Prehistoric Park

Weird Germans, Huge Mongolians

It's fitness day at Prehistoric Park, and the animals to be dealt with first are the light and fast Dromaeosaurs.

After he came back, Ron got his favorite group of dinosaurs to the vet's for a check-up. Veronica and her species, Velociraptor mongoliensis, were first, being smaller then every other raptor, sans Microraptor.

"They're always so cooperative when you're here, Ron. I wonder why."

"So do I, Susanne. Veronica, I understand: I nursed her back to health. The rest of the dinosaurs? No clue."

"You've got animal magnetism. What are you after now?"

"Leptictidium and Gastornis."

"Never heard of them before."

"Well, Leptictidium is a small mammal, with an odd nose, that uses its' nose to look through forest litter."

"Oh, I've seen Walking with Beasts! I think I saw that in the first episode!"

"The same. Gastornis was in that, too. I've also got another mission. I've looked at the fossil record, and found that Hadrosaur skeletons were found at the 55-50 mya mark all over the planet. I've supposed to find out if this means that non-avian dinosaurs survived the K-T extinction, or that it's just bone displacement."

Veronica hopped to Ron's side as he left.

He got into the Warthog and drove off.

"My second trip will be to Mongolia, to recover some of the biggest mammals ever. None, though, dwarf our biggest residents."

The herd of sauropods walked past the Warthog at a slow pace.

"Indricotherium is 40 feet tall, but compared to Brachiosaurus and even Diplodocus, they're small fry. Dinosaurs are always going to be bigger then mammals, any day, any age."

He made it to the time portal, and the newly-repaired Mi-24 was waiting for them.

"Hey, Ron!"

Ron waved back, stopping the Warthog.

"Where're we going this time?"

"Germany, 55 mya."

"Germany? Maybe Great-grama should've come with us!"

"We're after mammals and birds this time."

"That's obvious. Non-avian dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago: that's 10 MYADE." "MYADE?"

"Million Years After Dinosaurian Extinction."

"That works, but we've brought back over 60 species of dinosaurs, haven't we?"

"That doesn't count. Let's go."

Ron activated the time portal and drove through with only two Land Rovers and the Warthog.

There was a reason that the armored vehicles were left behind: Germany was covered in rainforest in this time, and only smaller vehicles could make it through without destroying everything.

They were near a lake, and Ron spoted an animal no one had ever seen before: Ambulocetus.

"Ambulocetus. It looks odd, but there's a reason, and that's in the name. The name Ambulocetus means 'Whale that Walks'. We're looking at the first whale."

Whales were a newer group of mammals, just like the more modern groups, like dolphins, primates and dogs.

But Ron wasn't after whales.

Not yet, at least.

"There it is."

Two small groups of Leptictidium were eating some of the huge ants and weren't paying Ron or the capture team any attention.

"I want to try and avoid those ants. They're the biggest ants ever, and they're carnivorous."

The Leptictidium were eating them because they were lucky: the ants were soaked in water, making them harmless, and defenseless.

And the Leptictidium were too focused to see Ron point a very big net gun at them.

He fired, trapping all 20 of them.

Then they saw three large birds.

"Gastornis: looks like two females and a male. Dylan, Mike, time portal!"

They ran at Ron, causing what the guys at Prehistoric Park thought of as a long standing joke: Ron ran away.

"That never gets old."

Both of them set up the time portal, and Ron ran at it.

Both activated the time portal and the huge birds ran through.

"Goal!"

Ron got up and was face to face with a nest of eggs.

"Gastornis are my height, and weigh 1000 pounds, so they lay eggs on the ground. There's 10 here, so I'll just send these back home."

He put the eggs in one of the Land Rovers.

"Get back to the Park. We're going to Mongolia, 25 mya."

Then he heard a trumpeting sound.

"We need to go."

They drove through the portal, and went to Mongolia.

"What was that sound?"

"Germany was a volcanic place 50 mya. I think that was a volcanic vent."

"Whoa."

On the plains of Mongolia, were huge mammals.

One was half the size of Brachiosaurus, called Indricotherium.

The species was common all over the world 25 mya, and the Mongolian breed was simply huge.

"Perfect prey for Tyrannosaurus and other large theropods. If we can catch them, we can plant them in Mongolia and the US all over again. What I'm worried about is rhino-sized predators like Hyaenodon, and the hogs from hell, the Enteiodons, beating us to the youngsters and killing us."

