Phineas and Ferb's Dinosaur Adventure – Chapter 3: Back to the Jurassic
A/N: Finally, in this chapter, we're going to be seeing quite a few dinosaurs! Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Phineas and Ferb.
Irving eagerly went over to the time portal's control panel. He squealed with excitement. "Can I press the POWER button?"
"Sure, Irving," Phineas said. "I think we're ready to fire this baby up!"
The finished time portal looked a lot like the time portal to Mars they built earlier that summer. However the loop you'd walk through to go back in time was much bigger, about 15 feet in diameter.
Irving hit the power button and the machine fired up . . . but nothing appeared in the center of the machine.
"What's happening?" Vanessa asked.
"It just has to get warmed up a bit," Phineas said. "In the meantime, let's get ready."
Phineas and and Ferb got out their backpacks and started handing them out to everyone.
"Do you think these are necessary?" Baljeet asked.
"Yes, we'll need emergency food and drinking water."
Ferb handed Stacy her backpack as she came into the backyard. "Wait, what's going on?"
"We're time-traveling, Stacy," Jenny told her.
"Oh, cool!"
Isabella addressed the Fireside Girls. "Alright girls, let's make sure we have everything: backpacks.
"Check," Adyson said.
"Compass."
"Check," said Adyson.
"GPS."
"Check."
"Sunscreen."
"Check."
"Lip balm."
"Lip balm?" Vanessa asked.
"Well, we don't want to have cracked lips," Isabella said. "Who knows how hot it's going to be when we get there."
"Check."
"Flashlights."
"Check."
"First-aid kit."
"Check."
"Food supply in waterproof containers."
"Check."
"Water bottles."
"Check."
"Cameras."
Adyson took out her camera and snapped a picture. "Check."
"Great, that's an 'I'm Ready for a Nature Hike' patch for all seven of us!" Isabella said.
"Yay!" the girls cheered.
"Alright everyone," Phineas started, "this–oh hey, Candace. You'll need your backpack and camera and then we can go–"
"You just wait until Mom gets here," Candace said. "You and Ferb will be so busted!"
"Give it a rest, Candace," Jenny said. "You really miss out on the wonders your brother's create."
"Yeah, she's got a point there," Stacy agreed.
"Well," Candace said, "I'll wait right here in the present and wait until Mom gets back. Maybe she'll see it this time. Besides, I've already done the dinosaur thing before, and last time I nearly got eaten by a T. rex."
"Aw come on, Candace," Phineas urged. "Besides, we're going to a completely different Mesozoic habitat. We're going to the Jurassic."
Candace looked suspiciously at her younger brother. "Isn't that where we went last time?"
"Nope. That was Cretaceous. No T. rex ever lived in the Jurassic."
Candace sighed as she strapped on her backpack. "I'm going to regret this . . ."
"That's the spirit, girl," Vanessa said. "Let's go."
"Pressing the button," Irving said.
Suddenly, a swirl of light appeared in the entrance to the time portal before swirling stripes colored green and purple were visible. The time portal was working.
"Wow . . ." Phineas breathed. For several seconds, no one spoke.
"Hey, this is almost like our portal to Mars that we built," Baljeet said.
"Well what are you all just standing around here for?" Buford asked. "Let's go!" Before anyone could stop him, he grabbed his backpack and headed into the time portal.
"Wait! Buford! It might not be safe!"
But Buford had entered the past.
"No use stopping him now," Baljeet said.
"Then let's get a move on!" Isabella said.
Phineas stepped onto the platform and headed into the time portal . . . into a distant past.
Phineas and the others stepped out of the time portal. The group found themselves in a wide open plain at the edge of a large forest. The sounds of strange animals could be heard in the distance. The trees scattered around the area were tall and much like modern conifers. Instead of grass, the ground was covered in ferns.
"Where are we?" Jenny asked, wide-eyed.
"We have gone back to the Jurassic," Baljeet answered. "Just look at this place."
Phineas got out his binoculars and started scanning the area. There was an obvious lack of dinosaurs. "Hm, no dinosaurs here, I guess we'll have to get a move on to find them."
"Well, better not waste time," Isabella said as she got out her camera. She snapped a picture of a small conifer tree. "This place is beautiful."
"Where do we start?" Vanessa asked.
Phineas shrugged. "I guess we can walk straight–"
Suddenly a high-pitched shrill came out of the forest. The group looked back in time to see a trio of small dinosaurs. They were about three feet tall and had beaked heads with large eyes, long legs and tails. They were green with teal-colored stripes. The dinosaurs darted toward the group.
"Hey! Look at 'em go!" Stacy said. "Wow! Real dinosaurs!"
