Fleeing the Flames

Summary: In the Vectis and Wessex Formations, a mother Hypsilophodon mother lives with her offspring, after her mate's absence, she and her colony must escape a wildfire that threatens all life by avoiding the fire and predators in waiting.

Cast: Hypsilophodon (Focus), Iguanodon(Cameo), Mantellisaurus, Yaverlestes, Baryonyx, Polacanthus, Valdosaurus, Eotyrannus, Neovenator, "Vectispinus", Vectiraptor, Caulkicephalus, Istiodactylus, Helocheyldra, Anteophthalmosuchus (hooleyi and epikrator), Eocamerotus, Opolosaurus, Wightia, Aristosuchus, Calamanosaurus, Helochelydra, Yaverlandia, Riparovenator, Ceratosuchops, Brighstoneus, Egertonodus, Enaliornis, Eobaatar, Goniopholis, Hulkepholis, Koumpiodontosuchus, Loxaulax, Nicorhynchus, Vectidraco, Vectisuchus, Wesserpeton, Vectocleidus, Hylaeochampsa, Cretamygale, Vectiselachos, Brodiechelys, Vectisuchus, Uktenadactylus, Coloborhynchus, "Angloposeidon", Ornithodesmus, Brachyphyllum, Weichselia, and Vectipelta.

In an office room with many displays of fossils mostly of skulls, body parts, and skeletons of dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures placed throughout the room, Thomas Tran is standing next to a complete skeleton of a small dinosaur on a podium. "Dinosaurs came in different sizes and shapes, although most of them think of the larger species, we easily forget there were small dinosaurs too," As he brings out a life-like cast of the dinosaur. "Like Hypsilophodon, meaning "high-crested tooth." It was one of the first dinosaurs to be described. This was a relatively small dinosaur, though not quite as small as Compsognathus. Like most small dinosaurs, Hypsilophodon was bipedal: it ran on two legs. Its entire body was built for running. Numerous anatomical features aided this, such as light-weight, minimized skeleton, low, aerodynamic posture, long legs, and stiff tail — immobilized by ossified tendons for balance. Despite living in the last of the periods in which non-avian dinosaurs walked the earth, the Cretaceous, Hypsilophodon had several seemingly "primitive" features. For example, five digits were on each hand and four on each foot. With Hypsilophodon the fifth finger had gained a specialized function: being opposable it could serve to grasp food items. It had a pointed head equipped with a sharp beak used to bite off plant material, much like modern-day parrots. Older studies have given rise to many misconceptions about Hypsilophodon that it was an armored, arboreal animal and could be found in areas outside of Wight. During the past decades, new research has gradually shown this to be incorrect. Hypsilophodon fossils were probably accumulated in a single mass mortality event, so it has been considered likely that the animals moved in large groups. For these reasons, the hypsilophodonts, particularly Hypsilophodon, have often been referred to as the "deer of the Mesozoic''. Hypsilophodon has taught us how dinosaurs were diverse in species and size during the Mesozoic, it would be amazing to see what the life of these animals were."

. . . . .

The Isle of Wight, 130 million years ago, in the Vectis and Wessex Formation, the Dry Season has come. But the rains have failed to come. The place is now in the middle of a drought. Plants store moisture and reduce their water intake, some plants develop a waxy substance as a form of sunscreen against the sun, and some plants and trees have their leaves turn yellow and brown. For the dinosaurs, hard times are ahead, among them emerging from the bushes and horsetails is a mother Hypsilophodon.

She is a mother of five young, and she calls to them to come out, as they rushed out knowing from their mother that the coast is clear, they start to playfight with one another, and two of them roll on top of each other as the other youngsters placed its left foot on its belly of its sibling.

The mother is part of a large colony herd of hundred to hundred and fifty individuals; some of the members have left the colony to search for new feeding grounds among the scouts is the mother's mate and her young's father, who he and the other scouts haven't returned to in several days. They will starve to death if they don't move to a new place to feed soon and something sinister is coming that the dinosaurs in the area aren't prepared for.

