The Early Giants

Summary: Taking place in the Trossingen Formation, Germany, 215 Million years ago during the Late Triassic as two Plateosaurus mothers raise their young in a dangerous world.

Cast: Plateosaurus (trossingensis and longiceps)(Focus), Tuebingosaurus, Liliensternus, Ruehleia, Gresslyosaurus, Gerrothorax, Plagiosaurus, Proganochelys, and Cyclotosaurus.

It starts in a room with Thomas next to a podium featuring a skull of a dinosaur. "Dinosaurs first evolved in the Late Triassic, although most of them were small some have managed to grow to large sizes and eventually their descendants would become the largest land animals on earth, but before the Sauropods there were their ancestors the sauropodomorphs which were smaller than them and they stood on two legs one of them was this one." As he brings out a cast model figure of the dinosaur. "Plateosaurus this dinosaur was discovered in 1834 by Johann Friedrich Engelhardt and described three years later by Hermann von Meyer, Plateosaurus was the fifth named dinosaur genus that is still considered valid. Although it had been described before Richard Owen formally named Dinosauria in 1842, it was not one of the three genera used by Owen to define the group, because, at the time, it was poorly known and difficult to identify as a dinosaur. It is now among the dinosaurs best known to science: over 100 skeletons have been found, some of them nearly complete. Plateosaurus was a bipedal herbivore with a small skull on a long, flexible neck, sharp but plump plant-crushing teeth, powerful hind limbs, short but muscular arms, and grasping hands with large claws on three fingers, possibly used for defense and feeding. Unusually for a dinosaur, Plateosaurus showed strong developmental plasticity: instead of having a fairly uniform adult size, fully grown individuals were between 4.8 and 10 meters (16 and 33 ft) long and weighed between 600 and 4,000 kilograms (1,300 and 8,800 lb). Despite the great quantity and excellent quality of the fossil material, Plateosaurus was for a long time one of the most misunderstood dinosaurs. Some researchers proposed theories that were later shown to conflict with geological and palaeontological evidence but have become the paradigm of public opinion. Since 1980 the taxonomy (relationships), taphonomy (how the animals became embedded and fossilized), biomechanics (how their skeletons worked), and palaeobiology (life circumstances) of Plateosaurus have been re-studied in detail, altering the interpretation of the animal's biology, posture and behavior. But what was this misunderstood dinosaur like when it was alive and breathing?"

The Late Triassic of Germany was a hot and arid landscape with ferns, cycads, and horsetails dotting the land and waterways. Every continent on Earth was all connected to a big Supercontinent called Pangea. Their many animal groups have evolved and diversified into different forms, but a newcomer has arrived, the dinosaurs. The first early dinosaurs were small since they have to deal with the other large animals from herbivorous dicynodonts, armored aetosaurs, predatory archosaurs, and phytosaurs. But some dinosaurs in some places have grown big and taken the role of the large herbivores in their ecosystem among those giants were the sauropodomorphs like Plateosaurus.

Two Females of different species, Plateosaurus trossingensis, and Plateosaurus longiceps, have joined many other females to a clearing out in the semi-arid plain. It was close to a waterhole and many females have gathered. Some individuals either come to the water to drink or feed from either the bushes or trees. The males show their colorful heads, inflating their nasal sacs, and throat sacs constantly making loud booms and long groans as they went about their businesses to appease the eyes of the females. One male Plateosaurus longiceps has seemed to impress the female who allows him to mount her.

