among their respective tribes' children to take their place and title when they die. The Gill-man itself is a degenerate member of this race, descended from an individual who explored deep in the ocean and became exposed to archaeobacteria, becoming deformed and insane, driven to infect others with the disease. Eventually, there were no healthy Gill-People left, and the race's numbers dwindled over the epochs to one individual in the 1950s, which is the one that appears in the original films. Theme park attraction The Gill-man was the star of Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical, a live performance show that once was added to the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Los Angeles, California. It debuted on July 1, 2009, and replaced Fear Factor Live. It closed down for good on March 9, 2010 and was replaced by Special Effects Stage, which opened three months later on June 26. See also Cultural impact of Creature from the Black Lagoon, which contains information about Gill-man's notable appearances in popular culture Deep Ones – similar monsters created by H.P. Lovecraft in his classic horror tale The Shadow Over Innsmouth List of piscine and amphibian humanoids Swamp monster Universal Monsters The Shape of Water (film by Guillermo del Toro with a similar plot) References External links Gill-man on IMDb Fictional fish Male horror film villains Fictional characters with superhuman strength Fictional characters who can move at superhuman speeds Science fiction film characters Film characters introduced in