As noon neared, the Alamosaurus pair walked toward the rest of their kind. The companionship was appreciated, to say the least.

It had been a long time since the two giants had enjoyed the company of others of their kind, and the loneliness had started to get to them. Beyond a simple desire for companionship, they knew there were other issues with being the last of their kind. Namely, there would only be so long before their kind died out - two adults could not produce a viable breeding population. Now, though, they had a far larger breeding group, ensuring that, at least for the immediate future, they would endure.

As the herds mingled about, though, the pair were caught off guard when they heard a set of familiar calls. Confused, they turned toward the source and found themselves looking at another herd of Alamosaurus - the ones rescued from prehistoric New Mexico.

Cautiously, the duo let out a greeting cry. A moment later, they received a familiar response.

Doubts removed, the herbivores cried out in joy - this was their old herd, whom they had been separated from in a sandstorm. The duo had never expected to see them again, and were now eager to make up for lost time.

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Some distance away, Al gnawed away at a bone, stripping off every last morsel of flesh. The last remnants of the dead buck had provided Al with a hearty meal (pun intended), and as he swallowed up the final edible piece, he felt a sense of lethargy settle over him. This was not a need for sleep, but rather the desire to lie down and laze about until his meal was done digesting. Cautiously, he plodded over to a nearby river, took a moment to wash down his meal, then took shelter under a tree atop a hill. The heightened ground gave him a view of the entirety of the nearby floodplains, where many of the animals now roamed about, living their daily lives. Fat bodied, tiny-headed lizards feasted upon ferns, while three-horned dinosaurs plodded about, browsing on bushes. Strangest of all were the tall, long-legged mammals that were browsing on the threes, a role sauropods normally had. Most of these were recent arrivals, though the largest were ones that had been at the park since before Al had arrived.

The carnosaur was drawn out of his observation when a tiny creature landed in front of him and began to chirp. Recognizing the chirps, Al let out a low bellow in response, before rolling back his lips a smidge. Moments later, the Mesadactylus began to dig in, eager to snatch up a small meal. Soon, though, it was forced to move aside when another pterosaur moved in time snatch a meal of its own, this one a rhamphorynchid. A large crest occupied its head, resembling those that would adorn the skulls of larger pterodactyloids. This was a Harpactognathus, and it was the hawk of the Morrison Formation. The smaller pterosaur would've tried to fight off the newcomer, except the larger pterosaur would gladly eat the smaller, given the chance. Defeated, the smaller flier turned its attention to the skeleton of the buck, which it quickly dug into - there were a few morsels the allosaur had not managed to pull out.

Above, a furry creature watched all of this, unsure how to react. Known as Tinodon, this creature was one of many Jurassic mammals the team had rescued, and now it was stuck in a world unfamiliar to it, trying to find a new way to survive. Most of its kind has been rounded up already, but this one had ended up wandering into the allosaur's pen, and stuck there, as the staff hadn't managed to get close enough to it while Al and the few other allosaurs in the pen were elsewhere. For now, they were letting it go free.

Fear normally kept the mammal away from the large dinosaur. Now, though, hunger outweighed fear.

Cautiously, the tiny herbivore scampered down the tree it was resting in, then into a nearby log. A moment later, it crawled trhough the leaf litter until ti reached the hollowed remains of a coconut. Finally, it scrambled forward and came to a halt at the carnivore's flank. After a moment of hesitation, it lunged forward and took a bite.

The succulent taste of insect filled its maw. Emboldened, the mammal took another bite. Soon it was enjoying itself.

Suddenly, the great body moved. Before the mammal could scamper away, it found the allosaur looking straight at it, while the larger pterosaur rested on his head. Instinctively, she froze, hoping to avoid being noticed.

The allosaur saw through her attempt at hiding.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, the carnivore rolled onto his side, exposing his insect-ridden belly to the mammal. He followed with a low throaty growl, which caused the tensed up pterosaur to back off - it would not be able to hurt this mammal. Not today.

The mammal remained frozen a while longer, then dug into the feast before it.

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Speaking of the floodplains, in a part of the plains beyond Al's vision, Bob and the staff were busy doing one of the park's...less savory tasks: cleaning up the dung of the sauropods. In this case, they were cleaning up the remains of the Diplodocus' last meal. With them was Suzanne, who was busy examining the fecal matter. Eventually, after a moment of searching, she found watch she was looking for, and pulled out a group of tiny, wriggling creatures. Surprisingly, though, these weren't worms - they were maggots.

"Now, most people don't know this, but dung beetles didn't actually appear in the Jurassic. What we thought were dung beetles were actually relatives of roaches and termites. Those insects, along with these maggots, are the primary decomposers of sauropod dung, so we're working on gathering as many as possible, so that Bob can use them to help break down all this dung."

As Suzanne carefully put the fly larvae into a container, she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose and contort her face in disgust - some smells, you never quite got over.

Nearby, a Haplocanthosaurus watched on as the humans continued to clean the feces, dumbfounded as to what they were doing. A sudden low bellow caused it to flail its tail around, causing an approaching male stegosaur to retreat, having taken a minor yet painful injury, one that left it having trouble walking. From an overlooking observation post, a security team winced, with both the men and women feeling the need to defend their groins - some pain was shared across all species.

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Back in the past, the team was busy setting up the portal - once again, they had found another group of animals. In this case, yet another herd of caseids called Angelosaurus, whose tiny minds could not comprehend what the humans were doing. They could not realize that the humans wanted to rescue them from a world that would eventually drive them to extinction. They were also unaware that they were not the only creatures the humans were eyeing, until sudden movement nearby alerted them to a group of large hunters. These were Watongia, a large relative of the creatures that were hitchhiking with the team. The predators weren't actually interested in the herbivores, but the herbivores knew not that this was the case, and hastily ambled toward the portal, seeking to escape the carnivores' notice. A moment later, the predators ended up following - being chased by a large group of humans was enough of a motivator for them.

Their rescue finished, the team marched onwards, now nearing the base of the snow covered mountains, unaware they were carrying hitchhikers. Overhead, the skies had begun to dark, as clouds began to gather.

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AN: We don't actually know what ate sauropod dung, because dung-beetles didn't show up until the Cretaceous, nor did roaches. Since flies and roach relatives WERE around at that point, though, I decided to use them for this scene.

If you can get the reference I made to a certain book in this chapter, I'll give you a cookie.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!