The little dinosaurs squeaked and darted around the group before disappearing into some low-lying foliage at the edge of the forest.
"That was cool," Jenny said.
"What were they?" Buford asked.
Baljeet opened his dinosaur book he'd brought along and began flipping through the pages. Isabella came up alongside him. She pointed to a section dedicated to small dinosaur that looked a lot like the ones they just saw.
"Based upon my reasoning, I have reason to believe the dinosaurs we just saw were from the ornithopod suborder," Baljeet explained. "And based on their size, I'd have to say they are probably . . . Othnielosaurus consors."
"I thought they'd be bigger," Buford said.
"Not all dinosaurs were big, Buford," Phineas said. "A lot were pretty small. Most were about the size of a sheep."
"That's a relief," Candace said. "Wait, does that apply to carnivores too?"
"Yeah. Most are no larger than a sheep."
"That was so cool!" Stacy exclaimed.
Suddenly, a loud braying sound was heard as it echoed across the fern prairie. It sounded like a large animal . . . a very, very large animal! It wasn't one that any of the group recognized.
"Follow that sound!" Isabella proclaimed.
Everyone ran after the source of the sound. As they ran, they spotted dozens of dragonflies darting their way across the area. Throughout the prairie were loads of scattered trees called Monkey Puzzle trees. Finally, they came across a large rock, and when they went around it, they came across a herd of large long-necked dinosaurs.
"Cool! More dinosaurs!" Baljeet said.
"I'm going to get a picture!" said Milly.
There were up to 15 large dinosaurs, mostly adults, but also a few juveniles and sub-adults, feeding around a waterhole – beyond their relatively tiny heads, they sported long necks. The necks of these creatures were 30 feet long in the adults. The adults were some 80-90 feet in length. Running along their neck, back and tail was a single row of dermal spines, similar to those on iguanas. The dinosaurs walked on four pillar-like legs and had a long tail, the end of which swung back and forth rapidly, lashing around like a whiplash. Surprisingly, the long necks of the creatures were not risen above the shoulders and the dinosaurs were feeding on the ferns that covered the ground in the prairie.
Ferb got out his camera and took some pictures to fill the photo journal.
"Brontosaurus," Buford said.
"No," Baljeet corrected. "Brontosaurus does not exist."
"That's what I would have called them," Vanessa said.
"Well, you see, the name 'brontosaurus' was given to a dinosaur skeleton, but the skeleton did not have a head. So the scientist who found it added a head found nearby."
"So?" Buford asked.
"The skull and skeleton were from two different dinosaurs! The correct name for these animals is Apatosaurus."
"I'm still gonna call 'em brontosaurus."
"I remember these guys from the dinosaur book I read not too long ago," Phineas said as he started walking toward the large behemoths. "They're members of the sauropod suborder; some sauropods are the largest land animals ever!"
Several Apatosaurus looked up in his direction. One of them bellowed. Ferb went next to his brother and held out some ferns. An Apatosaurus seemed to take interest in the ferns and approached Ferb, causing the ground to shake with every step. He opened his mouth and munched on the delicious ferns, swallowing them whole.
"Hey, buddy," Phineas said. "You're pretty cool."
The Apatosaurus began feeding on ground vegetation once again. Phineas noticed that the dinosaur didn't even bother to chew, it grabbed hold of some ferns, used its spoon-like teeth to strip off the fronds and it swallowed. That's when Phineas figured out that the dinosaur didn't have teeth to chew with.
The others figured the Apatosaurus would cause them no harm, so they all got closer to the dinosaurs.
"You sure these things eat only plants?" Candace asked, suspiciously.
"Positive," Baljeet responded.
A juvenile Apatosaurus was feeding near Isabella. The animal was only about the size of an elephant, which is relatively small compared to its parents. Isabella approached the Apatosaurus, who stared at her with its small brown-colored eyes. Isabella patted the dinosaur's leg; he seemed to like it. Isabella giggled.
Phineas looked around and asked, "Um, not to sound redundant, but did anyone see Perry before we left?"
"Uh . . . nope, never saw him!" Stacy answered quickly. Everyone looked at her, including a few of the Apatosaurus. "What? I didn't!"
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!
Perry the platypus glided toward his nemesis' building in his hang glider. Upon reaching the balcony, he dropped his hang glider and made a successful landing, ninja-style, about 15 feet behind his nemesis, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
"Ah! Perry the platypus!" Dr. Doofenshmirtz exclaimed as he turned toward Perry. "You're just in time . . . to be consumed!" He pressed a button and the skull of a dinosaur erupted out of an opening in the wall and it snapped up Perry, trapping him inside the infamous jaws.
