Unlikely Allies
Summary: In the Cloverly Formation, North America, 110 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous, A lone Deinonychus who left his family pack forms an unlikely friendship with the ecosystem's top predator.
Cast: (Focus Animal) Deinonychus, Tenontosaurus, Acrocanthosaurus, Sauroposeidon, Sauropelta, Tatankacephalus, Microvenator, Zephyrosaurus, Aquilops, Gobicodon, Naomichelys, Glyptops, Ceratodus, and Radiodactylus.
It starts with Thomas with a Harris Hawk on a perch as he begins to speak. "This here is a Harris Hawk, it's unique because while most birds of prey hunt alone this one hunt in cooperated coordinated packs. It is a predator with a sharp beak, talon feet, and claws that can grasp and hold its prey. Birds of prey are also called raptors, our modern-day ones are quite different from the raptors of prehistoric times including this." Thomas brings out a cast model of a feathered raptor in his hand. "This is Deinonychus, meaning "Terrible claw", a dromaeosaur dinosaur. It was a formidable hunter during the early Cretaceous in North America. It's named for this sickle claw." Brings out a fossil bone of a sickle claw of a dinosaur. "This is the sickle claw of a raptor called Deinonychus, a dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that roamed the early cretaceous in North America, and this unusually large, sickle-shaped talon which would be located on the second toe of each hind foot gives its name, "Terrible claw", this talon would help stab and hold down on its prey just like how most birds of prey do. The popular conception of dinosaurs at the time was they were seen as plodding, reptilian giants. That all changed when Paleontologist John Ostrom's study of Deinonychus in the late 1960s revolutionized the way scientists thought about dinosaurs, leading to the "dinosaur renaissance" and igniting the debate on whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold-blooded. We now know they were more warm-blooded or in between, Ostrom noted Deinonychus's small body, sleek, horizontal posture, ratite-like spine, and enlarged raptorial claws on the feet, suggesting an active, agile predator. Deinonychus remains have been found closely associated with those of the ornithopod Tenontosaurus. Teeth discovered associated with Tenontosaurus specimens imply they were hunted, or at least scavenged upon, by Deinonychus. The popular depiction was portraying the Deinonychus as a pack hunter like the Harris' Hawk, but new studies are calling out that it wasn't likely, Modern archosaurs like birds and crocodiles, and Komodo dragons typically display little cooperative hunting; instead, they usually either solitary hunters or are drawn to previously killed carcasses, where much conflict occurs between individuals of the same species. For example, in situations where groups of Komodo dragons are eating together, the largest individuals eat first and will attack smaller Komodos that attempt to feed; if the smaller animal is killed, it is cannibalized. When this information is applied to the tenontosaur sites, it appears that what is found is consistent with Deinonychus having a Komodo or crocodile-like feeding strategy. Although track sites with similar foot spacing and parallel trackways, imply gregarious packing behavior, so if Deinonychus wasn't a pack hunter, how did it catch its prey alone, or perhaps an ally from an unlikely source?"
. . . . .
The sun appears over the hills of the Cloverly Formation across Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah in the western USA, 110 million years ago, the early Cretaceous, as the sun's rays cast through the branches of the tall trees reaching into the understory of ferns and bushes. The rumbles of loud distance calls of large dinosaurs combined with the chirps and squeaks of the small dinosaurs filled the morning day.
As sunrise has come, a figure is seen sleeping curled up with its feather tail curled and head tucked under its left wing. A golden amber eye opens up as the figure starts to wake up. The creature stands up to reveal itself in the sunlight shining on its snout, feathered body, and wings, and the glistening sparkle from the claws from its arms to its feet including the iconic sickle claw. This is a Deinonychus.
This young male is all by himself who left his family pack. But being a loner Hunter comes with challenges, he must hunt small prey, and taking on very large and dangerous prey would be a risk even in a group including the most common herbivore in the area. As the raptors look from a distance on a hillside, as a walking four-legged dinosaur plodding by.
This is Tenontosaurus, an Ornithopod dinosaur that can move on four legs and two legs. Tenontosaurus are a very abundant prey species in the ecosystem, but they are also one of the most difficult. They have a large body and a long tail to defend themselves, it only takes a large pack of raptors or a large carnivore to take this herbivore down.
