Dimorphodon Rock

Summary: In the Dorset Coast of the Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone Formation, 192 million years ago, in the Early Jurassic. Two young Dimorphodon siblings explore their forest home along the coastal shores learning to hunt and avoid the dangers of the forest floor which lurked land predators.

Cast: Dimorphodon (Focus), Plesiosaurus (Cameo), Attenborosaurus, Archaeonectrus, Thaumatodracon, Asteroceras, Echioceras, Promicroceras, Uptonia, Ichthyosaurus (communis, annigae, and somersetensis), Dorsetichthys, Chondrosteus, Dapedium, Leptonectes, Turnersuchus, Myriacanthus (paradoxus and granulatus), Scelidosaurus, Dracoraptor, Sarcosaurus, Acrodus, Protoichthyosaurus, Avalonnectes, Thalassiodracon, Eoplesiosaurus, Temnodontosaurus, Coroniceras, Microderoceras, Caturus, and Passaloteuthis.

It starts with Thomas with some models of five pterosaurs on a desk in a dark room. "Pterosaurs were the first flying backbone vertebrates ever to evolve, their elongated fourth finger helps support a skin membrane to form the wings similar to bats. They diversified and filled the skies during the age of Dinosaurs and occupied different niches. The Azdarchids were large ground hunters walking among the floor searching for small animals and dinosaurs to snatch with their long dagger beaks and occasionally scavenge. The most familiar diets of Pterosaurs are the fishing eating piscivores, the Pteranodon and the small Rhamphorhynchus catches fish and squid as they dive down like a missile into the water and catch their prey with their beaks before surfacing with their wings to help them swim through the water. The Pterodactylus was more of an insect eater hunting for Invertebrates and then there is the focus of this story, Dimorphodon. Dimorphodon was a genus of medium-sized pterosaur from the early Jurassic Period. It was named by paleontologist Richard Owen in 1859. Dimorphodon means "two-form tooth", referring to the fact that it had two distinct types of teeth in its jaws – which is comparatively rare among reptiles." Thomas picks up and shows a fossil skull pointing to the features of the creature. "The front of the upper jaw had four or five fang-like teeth followed by an indeterminate number of smaller teeth and the lower jaw had five longer teeth and thirty to forty tiny, flattened pointed teeth, shaped like lancets. Many depictions give it a speculative puffin-like 'beak' because of similarities between the two animals' skulls. Like many pterosaurs, Dimorphodon has been perceived as a soarer in the past, correlating to historical perceptions of pterosaurs as seabird analogues. However, more recent studies show that the animal was actually a rather poor flier: its wings are proportionally short in relation to the body and its skeleton rather robust, offering very little gliding potential. The first remains were found by Mary Anning."

. . . . .

The scene transitions to show Mary Anning behind a desk full of shells and fossils as she speaks "I found the first remains in December 1828 here in Dorset. The specimen was acquired by William Buckland and reported in a meeting of the Geological Society on 5 February 1829. Buckland suggested it ate insects. Later, it became common to depict it as a piscivore (fish eater). Dimorphodon had an advanced jaw musculature specialized for a "snap and hold" method of feeding. The jaw could close extremely quickly, but with relatively little force or tooth penetration. This, along with the short and high skull and longer, pointed front teeth suggest that Dimorphodon was an insectivore, though it may have occasionally eaten small vertebrates and carrion as well. It would be amazing to see these Dimorphodons just like the puffins I see flying around Dorset, wondering what its life was like and what it really ate?"

. . . . .