Doofenshmirtz laughed evilly. "So, how do you like my new dinosaur skull trap? I was thinking about using a real dinosaur to trap you, but their extinct so that wouldn't work out. And then I was going to use some real dinosaur fossils to trap you, but apparently Danville requires you to have a license to own dinosaur fossils like this because their found in the ground and so they're technically the government's property unless your a paleontologist or something. Anyway, so I found this fake T. rex skull on the internet. 'Where did I get it?' you ask."
Perry glared at him.
"I got it on Craig's List! You'd be surprised as to how many evil things you can find on that website. I was thinking about getting a realistic-looking dinosaur head, but that would have cost more money so I . . . OK, you know what? Never mind. Let me tell you about my evil plan."
He cleared his throat and began his speech.
"You see, Perry the platypus, for years, everyone has been trying to get the better of me and/or keep me at a lower status than them. My brother Roger is the mayor, my mother, father and professor despised me . . . for obvious reasons. My mother always liked Roger more than me, mostly because he could play kickball, and I could not. I tried to impress my mother with my kickball skills but . . . well, you remember that back story. My father made me stand outside all night as a young boy dressed as a garden gnome . . . and there's no reason to bring that one up again. And my professor couldn't see what I was really capable of. And you foil all of my evil plans! So, I was at the library the other day and I found a set of books about the chaos theory and the space-time continuum. The space-time continuum, it seems, is very important to keep an order of things. If something is changed in the past, it changes the present. And that's where the chaos theory comes in! According to the chaos theory, things – like the time line – can be altered by a slight fluctuations in certain conditions. And this leads me to . . ."
Doofenshmirtz grabbed a strange looking, hand-held, ray gun-like device. " . . . the Time-Alteration-inator!"
Perry gasped.
"With this, I'll be able to go alter anything in the past! I can't alter anything in the present though, which I suppose would have been another idea, but I didn't have the parts for it. With this inator, I can literally make history the way I want it! Ha! It sort of functions like some of my other inators at times, like I'm able to mind control living organisms to make them do what I want, but it's all in this handheld device! Isn't it ingenious, Perry the platypus?"
"Grr!" Perry growled angrily.
"Of course, this device won't do much good if I'm not back in time, which is why I also invented my own time machine!"
The scientist turned the lights on to reveal a large, square-shaped box-like machine with legs. There was a door in the front, so that a person could climb into it. Doofenshmirtz picked up the dinosaur skull (it had a floor in the bottom jaw so that Perry would not escape) and he went to the time machine.
"Originally, I was going to go back in time to when Roger became mayor," Doofenshmirtz explained, "but then I figured out to do something else with my evil plan! I'm going back to the Jurassic! I'll create a little army of mind-controlled dinosaurs in prehistoric Danville that will be my minions. They're going to guard the ancient tri-state area and keep any other rulers from creating settlements. Then, since I was there first and will have the most powerful army of the most powerful creatures of all time, I'll already be ruler of the ENTIRE TRI-STATE AREA! It's a flawless plan."
Perry glared.
"What? It is! Sure, I've still got to think about what I'm going to do with my dinosaurs if there's some sort of extinction event or something, but hey, I've got time."
Doofenshmirtz got inside the machine with the Time-Alteration-inator and the T. rex skull. It was cramped; Doofenshmirtz barely had enough room for the skull. He pressed the power button. "Now, it just has to warm up . . ." They waited. "Any second now . . ."
"This is great!" Phineas exclaimed as one of the largest Apatosaurus in the herd rose his head to the height of his shoulders, allowing Phineas to see for miles around. I can see forever up here, he thought. Several tens of yards away, he spotted some ornithopods feeding, they were much larger and slightly bulkier than Othneilosaurus. To his right, he saw an elephant-sized plate-backed dinosaur. There were also several Othneilosaurus scampering through the prairie like gazelle do today. What a sight to behold!
"What do you see up there?" Jenny asked.
"Hm . . . well," he retrieved his compass. "The fern prairies extend northward as far as the eyes can see, the forest behind us continues on into the south and into the west and there are some plains in the east."
"What are the plains like?" Isabella asked.
"I can't tell." He looked through his binoculars. "I can see a bunch of tall, brown mounds and some dinosaurs. Can't tell what species from here. And I also see what looks like a small lake. Looks pretty cool over there. We should check it out."
Stacy looked over at Candace and said, "Now seriously, you have to admit, this is pretty cool."
Candace shrugged. "You know, it kind of is."
The Apatosaurus lowered its head so Phineas could get off. "Thanks buddy," Phineas said.
The sauropod bellowed and continued feeding.