The Deinonychus watches the ornithopod staring with its golden eyes. It's been many months since he had last tasted Tenontosaurus back when he was in the pack. Experience taught him that they are not to be trifled with, he has seen many members of his pack getting injured and even killed by them. So that's why he prefers to leave the herbivores alone.
The Dromaeosaur starts off preening his feathers with his snout, doing so helps clean the plumage of debris and parasites. Then he gives himself a scratch from his right leg claws to relieve an itch in his head. Before long he starts off to find some breakfast.
In the skies, flocks of Radiodactylus soar over the landscape. In the forest floor among the ferns, cycads, and bushes, herds of small dinosaurs were browsing in the leaves and ferns growing in the area. Some unusual beaked ones were pecking through the bark of a fallen tree in search of grubs.
The Microvenator, a primitive Oviraptorosaur, this flock is feeding on nuts, leaves, and insects as they peck with their beaks. Another herd is Zephyrosaurus coming out of their burrows, these orodromine dinosaurs are one of the swiftest Dinosaurs in the Cloverly. Their beaks help break down plant matter and chew them with their cheeks. A couple of them made bellowing calls with their throat sacs that echoed throughout the landscape. Then there are the Aquilops, these unusual ceratopsid dinosaurs have beaks that have a rostral, the bone core of the snout beak, that curves downwards, and an arched keel on its top with a bump on the front. The bumps would help peck through the wood bark in search of grubs in fallen logs.
Soon the Deinonychus sees the mixed species herd as it hides among the ferns and bushes, it slowly stalks creeping closer and closer, stopping when one of the scouts or individuals notices something is wrong by looking up. Unfortunately, his hunt is would take an unexpected turn.
A small mammal jumps out of the ferns causing the small dinosaurs to scatter in all directions squawking and screeching in fright. This is a Gobiconodon, one of the largest mammals known for its size in the Mesozoic. Its shearing molar teeth, large canine-like incisors, and powerful jaw and forelimb musculature make it a formidable predator to other small mammals and even small and young dinosaurs.
Just as the Gobiconodon was running toward an Aquilops. The Deinonychus runs out of hiding going after the Gobiconodon soon it grabs the mammal with its jaws killing it with one bite and swallowing it whole. This wasn't the first meal of the day that he was expecting, but this would do for now.
The Deinonychus after finishing its meal continues to walk down a game trail to the river. This trail made by large herbivore dinosaurs has been used by many creatures to get around through the forest. Towering over the trees are the giants of the early Cretaceous that even dwarf Deinonychus.
Sauroposeidon named after the Greek God of the sea, are among the tallest long neck sauropods ever known with a neck length up to 54–59 feet. Such a long neck helps them reach the tops of trees to feed on leaves inaccessible to other dinosaurs and they support their weight with air sacs in their bodies. There are even some external resonation sacs that are earlobe wattles dangling from the head of the sauropod. They would have been used for communication and to attract a mate. Their rumbling bellowing made through the air sacs can be heard from long distances across the landscape.
The deinonychus arrives at the river, this is a main source of water for many animals to come and drink. On the rocks and fallen logs turtles like Naomichelys and Glyptops bask in the warmth of the sun's rays to heat their exothermic bodies. In the waters are ancient fishes known as lungfish called Ceratodus. Their closest relative today is the Queensland Lungfish, they have a single dorsal lung, used to supplement the oxygen supply through the gills. During times of excessive activity, drought, or high temperatures (when water becomes deoxygenated), or when prevailing conditions inhibit normal functioning of the gills, the lungfish can rise to the surface and swallow air into its lung.
The Deinonychus arrives to drink at the river other dinosaurs were present too. The Tenonotosaurus, Aquilops, Microvenators, Zephyrosaurus, and Sauroposeidon. Among them were also armored dinosaurs with rows of armored scutes and large long spikes jutting out on the sides and from the top.
The largest is Sauropelta, the earliest known genus of nodosaurid, it has a distinctively long tail that made up about half of its body length. Although its body was smaller than a modern black rhinoceros, Sauropelta was about the same mass, weighing in at about 2.2 short tons. The extra weight was largely due to its extensive coverage of bony armor, including the characteristically large spines projecting from its neck. The smaller one is Tatankacephalus, both nodosaurs have narrow snouts making them very selective browsers feeding on a variety of conifers and cycads. Their bony armor would have protected them from predators including Deinonychus.