The Jurassic Coast of Great Britain, Dorset of the Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone Formation, 192 million years ago, in the Early Jurassic. It was a coastline of the Tethys Sea which teemed with marine reptiles from plesiosaurs to ichthyosaurs. Swimming along the surface of the ocean and taking their breaths as they dived into the water are the Plesiosaurs ranging from Attenborosaurus, Archaeonectrus, Thaumatodracon, and Plesiosaurus itself. This Female Plesiosaurus that grew up here in the estuary lagoon of the Coast has returned here as an adult for the purpose of finding a mate. She is joined by several other plesiosaurs of other species swimming alongside her are Avalonnectes, one of the oldest plesiosaurs to date, Eoplesiosaurus, a proportionally long-necked plesiosaurian with at least 38 cervical vertebrae and the oldest plesiosauroid and one of the oldest plesiosaurs, to date, and Thalassiodracon in which its genus name means "Sea Dragon."

In the estuaries and lagoons Fishes from the Chondrosteus, Myriacanthus paradoxus and granulatus, Dapedium, Acrodus, and Caturus come here to search for food and where their young grow up in. Plesiosaurs come here to feed, find stones to swallow, give birth and raise their young, and to mate. Males engage in a contest of spyhopping seeing how far their neck can go above the surface of the water, the one who is the highest is the most healthy and most likely to attract a female.

The Oceans has its own unique fauna the Squids like Passaloteuthis and Ammonites, cephalopod like squids with shells dart across the water filter feeding plankton with their tentacles ranging from Asteroceras, Promicroceras, Uptonia, Echioceras, Coroniceras, and Microderoceras as hide in their shells from the Turnersuchus, a marine crocodylomorpha. There are also the common dolphin like Ichthyosaurs, the common Leptonectes and Ichthyosaurus annigae, communis, and somersetensis catch that gather in pods to hunt fish like Dorsetichthys and dive deep into the darkest depths to hunt for squid and ammonites, to the large predatory ichthyosaurs like Protoichthyosaurus and Temnodontosaurus that prey on other marine reptiles including other Ichthyosaurs. But it's the forests alongside the coast which are full of interesting characters of the Dorset coast.

. . . . .

The forests were covered with trees, ferns, and cycads here where some of the coasts land animals inhabit. On top of the branches are two juvenile Dimorphodons, both siblings, a brother and sister. They have been on their own since they hatched and when they hatch they are capable of flight and live in the forests where they would grow. It's time to search for food, they take off flapping frequently, landing from branch to branch to rest. They are poor flyers as their wings are proportionally short in relation to the body relying on frantic short flights. They see what they are looking for, a family of small theropods.

It's a flock of Dracoraptors, a Coelophysoidea theropod dinosaur. The genus name is derived from Draco referring to the Welsh dragon and raptor, meaning robber, a commonly employed suffix for theropod dinosaurs. It is the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur and is the first dinosaur skeleton from the Jurassic of Wales. A full grown adult for these Dimorphodons can't tackle, but a youngster that has lagged behind could make an easy meal.

They wait until the chick is far away and ears away from the flock as it is weak. Soon they launched themselves off from the branches and landed on the chick as it squealed in frantic. The female delivers a quick bite to the throat and it's all over for the baby Dracoraptor. The two Dimorphodons feast, tearing chunks of meat and body parts from the body until there is nothing. Then they heard a rustle in the bushes. It's not safe to be on the ground for too long as there are land predators they ran and hopped back to the trees and quickly climbed up as Dimorphodons were competent climbers, possessing proportionally large and curved ungals and a low center of gravity. Like modern squirrels, it probably moved in a saltatorial manner as it climbed.

The two siblings saw dark clouds, a storm is coming and they must take shelter. They find a nest cavity hole in a tree where they would sleep in for the night. Soon the Summer Storm came. This violent weather can produce strong winds that blow down trees, heavy rains, lightning, thunder, and hail that can cause injuries, and destruction. Most of the land animals take shelter in caves, dense cover areas, burrows, and the nest cavities of trees. The Marine reptiles on the other hand swim to calmer seas to avoid the rough surface waters.

Soon the next day, the storm is over. The Dimorphodon siblings emerged from their nest cavity hole as the tree survived the storm and they headed for the coasts. Upon arrival the aftermath of the storm, lots of debris washed up on the beach, branches, logs, leaves, fallen trees, corals, sponges, seaweed, dead fish, ammonites, squids, fallen Dimorphodon brethren, a few dead dinosaurs, and some plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs that have been beached. This is what these Dimorphodons have come here for to beach comb and scavenge the storm's latest catch.