The colony follows another source in search of food lumbering by, a multi-species herd of herbivores. Ornithopods like Iguanodons, including one led by the Lead Male, Mantellisaurus, Valdosaurus, and Brighstoneus, ankylosaurs like Polacanthus, and the sauropods, Opolosaurus, and Eucamerotus. The herds have been constantly on the move searching for greener pastures to survive the dry season. The Hypsilophodons follow the large herds to feed off the scraps of leaves and vegetation left by the larger herbivores alongside small insects and animals disturbed by their browsing habits and large feet.

The Hypsilophodon colony soon joins the masses on their migration, Some of the Hypsilophodons find a rotten log, and the small ornithopods use their beaks to break through the bark using their arms to pull it off while eating the rotten wood, they find small insects and other animals. The mother pulls out a millipede which she grabs with her arms and eats with her beak, but millipedes produce toxic irritating fluids, but she rubs the millipedes on the dirt and sand to remove those toxins making it safer to eat. Some of the others found some Wesserpeton and do the same routine rubbing the amphibians on the ground to remove the poisonous toxin glands and even a scout drags out a Cretamygale, spider out from her trapdoor when it stumbles upon the webbing laying at her entrance. The spider rears up showing its fangs, but the small dinosaurs peck the spider from all sides as they pull the spider apart as they feast.

Then suddenly, the scout stops and sniffs the air, nearby on a hill covered with dried-up vegetation due to the drought, the clouds have come, but this is not the rain. It is a storm that produces thunder and lightning, is it a dry thunderstorm that happens when most of its precipitation evaporates before reaching the ground. Lightning from the clouds strikes the dried-up vegetation igniting a wildfire. Scouts sensing the danger let out loud chirping alarm calls which spread among the herds, the large herbivores panic and bellow in confusion, they must escape the flames. As the dinosaurs flee the flames the fire spreads in the undergrowth

mammals like Yaverlestes, Eobaatar, Loxaulax, and Yaverlandia, flee the flames, but this is an opportunity for the predators. Soon packs of Eotyrannus, Neovenator, Vectiraptor, Aristosuchus, Calamosaurus, and Ornithodesmus arrived at the edge of the flames waiting for fleeing prey to come to them.

An Aristosuchus snatches an Eobaatar while a Calamosaurus snatches a Loxaulax, and two Ornithodesmus fight over a Yaverlandia in a tug-a-war with their jaws which one of them caught. The pack of Vectiraptors comes upon a young fleeing Brighstoneus with legs and arms burned from the fire, two Vectiraptors jump on the ornithopod's back and another kicks it in the face causing the dinosaur to collapse to the floor as desperate tries to fight back by clawing and kicking as they came for the killing blow. An Opolosaurus fleeing the fire slips from a cliff nearby falling to its death as the Neoveantors came upon the sauropod at the bottom of the cliffside. Mother Hypsilophodon and her young stay close to her as they flee the fire dodging falling branches and trunks of trees combined with burning flames on the vegetation, they managed to make it to the fire line, when an Eotyrannus appears running towards them, using their long legs to run and long tail for balance they turned left and managed to escape the tyrannosaur's jaws. The Eotyrannus gives chase after the Hypsilophodon family, but they manage to give the theropod the slip. Instead, the Eotyrannus joins the others feeding on a young Iguanodon they caught.

After escaping the wildfire, The herd soon arrives at a firebreak and the vegetation they have been looking for is an ever-flowing river. The water and moisture of the plants that have roots growing with the riverbed could help slow down and contain the fire and remain green. Pterosaurs, Caulkicephalus, Wightia, Nicorhynchus, Vectidraco, Uktenadactylus rodriguesae, and Coloborhynchus along with Enaliornis, rest on the banks of the river. Herbivorous turtles, Brodiechelys, hide among the river vegetation and there were also dead bodies floating down the river, those who drowned while crossing or escaping the flames. The bodies attract turtles, Helochelydra, sharks, Egertonodus, Vectiselachos, mesoeucrocodylians and crocodyliforms, Anteophthalmosuchus hooleyi and epikrator, Goniopholis, Hulkepholis, Koumpiodontosuchus, Vectisuchus, and Hylaeochampsa feast on the dead bodies of the injured and drowned.