The Deinonychus sees two young members of his species looking curiously at the Tatankacephalus. They were trying to figure out how to kill this armored dinosaur as one kills on top, but the nodosaur doesn't want any trouble with these raptors and tried to shake the raptor off and bellows loudly as it walks back to the herd. This caused the other raptor to jump off and for the two Deinonychus to run off.
The dinosaurs continued drinking while some like the Deinonychus and Thescelosaurus drink similar to birds others the Sauroposeidon suck pump the water, especially with their long necks.
Soon after quenching his thirst, he goes off into the forest to find a bigger satisfying meal. A lone solitary Hunter, he must be patient when hunting small and quick prey and knows not to be foolish with large defensive prey. If he doesn't eat something soon, he'll grow desperate, and eventually starve.
The Deinonychus arrives at a clearing to see various Deinonychus gathering around ranging from solitary loners, breeding pairs, sibling groups, or family packs. Deinonychus are quite territorial, sticking to their territories and keeping their distance from each other, there is sometimes conflict and battles between them often leading to injuries or death. For this occasion, they gathered here because of something very big.
Laying on its right side with his neck and head stuck up on the trees is a dead Sauroposeidon that has succumbed to natural causes. This has attached a lot of scavengers, but they're not advancing to the carcass even the Radiodactylus flocks prefer not to edge closer. The young Deinonychus is confused about what's happening, he notices one of the individuals has facial tumors in its face, this is cancer, this disease is well-known in most animals including humans, and is fatal mostly to those at the end of their life. Despite several minutes of waiting, Impatience gets the better of him. He advances into the carcass and starts feeding on an open wound in the neck. The other Deinonychus started hissing, fluffing their feathers, and spreading their wings as if to intimidate. It's not too long for the young Deinonychus to learn the truth, as a shadow looks over him as he stops feeding and looks up to see a large predator bigger than he is. This predator had long, low, narrow, snout, shark-like teeth, three-fingered claws, and a hump-like back. It was the Top Predator of this ecosystem, the T. Rex of its time, the sheriff of these here parts, Acrocanthosaurus.
Acrocanthosaurus was a large carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur. Its hump-like back gives the carnivore its name, "High-spined lizard" due to the high neural spines on many of its vertebrae, which most likely supported a ridge of muscle over the animal's neck, back, and hips. It was one of the largest predator theropods that ever lived and preyed on large dinosaurs. It won't tolerate scavengers at her kill especially Deinonychus who are no more than a nuisance.
The young Deinonychus realized the reason for all this and decided to run back to the others not wanting to face the fury of the apex predator. The Acrocanthosaurus seeing this gives no chase and resumes back to feeding sooner or later she'll be full and will leave for the scavengers.
A few hours passed with the predator gone and the scavengers advanced to eat what was left. There are plenty of disputes and squabbles amongst them through hissing and pecking or biting at each other in the pterosaurs and raptors. Only the young raptor who was low in the pecking order waits his turn. By the time many leave with their fill, the young male dromaeosaur eats whatever is left.
As sunset approaches the young male Deinonychus is off to sleep for the night. Suddenly he hears a commotion going on and runs off to the source. He can hear the sounds of screeching, cawing, and bellowing in the distance. He sees a family pack of Deinonychus trying to take down a Tenonotosaurus.
The Tenonotosaurus covered with recently opened wounds bellows and rears up on its hind legs to intimidate to make itself bigger. The two raptors were hissing and raising their wings to distract the ornithopod. One of the three raptors, a sub-adult tried to tackle it from behind only to be slacked off by the long tail of the ornithopod and then the ornithopod stomped the raptor to the ground with forelimbs. The raptor was slammed to the ground and the impact killed this individual. The Tenonotosaurus drives the other raptors off and goes on to feast on the flesh of the dead raptor. Herbivores sometimes eat meat from small animals which gives them protein and calcium. The Young raptor witnessing it is fully aware of the dangers these herbivores can bring as he sulks way into the darkness of the forest.