"Ron, looks like we've got hitchhikers."

He looked at the other Land Rover and saw the whole Dromaeosaurus pack inside.

"Sneaky little bastards."

"A rhino wouldn't stand a chance against a pack of Dromaeosaurs."

"Utahraptor, sure, but not Dromaeosaurus. But I didn't say they had the armor of a rhino."

Then they saw a pack of the rhinoceros-sized Hyaenodon.

In normal circumstances, this wasn't good. The raptors outnumbered the mammals 8 to 1.

But these raptors were partly raised by Ron, and all that did was make them deadlier.

"We've got to get these things away from the Dromaeosaur pack."

"Raptors brought down things 80 times their size in the Mesozoic. I'm not worried about the raptors. The Hyaenodons I am worried about."

The raptors jumped one of the Hyaenodons and starting biting a clawing at it.

"Get the time portal set up and once the raptors are done, they'll scare the other two off, straight into the time portal."

There was a reason Dromaeosaurs were near-apex predators everywhere they were found.

Pack hunting meant strength in numbers, they were faster then almost anything and their weapons...Need I say more?

The Hyaenodon was dead in a matter of minutes, and the other two ran off, straight into the time portal.

They ran through, back to 2011.

It didn't matter what they ran up against: Dromaeosaurs were top dog against everything except bigger pack hunters like Allosaurs and Tyrannosaurs.

Ron got up and pet one of the raptors.

"Good lord, what is he, the Beast Master?"

"He's the Dino Master."

Then they saw the hogs from hell: Enteiodons.

And they were hungry.

The raptors were anything but willing to give up their kill.

"Should we just-"

"You guys stay here and watch the brawl. Tape it for me."

"50 bucks says the hogs win."

"I'll take that bet."

Ron drove off, and he was soon proven right.

6 raptors jumped one of the Enteiodons, and bit at the neck, clawed at the legs, did everything but shoot the damned thing.

The other 5 Enteiodons backed away.

Orange-sized brains or not, they knew fear, and Dromaeosaurs were death incarnate.

They ran off.

Justyne swore.

"I hate it when Ron's right."

"Could be worse."

Then a number of Indricotherium-10 females, 9 males and 25 youngsters- ran at the time portal.

"Run!"

"Holy shit!"

"I don't want to die!"

The reason for the stampede was obvious: Veronica and Ron.

"You bastard! You nearly killed us!"

Ron and his raptor counterpart laughed-or the raptor version of it, in Veronica's case, which meant barking-and smiled.

"Relax! And by the look of things, I won."

"Yes, mate, you did."

The raptors feasted on the corpse, and Ron chuckled.

"It's ironic. People in the 1880s and 90s thought that mammal predators would beat dinosaurs any day. At this point, I should be worried for the mammals of the 21st Century."

In Africa, one pack of raptors there would spell doom for almost any animal, including elephants and rhinos.

Thankfully, Ron wasn't letting these raptors go anytime soon.

The smell of blood brought over another, larger pack of Hyaenodon.

However, the sight of small, feathered reptiles forced the Hyaenodons to back off and run toward the time portal.

"Fear. It's contagious."

"Nice."

"Well, I think our jobs are done. Let's go home, and I'll think of the next place where we're going."

They drove through, and returned home, Dromaeosaurs and all. Bob watched as they returned.

"Ron! You're going to pay for this!" "It's my job, remember? Nigel's got to deal with the paperwork!" "Now that I think about it, he's worse! At least you tell me what you're trying to find!"

He pulled out the companion book for Walking with Dinosaurs.

"Spirits of the Silent Forest. I like polar forests."

"Break out the winter gear. We're going to freeze."

"We'll go in the summer. 6 months of daylight. And no icecaps."

"We're still breaking out the winter gear."

Sure, the Mongolian animal's not called Indricotherium, but hey, same group.

Don't think I'm biased toward raptors, either:. They're as deadly as any big cat, faster then their prey and if you're lucky to survive, you avoid them: the almost perfect predator. Perfect ones being sharks and herbivores.

Next time: Nigel visits the Spinosaurs in Egypt and Ron goes to Alaska in the present and Australia 113 million years ago.

Ja Ne!