But there are predators here also Baryonyx, "Vectispinus", Riparovenator, Ceratosuchops,

Soon the fire died down, and the survivors stick close to the riverbanks in the lush green areas. The landscape was burned with many burned trees, plants, and ashes littering the forest floor. There were also burnt and broken logs and burned dead bodies of those who didn't escape the flames. The Scavengers have arrived as flocks of Istiodactylus land on the ash-ladden ground to feed on the dead bodies, this also attracts the other predators as several other Eotyrannus, Neovenator, Vectiraptor, Aristosuchus, Calamosaurus, Ornithodesmus, Baryonyx, "Vectispinus", Riparovenator, and Ceratosuchops feast on the burnt carcasses. One Baryonyx chases off the flock of Hypsilophodons when they got too close to the spinosaur.

The Herbivores then started to enter the fire-burned areas, the herbivores feasted on the burnt wood and bark as a source of charcoal and along with newly growing plants shoots and seedlings. Some plants need fire to spread their seeds like the conifers like Brachyphyllum and fires help rejuvenate the landscape the ashes bring new fertility to the soil and allow new plants to take in the spaces left by the old growth plants' ferns like Weichselia, are the primary colonizers following the destruction of pre-existing vegetation. Some of the small predators like the Vectiraptors dust bath in the ashes to get rid of parasites. One of the Hypsilophodons feeding on the small leaves of the recovering shrub sniffs out an approaching Eotyrannus and runs for cover. The other Hypsilophodons follow suit as some duck under and climb over a browsing Polacanthus.

The Dinosaurs travel downriver to a coastal floodplain swamp with the view of the Tethys Sea, the herbivores were later joined by the other herbivores. A species of sauropods, "Angloposeidon" feed on the tall trees as the Opolosaurus and Eocamerotus gathered to feed and bathe in the waters.

The Polacanthus come upon a mud wallow as they lay down and rubbed their bodies with mud to get rid of parasites along with consuming the mud to break down the poisonous toxins of the plants they eat. These armored dinosaurs were considered the only known ankylosaurs in Wessex, that is until recently. They were later joined by a herd of Vectipelta, the "Isle of Wight shield." This ankylosaur was just recently described and is the first ankylosaur identified from the Isle of Wight in 142 years.

As the herds and predators establish in the floodplains to recover and recuperate from the fire, an Eotyrannus walking by is hissed with a warning by the mother Hypsilopohon as she protects her young while confronting the theropod as it walks away. The Dinosaurs would stay here for the rest of the dry season until the rains return marking the start of the wet season. In the waters, a pod of plesiosaurs called Vectocleidus, these marine reptiles occasionally visit brackish and freshwater systems in search of food. The other dinosaurs watched the plesiosaurs as they drank and wallowed in the waters, although a Baryonyx tried to snatch one, they often ignored one another.

Then a loud sound of chirps and screeches was heard, and the scouting party returned to the colony as the scouts reunited with their mates and families. The Scot party originally was going to tell the colony of this place, but the wildfire brought them there. Among the scouts was the mother hypsilophodon's mate, both adults chirped and rubbed their heads nuzzling one another in affection renewing their bonds as the chicks chirped and warbled reuniting with their father. For now, the Hypsilophodon family will live here until the time to move again, as they face the trials and natural elements of our Primeval Planet.

Trivia/References:

-The mother Hypsilophon eating millipedes and small animals is based on the artwork from All Yesterdays and how it eats it is based on meerkats.

-The Dinosaurs eating charcoal and dustbathing are taken from Prehistoric Planet.

DeviantArt:

-The Baby Hypsilophodon playing posture is based on the artwork, "[Dinovember day 17] - Hypsilophodon" by M4WiE.

-The Wildfire aftermath is based on a mural, "The Day After the Fire" by DenerDPaleoarts.

-The Hypsilophodon fleeing the Eotyrannus is based on the artwork, "Most Successful Archosaur" by WildandNatureFan.

-The Hypsilophodon jumping over the Polacanthus is based on "The Chase - The Wessex Formation" by LeccathuFurvicael

-The Baryonyx chasing off the Hypsilophodons is based on "Wessex Community: a low poly scene" by kuzim.

-The mother Hypsilohpdon confronting the Eotyrannus and protecting her young is based on "A Brave Parent" by MarioLanzas

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The Next Story is "Mary Ann's Sea Dragon" focusing on four young Ichthyosaurus of four species as they navigate their ocean home learning to hunt co-operative, explore the dark depths of the deep, and avoid the jaws of their larger predatory relative.

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