Night Mammals
Summary: As night sets in the Lulworth Formation, United Kingdom, in the early Cretaceous, under the sleeping noses of the dinosaurs a new world emerges in which the mammals are awoke to start their day and among them is the predatory Triconodon as he encounters other mammals to search for some young dinosaurs to feast on.
Cast: Triconodon (mordax and averianovi), Echinodon, Celtedens, Sunnybatrachus, Dorsetochelys, Hylaeochelys, Pleurosternon, Becklesius, Dorsetisaurus, Durotrigia, Paramacellodus, Parasaurillus, Parviraptor, Pseudosaurillus, Purbicella, Nannosuchus, Theriosuchus, Owenodon, Albionbaatar, Amblotherium, Bolodon, Chunnelodon, Ctenacodon, Dorsetodon, Durlstotherium, Durlstodon, Gerhardodon, Magnimus, Kouriogenys, Peramuroides, Peraiocynodon, Peramus, Phascolestes, Purbeckodon, Plagiaulax, Spalacotherium, Sunnyodon, Thereuodon, Tinodon, and Trioracodon.
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It starts off in the Nature Lab of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles near an exhibit with live Brown Rats as Thomas appears next to the exhibit. "Rats, an animal that is seen as a pest in the human eyes, the bane of food storages and crops, and disease spreader. But they have been used in the medical field as test subjects. How can rats be so resilient? It's due to their small size, agility, to reproduce many offspring, and a generalist omnivorous diet. It's what allowed them to survive despite attempts to destroy them. Being small was the key to their success for them and other small mammals like this one." Brings out a cast model. "This is Triconodon; it is the type genus for the order Triconodonta, a group of mammals characterized by their three-cusped (triconodont) molar teeth. Its name means "three coned tooth". Since then, this "simplistic" type of dentition has been understood to be either ancestral for mammals or else to have evolved multiple times. Triconodon, therefore, is significant in the understanding of the evolution of mammals by originating the understanding of the "triconodont" grade and eutriconodont clade. Further discoveries on its skeletal anatomy also offer further insights on the palaeobiology of Mesozoic mammals. Like most eutriconodonts, Triconodon was probably a carnivore, its triconodont teeth being well adapted for shearing, and possessing other specifications such as long canines and powerful jaw musculature. Mammals have appeared since the Late Triassic, descendants of the great synapsids of the Paleozoic, but in the Mesozoic was dominated by the major reptilian groups including the Dinosaurs, so they have to stay small under the shadows of the giants. What was life like for our small mammal ancestors? What are they up to at night while the dinosaurs are sleeping?"
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Dusk has appeared over the Lulworth Formation, England, it is the Early Cretaceous Period 150 million years ago. During this time many new types of dinosaur appeared or came into prominence, including ceratopsians, spinosaurids, carcharodontosaurids and coelurosaurs, while survivors from the Late Jurassic continued to persist. It was a floodplain dominated by horsetails, conifers, and ferns.
The sky has turned pink, orange, and yellow as the sun begins to set. A small flock of heterodontosaurid dinosaurs known Echinodon are grazing on a hill of ferns and horsetails, they crop the vegetation with their beaks and chew them with their teeth, those upper canines are often used to defend themselves or fight one another, they could be smallest presumably adult heterodontosaur and one of the smallest non-avian dinosaurs. The flock is now making their way to the burrows in the hills where they sleep, using with legs and arms they can enlarge these burrows and sleeping communally offers warmth and companionship. Gathering in a forest clearing is a herd of large herbivore dinosaurs called Owenodon, Iguanodont ornithopods, they gather their young in the center as adults provide the shield barriers.
As for the smaller inhabitants like lizards including Becklesius, Dorsetisaurus, Durotrigia, Paramacellodus, Pseudosaurillus, Purbicella, and Parasaurillus take shelter in rock piles, crevices, and fallen logs. As they are cold-blooded, their body temperature lowers, and they would need to warm up when the sun returns tomorrow. They also must take shelter for there are large nocturnal predators lurking about.
As soon as the sun has set, a strange new world has appeared in the darkness. Emerging from its burrow is a Triconodon, this male belongs to the mordax species after having a long day's sleep, it's time for this hunter to find some food. Triconodonwas about as large as a modern house cat and their olfactory lobe is large, suggesting a well developed sense of smell. He sniffs the area and follows the source. Burrowing underground is Peraiocynodon, a Docodont mammal searching for worms and bugs underground. Climbing bushes, shrubs, and walking along the forest floor, the carnivorous Magnimus, Peramus, Tinodon, and Trioracodon search for insect and lizard prey.