Coming from the forests is a herd of herbivores called Scelidosaurus, an armored herbivore dinosaur covered with osteoderm armor over its body. They came here to feed on the beach vegetation enriched in salt from sea spray. A few males were fighting among themselves wrestling one another and whacking each other with their sharp tails. These can leave many injuries and wounds like these can take time to heal, but it has not gone unnoticed. A flock of Dimorphoonds have arrived at beachcomb, these are adults they have more colorful beaks during the breeding season made of keratin sheaths they fall off when the breeding season ends. A Few start to land on an injured Scelidosaurus and start pecking at its wounds using powerful, toothed beaks and claws to rip through the layer of skin and eat the fat from the back of the animal. Though the pterosaur does not directly kill the dinosaur, death can result from infections or accidents suffered by animals when trying to escape.

The siblings on the other hand find a dead ichthyosaurus communis and begin to feast on the marine reptile as they are joined by others. The Dacroraptors also come here to beachcomb some washed up seafood, but the Dorset Coastal forests hide a larger predator. Suddenly, a crested theropod comes running out of the forest causing fright and panic. The Scelidosaurus ran off switching from quadruped locomotion to bipedal, the Dracoraptors ran off, and the Dimorphodons took off to air and headed for the forest. But only one is caught as the predator jumps and grabs it by the throat as it kills it and begins to feast. This is a Sarcosaurus, the "flesh lizard."

Sarcosaurus was one of the earliest known Jurassic theropods, and one of only a handful of theropod genera from this time period. The fragmentary nature of the fossils has made classification of this animal among the theropod family tree difficult. Originally it was thought to be a megalosaur (but then again everything was back then), but later it was believed to be a coelophysoid or ceratosaur (well at the time coelophysoids were thought to belong in Ceratosauria). The most recent analysis in 2018 by Andrea Cau finds Sarcosaurus to be a dilophosaurid, or at least closely related to Dilophosaurus. It had to feast its meal as there is a low amount of meat in the body, it needs more and goes to the ichthyosaur corpse to feast instead.

The Dimorphodons sibling watched the predator as it ate its fill and the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs surfacing to take a breath. To them it's a learning experience and they will encounter new discoveries, face hazards, and meet new creatures on the Dorset Coast of Dimorphodon Rock.

Trivia/References:

-The Name is a reference to the Cartoon Saloon Animated Children's TV Show, "Puffin Rock," since the Dimorphodons had beaks like puffins.

-The biped Scelidosaurus locomotion is based on fossil traceways.

-Mary Anning makes her appearance again.

Speculative Behaviors:

-The female Plesiosaurus makes a cameo and the males do their courtship spyhopping like in "All Yesterdays" and "Prehistoric Planet."

-Some of the information is inspired by Rahonavis70m's take on a Walking with Dinosaurs Sequel.

-So the Dimorphodons eating the flesh wounds of Scelidosaurus are based on Kea Parrots that do that on sheep.

-Scelidosaurus fight is based on Zuul and since it's a Thyreophora leading to the stegosaurs and ankylosaurs, so it could have happened much more earlier.

-The Colorful Breeding Beaks of Dimorphodons are based on Puffins.

-The Dimorphodons feasting on a beached ichthyosaurus and driven off by a Sarcosurus is based on Olmagon's artwork, "Not Your 'Jurassic Puffin'."

You can suggest ideas for stories for the other creatures and can suggest dialogues, scenes, and natural or speculative behaviors for the prehistoric animals.

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The Next Story is "Permian Survivors," which follows two species of Lystrosaurus as their ancestors witness the Worst Mass Extinction Event on Earth, the Permian–Triassic Extinction Event aka "The Great Dying." Then it follows the Early Triassic and shows how they were successful and dominated the earth for a while.

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