"How big are these guys?" Stacy asked.
"I'd say about 20-30 tons a piece," Phineas said. "They're pretty big. I bet they're big to keep them safe from predators."
"This book says that sauropods like Apatosaurus can live to be over 60 years of age!" Baljeet exclaimed.
Phineas said, "You know, this is a pretty large area, maybe we should split up."
"Good idea, Phineas," Isabella said. "The Fireside Girls and I can take the forest."
"Great, the rest of us can stay out here in the open. You've got a GPS so you won't get lost and I've also got a pair of walkie-talkie radios."
"Sure." Isabella took one of the radios from him. "Alright girls, to the forest! Fireside Girls troop 46231 is out!"
"Aye-aye!" the other Fireside girls exclaimed. With that, they started back toward the forest.
"OK," Phineas started, "what are the rest of you girls doing?"
"Um, I'll just tag-along with them," Jenny said. She followed the other Fireside Girls into the forest.
Stacy asked, "You gonna be OK out here, Candace?"
"What do you mean?" she said. "I've time-traveled before. I know the drill."
"Well, it's just that . . . you tend to kind of creep out at little stuff."
"Pshaw! You kidding me! I'll be fine out here. If there's any of the 'little stuff' that creeps me out, it would be in the forest, not out here in the open."
Stacy shrugged. "Alright then. Catch you later BF!"
"Catch you later, BFF!"
"Let's move on, shall we?" said Phineas.
Phineas, Ferb, Baljeet, Buford, Candace and Vanessa left the Apatosaurus herd behind and continued into the fern prairie in the direction of the plains.
"You sure you guys know we're not getting lost?" Candace asked.
"Sure, Candace," Phineas said.
"What did you think a GPS is for?" Buford said.
"Well, it's just that . . . I don't know. How about I don't want to get stuck out here again."
"You guys got stuck in prehistoric times?" Vanessa asked.
"Yeah," Phineas answered. "When we repaired the time machine at the Danville Museum, a T. rex stomped on it and destroyed it. But the Fireside Girls were able to make another one."
They heard squawking sounds coming from nearby. After scanning the area, Ferb spied a flock of small ornithopods, slightly larger than the otherwise almost identical Othneilosaurus, but smaller than the as-of-yet unidentified ornithopods Phineas saw earlier. Ferb tapped on his brother's shoulder to draw his attention.
"Looks like a flock of ornithopods," Phineas said.
"Are those the Oh . . . Oh . . ." Candace had trouble pronouncing the dinosaur's name.
"Nope," Baljeet said. "Based on the illustrations in my book, they are Dryosaurus altus."
"What's up with you giving the dinosaurs last names?" Buford asked.
"That's the entire scientific name. Most people only know the first name."
"Whatever."
The Dryosaurus hadn't noticed Phineas and the others standing nearby. Most of them would feed, but a few would systematically stick their heads above the ferns, no doubt keeping a lookout for predators. Their large eyes on the sides of their heads scanned the horizon.
"Aw! They're so cute!" Candace whispered. "Who knew dinosaurs could be so cute!"
"Dryosaurus were prey for a variety of different dinosaurs," Baljeet explained.
"Well that's not fair."
"But they are very fast, able to outrun most of their predators–"
Just as he said that, a Dryosaurus on lookout duty froze. Only his breathing chest and eyelids moved. The dinosaur made several quick squawks and the rest of the flock knew what the signal meant. The Dryosaurus went into a panic and started running away just as a larger dinosaur erupted from some bushes nearby, pursuing its prey.
"Oh my gosh!" Vanessa exclaimed.
The dinosaur was obviously a powerful predator that ran upon a pair of strong legs. It looked a little like a T. rex, but was about 15 feet in length and had longer arms and four clawed fingers. Three blade-like crests sat on the animal's head – two above the eyes and the largest one upon nose. Rows of scutes along the back, neck and tail were present. The sharp teeth in the dinosaur's jaws gave the impression of a very deadly dinosaur!
"Ceratosaurus!" Baljeet exclaimed.
The Ceratosaurus roared and ran after the fleeing flock of Dryosaurus; it was a swift and agile carnivore.
"Phineas! I thought you said small carnivores!" Candace said.
A/N: I decided to include several species of Jurassic dinosaurs in this chapter, from the mighty Apatosaurus, to the swift Dryosaurus and Othneilosaurus to the carnivorous Ceratosaurus. Next week, look forward to some more dinosaurs and some Phineas and Ferb action! If you haven't already, please be sure to follow, favorite and review this story and check out my other fanfiction project: "Take 2 With Phineas and Ferb". I'll see you all next week! R&r!