- - CHAPTER 2: The Diggers - -
THE DIG DAY
Another legend:
BADLANDS - Near Snakewater, Montana.
An artist's camelhair brush carefully SWEEPS away sand and rock to slowly reveal the dark curve of a fossil - it's a claw. A dentist's pick gently lifts it from the place it has laid for millions of years.
We pull up to reveal a group of diggers working on a large skeleton. All we see are the tops of their hats. The paleontologist working on the claw lays it in his hand.
Four complete skeletons - - such a small area - - the same time horizon - - The man said thoughtfully.
They died together? A woman laying next to him asked.
The taphonomy sure looks that way.
If they died together, they lived together. Suggests some kind of social order.
Dr. Alan Grant, mid-thirties, a ragged-looking guy with intense concentration you wouldn't want to get in the way of, carefully examines the claw. He's dressed in the usual paleontologist clothing: ragged, khaki pants, a dusty plaid red, long-sleeve button-up, a scruffy fedora and sunglasses.
Dr. Ellie Sattler, working with him, leans in close and studies it too. She paints the exposed bone with rubber cement. Dr. Sattler, in her late twenties, athletic-looking. There's an impatience about Dr. Sattler, as if nothing in life happens quite fast enough for her. She's dressed in blue jeans, a blue, long-sleeve, denim oxford and a khaki hat.
Her face is almost pressed up against his, she's laying so close.
They hunted as a team. The dismembered Tenontosaurus bone over there - that's lunch. But what killed our Velociraptors in a lakebed, in a bunch like this? We better come up with something that makes sense.
A drought. The lake was shrinking - -
That's good. That's right! They died around a dried-up puddle! Without fighting each other. This is looking good. Dr. Grant excitedly said.
From the bottom of the hill, a dig site volunteer SHOUTS to them:
Dr. Grant! Dr. Sattler! We're ready to try again!
Dr. Grant SIGHS and gets up, STRETCHING out his back.
I hate computers.
He SHOVES the claw absent-mindedly into his pocket and he and Dr. Sattler walk toward the source of the voice. As they walk, we get our first look at the badlands. Exposed outcroppings of crumbling limestone stretch for miles in every direction, not a tree or a bush in sight.
In the dig itself, the ground is checkered with excavations everywhere. There's a base camp with five or six teepees, a flapping mess tent, a few cars, a flatbed truck with wrapped fossils loaded on it, and a mobile home with an awning attached to the outside.
There are a dozen volunteers of all ages at work in various places around the dig, shoveling earth and stone, making measurements, taking photographs, scribbling notes, and conferring with each other. The volunteers are from all walks of life, dinosaur buffs.
He and Dr. Sattler arrive to where several volunteers are clustered around a computer terminal that's set up on a table in a small tent, its flaps lashed open.
Dr. Grant turns to the volunteer.
Ready to give it a shot, Jerry?
A little girl moves a little too close to the machine.
Want to watch the computer? Dr. Sattler asked.
Dr. Sattler quietly moves her out of Dr. Grant's way, to a place she can see.
A shotgun bullet gets loaded into a machine that looks a bit like a two wheeled dolly. Mounted to it is a post in which the shotgun shell is inserted.
Thumper ready? The volunteer asked.
Ready. A man said.
The volunteer gets onto the end closest to the post and the man gets on the other side.
Fire!
The man throws a switch on the machine. The whole thing hops up into the air as it BLASTS the bullet into the earth with a tremendous force. There is a dull THUD, the earth seems to vibrate, and all eyes turn to the computer screen - -
How long does this usually take? Dr. Sattler asked.
It should be immediate return. You shoot the radar into the ground, the bone bounces back… The volunteer at the computer terminal said.
The screen suddenly comes alive, yellow contour lines tracing across it in three waves, detailing a dinosaur skeleton.
This new program's incredible! A few more years of development and you don't have to dig anymore!
Dr. Grant looks at him, and his expression is positively wounded.
Well, where's the fun in that?
It looks a little distorted, but I don't think that's the computer.
Dr. Sattler shakes her head.
Postmortem contraction of the posterior neck ligaments.
Velociraptor? She asked Dr. Grant.
Yes. Good shape too. Five, six feet high. I'm guessing nine feet long. Look at the - -
He points to part of the skeleton, but when his finger touches the screen the computer BEEPS at him and the image FLICKERS. He pulls his hand back, as if it shocked him.
What'd you do? The volunteer asked.
He touched it. Dr. Sattler said humorously.
Dr. Grant touches the top of the computer experimentally. It FLICKERS again.
Dr. Grant is not machine compatible. Dr. Sattler said.
They've got it in for me.
