We now return with your regularly scheduled update.
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After getting a quick rest, the team heads back through the portal. This time, they are heading a little later in time, to rescue a greater variety of Miocene mammals.
On the other side, they see that what was once scrubland has now been replaced by open prairies. In the distance, a forest is visible.
"Wow, big scenery change," remarked Marcus.
"Well, this is the Miocene, the time when grass takes over the world," answers Tristan."it first appeared in India in the time of the dinosaurs, but only now is it going to take over the world."
"I'm guessing this is bad for a lot of animals, isn't it?" remarked Alice.
"Big time. Grass is so tough that most animals, like the oreodonts we saved earlier, can't eat it. By the end of the Miocene, they'll be gone. In their place will be animals we'd recognize today, like horses. So right now, let's help Nigel save someone the species that are about to die."
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Back at the park, Bob is taking a break from building the sabers tooth exhibit to deal with the new arrivals. The Arctocyon have received they're own exhibit, but Bob wants to see if the bathornids will share with the terror birds. Bob has already put the giant birds together. Now he needs to see if they get along.
The initial exchange is awkward. The terror birds are at least a head taller than their Northern cousins. Nonetheless, the bathornids do not back down.
This causes Phil, the male terror bird, to approach his counterpart and let out a low pitched caw, to which one of the male Bathornis responds with a louder, yet oddly submissive call.
Seemingly regarding the sound with approval, Phil backs off, allowing the bathornids to join him and his mate in feeding on a cow carcass.
"Well, that worked well."
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Back at the park's aquarium tanks, Lonch was not alone with his distracted keepers.
In a nearby exhibit, another shark, named Ironboard, was watching his keepers act the same as Lonch.
As he name suggested, Ironboard was a maleStethecanthus, the Ironboard finned shark. The staff hadn't seen how his back fin worked, but they knew it must have been for mating.
Ironboard had been surprised when Nigel rescued him. He had been watching Nigel feed a giant armored biter fish (his name for Dunkcleosteus) before trying to get a scared of meat after the giant biter ate a smaller one of its kind. Unfortunately, the armored biter had seen him and red to have him for desert. In an effort to escape, he ended up flying out of the water and onto Nigel's boat.
Taking pity on the giant fish, Nigel had decided to take him home, along with a female of his kind who had been nearby. Now, he was safe and always had the opportunity to mate, but had yet to do so. Still, he liked the present a lot. Even if the humans who cared for him acted odd.
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Meanwhile, back in Miocene North America, Nigel's team had noticed something.
At the edge of the forest, something was eating from a tree. It looked oddly like a horse, but with clawed hands.
"Is that a ground sloth?" Asked Vera.
"Ground sloths won't arrive in North America until the end of the Miocene, you dolt," remarked Alice. "That thing is a chaolicothere. I can't say which one, though."
"The only chaolicothere to live in North America is Moropus," remarked Violet.
"So, can we take it to the park?" Asked Eileen.
"I don't see why not," remarked Nigel
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AN: Like my sharks? I found those segments very fun to write. Anyways, next chapter will be up in a few hours. Need to let you see what he's going to rescue,
Read and review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.