The Next day, the young Deinonychus was off searching for food again. As the hours passed, there haven't been sightings of small prey lately and he will soon starve. Soon he sees the Acrocanthosaurus in a clearing, she's made a kill which was a young Sauroposeidon that she finished eating lying down on the ground. The young Deinonychus watches deciding on making the right decision to leave or scavenge and risk being killed. He makes a hard gamble and slowly approaches the carcass to feed tearing chunks of flesh. The Acrocanthosaurus notices the raptor, but instead of chasing him off, she tolerates him as the theropod is full, it's not worth the effort.
Another Acrocanthosaurus had arrived, and the young male deinonychus sees him and hissed fiercely at the intruder while spreading his wings, this alarms the Acrocanthosaurus and she gets up and k bellow roars at the intruder. The two theropods size each other up below roaring and hissing at one another, snapping with their jaws and biting each other in the snout. The larger female drives the younger theropod off. The young Deinonychus did a great job warning her to drive competitors and rivals off the carcass and someday she might repay him.
Throughout the rest of the day, the Deinonychus follows the large predator whatever she goes while keeping a distance away. Over time through the coming weeks, the pair are seen drinking together by the river, and when she made a kill, the dromaeosaur would alert her of intruders.
Then one day as the young male Deinonychus was resting on a rock, something charged at him. An aggressive male Tenonotosaurus since it's the breeding season males can be quite aggressive, after being shoved to the ground he slowly gets up and faces the herbivore. The Tenonotosaurus rears up and stomps with his forelimbs while the deinonychus hissed spreading his wings. The Bull chases the raptor as the young male avoids the ornithopod's stomps and tail whips. The Tenonotosaurus was about to pin the raptor down, the Acrocanthosaurus shows up and rams the Tenonotosaurus to the side, then she grabs the ornithopod with her jaws by the neck, and then one bite to the throat, she kills the herbivore.
Only a large predator could take down a large herbivore like Tenonotosaurus, as she starts to feast the young male Deinonychus waits his turn to feed on the kill. After she has finished her fill, the raptor starts to tear chunks of flesh from the body. These predators have worked together to bring down something larger.
The two predators then look out to the sunset while standing on a hill overlooking the Cloverly Forest. These two theropods normally competitors have formed an unlikely alliance in which they hunt together to take down larger prey. But soon, they will go their separate ways to start families of their own. But this relationship will live on with modern-day predators like wolves, tigers, jackals, ravens, badgers, and coyotes.
Trivia/References
-The lone Tenonotsuaurus walking alone is based on an artwork by John Conway from "All Yesterdays."
All Your Yesterdays
-The Cancer face Deinoychus is based on an artwork by Alessio Ciaffi, titled "Cancer." We even found fossil evidence of cancer in Centrosaurus.
- The Tenontosaurus eating the Deinonychus it has killed is based on an artwork by "Ramul", titled "Tastes Like Chicken." There is evidence of herbivores eating small animals like Deer, Cattle, and Hippopotamus.
-The Thesecelosaurusu drinking like a bird and the Tenontosaurus defending itself with its whiplike tail from a deinonychus to show how aggressive herbivores can be are based on the artworks by Tom Parker, titled "Uncommon Scenes."
- The Dead Sauroposeidon scene is based on the artwork called "An Accidental Death," by
Tuomas Koivurinne
-The Aquilops eating bugs and using the sharp point part of its beak to break through wood is based on woodpeckers.
-The Hunting Behavior and symbiosis of the Acrocanthosaurus and Deinonychus are based on a DeviantArt artwork, titled "We're Taking You Down," by WildandNatureFan, and the animals with similar relationships like Gray Wolves and Ravens, Bengal Tigers and Golden Jackals, and Coyotes and American Badgers-
-The Sauroposeidons' gular resonation sacs and ear lobes are speculative based on the designs of Dane Pavitt from a video, "Forest Voices" on Youtube.
You can suggest ideas for stories for the other creatures, so you can suggest dialogues, scenes, and natural or speculative behaviors for the prehistoric animals.
Comments and positive feedback are helpful to make this story more complete, but negative, hateful, and spam comments are not allowed and will be reported.
The Next Story is Sail Back Tail which would take us to the Permian period to see the iconic Dimetrodon.
This is WildExpert24 signing off.