The volunteer LAUGHS. Dr. Grant continues, but doesn't get as close.
Look at the half-moon shaped bone in the wrist. No wonder these guys learned to fly.
The group laughs. Dr. Grant is surprised.
Now, seriously. Show of the hands. How many of you have read my book?
Everyone stops laughing and look away. Dr. Sattler raises her hand supportively. So does the volunteer, Dr. Grant sighs.
Great. Well maybe dinosaurs have more in common with present-day birds than reptiles. Look at the pubic bone - - it's turned backwards, just like a bird. The vertebrae - - full of hollows and air sacs, just like a bird. Even the word Raptor means "bird of prey"
An overweight kid steps forward and looks at the computer skeleton critically.
That doesn't look very scary. More like a six-foot turkey.
Everyone sort of draws in their breath and steps aside, revealing him, standing alone. Dr. Grant turns to him, lowers his sunglasses, and stares at him like he just came from another planet.
Dr. Grant strolls over to him, puts his arms around his shoulders in a friendly way.
Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period.
Dr. Sattler rolls her eyes.
Here we go again. She said under her breath.
You'd get your first look at this "six-foot turkey" as you move into a clearing. But he knew you were there a long time ago. He moves like a bird; lightly, bobbing his head, And you keep still, because you think maybe his visual acuity is based on movement, like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and he'll lose you if you don't move. But no. Not Velociraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares back.
He gives an "I'm watching you" gesture.
That's when the attack comes - - not from the front, no, from the side.
He imitates air swishing.
From the other two Velociraptors you didn't even know were there.
Dr. Grant walks around the kid.
Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see, it uses coordinated attack patterns, and it's out in force today. And he slashes at you with this - -
He takes the claw from his pocket and holds it in between his middle and ring finger; the boys face goes pale and he GULPS, nervously, as Dr. Grant continues.
- - a six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the middle toe. They don't bother to bite the jugular, like a lion, they just slash here - -
He pretends to slash the boy's mid-torso.
- - here - -
He pretends to slash the boy's groin.
- - or maybe across the belly - -
He moves the raptor claw gently across the boy's immensely round midsection.
- - spilling your intestines. Point is, you're alive when they start to eat you. Whole thing took about four seconds.
The kid is on the verge of tears.
So, you know, try to show a little respect?
Ok. The boy breathed.
And with that, Dr. Grant walks back across the camp, returning to his skeleton. Dr. Sattler hurries to catch up with him.
You know, if you really wanted to scare the kid you could've just pulled a gun on him. She said.
He sighs, removing his fedora from his head.
Yeah, I know, you know…kids. You want to have one of those?
Well, not one of those, well yeah, possibly one at some point could be a good thing. What's so wrong with kids?
Oh, Ellie, look. They're noisy, they're messy, they're sticky, they're expensive.
Cheap, cheap, cheap. Dr. Sattler said, shaking her head.
They smell.
Oh my god, they do not! They don't smell.
Some of them smell! Babies smell! Dr. Grant said jokingly.
Alright, the one on the airplane had an accident, but usually babies don't smell.
They know very little about the Jurassic Period. They know less about the Cretaceous.
The what? Dr. Sattler asked.
The Cretaceous.
Anything else, you old fossil? Dr. Sattler asked playfully.
Yeah, plenty. Some of them can't walk!
It frustrates me so much that I love you, that I need to strangle you right now!
Dr. Sattler playfully takes Dr. Grant's fedora off and gives him a tight hug. They kiss.
A strange wind seems to be whipping up. Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler look around, confused. The wind is getting stronger, blowing dirt and sand everywhere, filling in everything they've dug out, blowing the protective canvasses off. Now there's a more familiar ROAR, and they look up and see it - -
- - a huge helicopter, descending on the camp!
It's a blue Bell 206L-1 LoneRanger II. The tail is marked N522RS.
Get some canvasses and cover anything that's exposed! Dr. Sattler screamed, over the ROARING helicopter, to the volunteers.
Dr. Grant's already on it, trying to desperately to protect the skeleton he's excavating. He looks up at the Bell 206L-1 LoneRanger II and SHOUTS, shaking his fist.
BASE CAMP DAY
Down at the base camp, the helicopter has landed. The pilot is waiting as Dr. Grant comes down from the mountaintop, like Moses, screaming. Dr. Grant gestures wildly at him to turn the chopper off.
JUST CUT IT WILL YA!? CUT IT OUT! SHUT-IT-DOWN!
The pilot points timidly to the mobile home across the camp.
WHAT!?
The pilot points again.
Dr. Grant runs towards the mobile home, punching away a pair of jeans hanging on a clothesline.