Another hunter slithering among the trees is a snake known as Parviraptor. It is classified as a basal snake based on skull morphology. It shares most skull features with modern snakes, but notably does not have the lateral notches in the lower jaw found in modern snakes. Its vertebrae share all diagnostic features of later snakes. Analysis of Parviraptor fossils supports the hypothesis that snake ancestors evolved snakelike heads earlier than snakelike bodies. The snakes may come out during the night especially when it is during the hot weather since the snakes will wait until nightfall and they can delay the hunting up to the time that the environment is cool during evening. There are others that may be active at the sunset naturally.
Emerging from a fallen decomposing tree are some lizard-like salamander amphibians called Celtedens. They belong to an extinct family called Albanerpetontidae that appeared in the Middle Jurassic 160 million years ago. As the only members of the order Allocaudata, they are thought to be allied with living amphibians belonging to Lissamphibia. Despite a superficially salamander-like bodyform, their anatomy is strongly divergent from modern amphibians in numerous aspects. It absorbs oxygen entirely through the skin via cutaneous respiration and lacks lungs like plethodontid salamanders, due to the length of the hyoid entoglossal process. Night is the time for them to come out, where the temperature is cool and their moist sensitive skin won't burn in the hot sun. They are sit-and-wait terrestrial predators and fed on invertebrates which they catch with their ballistic tongues akin to those of chameleons and plethodontid salamanders. A Durlstodon catches a Celtdens, but lets go realizing that the salamander released poisonous toxins from its skin and goes off to search for something else.
At the lake, the sound of chirps and ribbits echo in the darkness of the night. Hundreds of frogs called Sunnybatrachus have gathered to find food, socialize, and mate. The males are calling out to the females, who are drawn to their chirping suitors. The males would then mount and attach to the females who are larger than them. After the frogs mate, the females will lay eggs underwater. Under the mud, turtles like Dorsetochelys, Hylaeochely, and Pleurosternon are sleeping, they generally sleep for about 4 to 7 hours each night, and they get oxygen by breathing from their rear ends. There are also active hunters glowing with red and orange eye shine on the banks of the lake are Nannosuchus its name meaning "dwarf crocodile" is an extinct genus of goniopholidid mesoeucrocodylian along with an extinct genus of atoposaurid neosuchian calledTheriosuchus. A Thereuodon emerges from its nest cavity hole in a tree as it searches for its next prey as a Peramuroides crawls on the forest floor, but then the male Triconodon pops out and chases the mammal and grabs its throat killing it.
Emerging from their burrows are mammals called multituberculates these include Albionbaatar, Amblotherium, Bolodon, Chunnelodon, Ctenacodon, Sunnyodon, Gerhardodon, and Dorsetodon, they come out at night to feed on the plants close by and live in social colonies. A Gerhardodon squeaks as it had spotted a hunter, a small predatory mammal called Durlstotherium. The multituberculates retreated to their burrows, But the Durlstotherium kills a Bolodon in the throat with its sharp teeth and carries it away to feast.
The male Triconodon walks along the forest floor, another Triconodon passes by him. This Triconodon has a Chunnelodon in her mouth, she belongs to the recently described averianovi species, this mother returns to the burrow to feed her young, she is now starting to wean them from milk and bringing back food home is the way these little hunters will learn to taste solid food and familiar with when they start off on their own. Fossils of juvenile specimens have shown face with the replacement of their lower fourth premolar, erupting and coming into use when at least three out of its four molars were already fully erupted.
Outside the tree, A Kouriogenys searches in a fallen log, a Plagiaulax walks about in the forest floor while a Phascolestes climbs down to drink at the lake, and underground, A pair of Purbeckodon are caring for their young in their burrow as they are descendants of the Cynodont Clade. A Spalacotherium climbs up the sleeping bodies of the Owenodons as the Night continues on.
The male Triconodon finds an Echinodon burrow and he sees the bristle quill feather covered small dinosaurs sleeping peacefully. The young are the targets to go after than the adults, the male slowly approaches and snags the youngster on the very edge of the communal pile. He runs out with the squealing youngster as the Parents chase him off and watch as one of their young is taken by the predator into the darkness of the forest.
Dusk has appeared in the sky, for most of the animals including mammals its time to return to their homes and sleep as day approaches. For the Triconodon after a hardy meal goes into his burrow and tucks himself in as he closes his eyes to sleep until another night comes for the mammals to rise up. But in the far off future this will continue in his descendants, but by then the non-avian dinosaurs will be long gone and they will dominate the earth.
Trivia/Reference:
-Nothing much, most of the behaviors of most of the animals are based on modern day animals and their phylogenetic classification in their family trees.
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The Next Story is "The Lone Giant", starring our first sauropod protagonist and taking us to the Late Jurassic, a solitary Female Brachiosaurus finds a family and her leadership is put to the test to help them through the dry Season.
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