And so I cast Revive!
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Before Nigel and Jeremy's eyes, the rocks began to walk away, causing the amniotes to begin to scatter. Unfortunately for the vertebratess, Nigel and Jeremy were quick to react, and had brought net-guns with them. It only took a few shots to restrain the majority of the animals, though a few of the larger "rocks" managed to escape.
Jeremy, however, wasted no time in looking over one of giant creatures.
"I've never seen this before alive, but the shape is unmistakable. This is Hibbertopterus, a eurypterid. This creature holds a unique place in the fossil record - while scientists thought that eurypterids could walk on land, this one made a trackway that proved it."
Carefully, Wade flipped the creature onto its back, trying with some difficulty to assuage its nervousness. "Now, this creature may look terrifying, but its only a monster in appearance. It feeds solely on small inverebrates found in substrate in ponds." As he said this, Jeremy pointed at the strange feelers around the creature's mouth. "These limbs filter through sand, mud, and debris to pick out edible morsels, just like some shrimp. Now, if this thing lived in the ocean, it might fall prey to all kinds of creatures, but here, it has few, if any predators. Maybe some giant amphibians will try to eat it, but that's about it."
Hibbertopterus is a giant of the Carboniferous, but that size won't save it from extinciton. In fact, this will be a major contributing factor to why it disappears - it needs large amounts of food to sustain itself, and once these swamps begin to disappear, it will follow them into extinction. Of course, the ones Nigel and Jeremy have caught will find a different, brighter fate awaiting them.
Those that retreat, however, provde the duo with an excellent opportunity - large eurypterids need to seek shelter in water to keep their gills wet. So if they are lucky, the duo might be able to find Rhizodus by following these giant arthropods.
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Back at the Park, some of the residents have started to act...oddly. Or maybe not.
Bob watched on, eyes dart about inquisitively, as the two Dakotaraptor walked from tree to tree. Each time they stopped, they stood as high as they could, moved their hands to the trees, and started raking the bark. Once the claw marks were thoroughy in place, they moved on to the next tree, until all the trees in the area were marked. Then they found something else to do.
"You know, I never expected to see this kind of behavior. This kind of activity is something I've heard and observed cougars doing, so it's a bit of a surprise to see it in raptors. The reason they stand up when they cut into the trees is for marking territory - they make the claw marks as high as possible so that they can say that they're this big, and anyone who can't reach their height would probably avoid trying to challenge them for territory. It's something we'd never find in the fossil record, and it makes my day seeing this behavior in action."
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Elsewhere, Suzanne is observing some interesting behavior from a differnet group of theropods.
Before Suzanne, the allosaurs greedibly bug into the carcass, with the males digging in first while the females kept their distance. Further away, Al and Alicia rested under a tree, waiting for their chance to feed.
"There's a lot of things fossils can't tell us about how animals lived," noted Suzanne, "and looking at this feeding behavior is one of them. We know that there are four different species of allosaurs that we rescued from the Jurassic, but only now are we seeing how differently they can behave. These ones right here," she noted, pointing to the carnivores gorging on the carcass, "are Allosaurus fragilis. Now, Allosaurus has been called the lion of the Jurassic, but this species really lives up to it - not only do they feed like lions, but I've noticed how each male seems to live with several females, and hte only reason these two males aren't fighting is because they are brothers, based on blood tests."
Then Suzanne pointed at Al and Alicia. "These two, though, are A. jimmadseni, and from what I've observed they're more monogamous. I've noticed that males and females for that species tend to get aggressive when others of the same gender show up, and while they might feed communally, they definitely don't appear to share mates. And one of the other species seems to be solitary except during mating season. Really is something interesting to see."
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Back in the past, Nigel and Jeremy are following the eurypterids and have found the water...as well as something else.
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Our arthropod scouts have lead us to the water, as expected. Now, though, they've come to a halt, and for good reason - at the water's edge is a vaguely crocodilian creature, mouth filled with sharp teeth.
The eelike body and sharp fangs confirm this is an embolomere - a type of predatory amphibian. This one is most likely an anthracosaur, and given that small number of fangs visible when it yawns or hisses, the species is obvious - this is the namesake member of the group, Anthracosaurus. Although its body is heavily specialized for living in the water, it might still be able to snap at us if we get too close.
Even its fangs won't save it from extinction, though. And I'm certain Nigel would like one for the park.
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Sorry this took so long to get out.
I did want to explore some of the things that fossils don't show us in this story, namely how animals that share the same genus but not the same species can be very different in terms of behavior. I mean, Jaguars, Lions, Tigers, Leopards, and Snow Leopards all share the same genus, but they look and act so different that you might not figure that out on your own. Would you?
Anyhow, read and review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!