There is something missing from this world. The amazing creatures that time has left behind. But what if we could bring them back?
What if Extinction... didn't have to be forever?
We're going on a Safari with a difference as wildlife adventurer Nigel Marvin plunges into prehistory to rescue creatures on the brink of extinction.
His plan is to bring them back to the safety of the present, and give them a second chance.
This time, Nigel goes back 193 million years to rescue a dinosaur that Hollywood made famous!
Welcome to the ultimate wildlife sanctuary.
Welcome... to Prehistoric Park!
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After so many successful missions, Prehistoric Park has become a phenomenal success. From bear dogs, to pterosaurs, and prehistoric sharks, the park is full of amazing residents. Nigel, though, would like to add in a more famous creature to the roster.
In his den, Nigel is looking over pictures of both fossils, and a famous scene from Jurassic Park. Both show a dinosaur with VERY prominent crests on its head.
"This guy really owes Universal for its popularity. This is Dilophosaurus, one of the first dinosaurs to be an apex predator. It showed up seven million years after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, and it was the T. rex of its day. Now, most people think of it as being small, but in life, it was tall enough to look me in the eye. Scary as it maybe, I would love to have one of these creatures at Prehistoric Park."
While smaller than the most of the park's predatory dinosaurs, Dilophosaurus was still a ferocious predator. Nigel will need to be careful if he doesn't want to become a meal.
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While Nigel gathers the last few things needed for the mission, the rest of the team is busy dealing with the current residents.
Just outside Giganotosaurus Grove, Elise and Sean were busy parking a couple of wheelbarrows by a tree. A moment later, the reason for this became apparent: one of the titanosaurs lowered its head from between the leaves of the tree and quickly gulped down two of the stones. Shortly after than, more of the sauropods began to congregate toward the group, eager to gather more stones for their giant guts.
"They're just like birds, aren't they?" noted Elise. "They eat stones for digestion, just like chicken do with gritty sand."
"Well, birds are dinosaurs, and these guys are closer to birds then most of the bird-hipped ones...at, they were until Ornithoscelidae became a thing again."
"I really doubt that that is the end of dinosaur classification, and I'm not a fan of the new classification system...are you?" questioned Sean.
"No."
Before the two siblings could debate any further, they were interrupted by the sound of a moving wood, followed by a feint rattling sound. Turing toward it, they saw their younger brother, Tai, using the feeding crane to put a ball into Giganotosaur Grove. A moment later, the sole resident of the grove emerged, causing the titanosaurs to begin to start marching away, preferring to avoid the giant carnivore if possible. The giant carnivore stared at the ball for a moment, before trying to bite it. Yet while its teeth could easily grip the ball, puncturing it would not be so easy. The rattling noise, though, caused it to halt its attempts to eat the ball and instead attempt to figure out what was causing the noise. When it finally determined the ball to be he source of the rattling, it began to start shaking the ball around, this time for fun.
"Looks like Tai made a new friend," noted Sean.
"True, but I don't think they're too friendly just yet," noted Elise. "Also, we really need to get going for the mission."
"No debate their."
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To rescue a Dilophosaurus, Nigel will have to go back 193 million years, to the very beginning of the Jurassic. At that time, dinosaurs were just beginning their reign over the earth, and most hadn't gotten that big yet.
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As the team emerged from the portal, the Triassic world came into view. Where there had once been tropical plains (whether they counted as prairies or pampas, nobody could decide), there was now coniferous forest. Said forest was alive with the calls of strange animals, though not to the degree of a rainforest. In the distance, clouds could be seen, tut they were still a long ways away.
"In the present, this will become the Kayenta Formation, and will get even drier than it is right now, but at the moment, it's breathtaking," remarked Nigel.
The team couldn't help but agree.
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Underneath a tree, the double crested carnivore rested. It had been a good morning - it had managed to surprise a scute runner just after dawn, and while the herbivore was a meager pickings for such a large carnivore, it was still a good meal. With its hunger sated for the moment, the twin-crested predator had decided to take shelter under a tree, so that it could avoid the worst part of the heat for the day. True, it would eventually need to hunt again, but it could wait.
Then the strange light had appeared, along with a small group of strange looking animals. Their skin was bare, yet also very colorful, while their heads were adorned with loose fur of varying colors. They smelled somewhat like the fur covered burrowers the crested hunter occasionally hunted when food was scarce, but there were some differences. Overall, they were unlike anything the crested hunter had seen.
Right now, they were starting to make their way through a patch of cycads, perhaps searching for food to eat. The great carnivore stared at them a while longer, before rising from the ground and following them. New creatures could be dangerous, so it was bets to learn all you could about them when they weren't a threat. Plus, these strangers bipeds might make good meals.
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Back at the park, Matilda is getting antsy again.
The female tyrannosaur yawned, before shaking her head. Beyond the need to get the cobwebs out of her eyes, some insects had decided to use her as a landing spot the previous night. None were biting insects, which was a small comfort, but it was rather annoying when they landed on her.
Once she was up, Matilda did a quick checking of her territory, before walking up to the hole in the fence she'd used a few days ago, dung marking it, and then exiting her exhibit. The keepers had yet to notice the break in her exhibit's surroundings, and it would only be a matter of time before they fixed it, so Matilda was intent on exploiting it as long as she could. Besides, the smell of carrion was too good to pass up.
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As soon as the tyrannosaur had left, the forest floor of her exhibit came to life - beetles, once hidden in logs and roots, now hastily moved toward the recently deposited feces, hoping to snatch a meal or, alternatively, a meal for their offspring. The insects that the tyrannosaur had shaken off her, meanwhile, began to search for flowers to pollinate, or prey that was small enough to devour. Wasps and bees began their search for nectar, while ants and termites scuttled through the undergrowth, searching for detritus to collect for their nests.
Though these creatures did not seem out of place in the modern world, they had, in truth, been mostly recent arrivals to the present, having followed the dinosaurs rescued in the very first mission. Lost and confused, many had died, but more had simply followed the most familiar scents they could find so that they could start new homes. This had led them to set up nests near the cretaceous dinosaurs, one of the few sources of familiarity on this alien world. The termites, in particular, had only settled in this exhibit, for nowhere else was safe for them - insect eaters had wiped out many queens, while native termites had outcompeted their prehistoric relatives. As is, only a few colonies still persevered. Enough had made it, though, that there was still a viable breeding population for these arthropods.
It was a peculiar irony, that while the pakr had strived to rescue many giant and famous prehistoric creatures, they had unknowingly brought back an entire ecosystem of smaller animals, who had already settled in to their new home.
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!