Suddenly a raw calling sound was made and the herd looked over to see two other Plateosaurus trossingensis males looking directly at each other and emitting angry-sounding moans. This younger male is challenging the older male for the position to mate with the most desirable females and when both distanced they spread out their hands and held up their claws higher as they continued making their moans. The commotion got even louder and attracted the rest of the herd who went over to where the two males were. The two proceeded to try to intimidate each other with their moans coming from their inflating throat sacs and their sharp claws in an attempt to get the other intimidated into giving up. But when that didn't happen, the two plateosaurs ran into each other forwards and locked one another in a bear hug to begin pushing with the older-looking male succeeding at first only to be pushed back by the younger one. The first pushing round ended with the older male pushing the young one back and smacking him on the side of his body with his own. This did knock the younger male aside briefly, but he managed to stay on his feet and give the older one a body smack as well. Next, they went into another shoving pushing that briefly stopped with the older male pushing the younger one back but coming back into the fight to push the older one. During this shoving match, the younger male opened his jaws and closed them on the neck of the older male who screamed painfully. He broke free by smacking the younger male in the face using his head and started pushing him back more only for the younger plateosaur to deliver another bite to his neck. Their fight was getting more intense the longer it went on. The older plateosaur delivered another body smack to the younger one which was the hardest strike he had landed on his rival yet. This action got the younger male very angry and he bellowed softly before lashing out with sharp claws on his right hand. He struck the competitor on the left of his body right near where the base of the neck. The older male Plateosaurus cried out upon the strike happening and slowly began to back away before the younger male delivered his body smack that succeeded in pushing the older one back a foot or more. The injury was nothing too serious but it was noticeable and looked very painful with blood already starting to seep out. The older male wasn't ready to give up just yet and boomed at his rival to show that he still had at least some fight left him. But this only caused the younger male only charged straight at him delivering one more body smack. For the older male that was the final straw as he turned around and headed back into the crowd, disappointed and battle-scarred. With the older male backing out, this gave the younger male plateosaur the chance to mate with the most desirable females. He stood up higher using his tail as a tripod and held his arms at a 90-degree angle. Next, he began walking around in a tight circle booming loudly to entice a female into becoming his mate for the season which did with the female Plateosaurus trossingensis.

. . . . .

After the mating ritual, the herds of Plateosaurus females gathered here in the warm soil plain to lay their eggs. They have dug mounds of earth with their arms and legs for their eggs, they are also joined by Tuebingosaurus, Ruehleia, and Gresslyosaurus. But laying eggs is a long and painful process, the female Plateosaurus trossingensis experiences Pain contractions that have kept her up. She has built a small nest on a massive dirt pile, and soon enough, she starts to lay eggs. A trait that all Dinosaurs do to give birth. Modern reptiles and Birds do this too. The newly laid eggs are all covered in a slimy coat that shines beautifully from the full moon's reflection. Once the mother finishes laying her eggs, she then places rotting plants and dirt on them to hide them from predators. Then she walks away to find a place to sleep for the night. Comparisons between the scleral rings and the estimated orbit size of Plateosaurus and modern birds and reptiles suggest that it may have been cathemeral, active throughout the day and night, possibly avoiding the midday heat.

. . . . .

Several Months later

The Plateosaurs' eggs, and they're now ready to hatch. The eggs start to move, and little chirp noises sound from inside them. Cracks begin to form on the eggs, and soon enough, a baby Dinosaur emerges from one of the eggs with the help of the egg tooth at the end of their snouts. The newborn is covered in goo from the egg and has a sparse light coating of feathers on its body. When fully grown, this hatchling will grow up to be giant, with a long neck and tail, and weigh up to four tons. If he lives long enough. Predators are never too far away. He was joined by his siblings and many others from others as they hatched. But the mothers are asleep and a predator shows up.

A female bipedal theropod Dinosaur with a pair of small crests on its snout and head, and a spiky crest of feathers on the back of its head spreading across her torso, overhears the hatchling calling for his mother and approaches the nest. Most newborn animals imprint on the first creature they see. The female Dinosaur gently grabs the hatchling's tail using her mouth. The hatchling believes that this Dinosaur carrying him is his mother. Suddenly, the adult Dinosaur slams the baby on the ground, breaking his fragile bones and instantly killing him. Then she starts to eat the hatchling. First impressions can be misleading. This Dinosaur isn't the mother; this is Liliensternus, a predator, 17 feet long, and weighing up to 440 pounds. This moderate-sized, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore, that could grow up to 5.15 m (16.9 ft) long. It is the best-represented Triassic theropod from Europe and one of the largest known. It would have preyed on the larger herbivores like Plateosaurus, using it's slashing tooth arrays to disable prosauropods and its speed to catch swift ornithischians.

A second hatchling emerges from another egg. The Liliensternus spots him and moves in for the kill, but before she can grab the hatchling, she is spotted, the Plateosaurus trossingensis had spotted her, their eyes are directed to the sides, rather than the front, providing all-round vision to watch for predators. She bellows loudly and the same with the other mothers as they charged and bellowed at the Theropod chasing it off. She looks at her remaining offspring, Similar to all non-avian dinosaurs studied to date, Plateosaurus grew in a pattern that is unlike that of both extant mammals and birds. In the closely related sauropods with their typical dinosaurian physiology, growth was initially rapid, continuing somewhat more slowly well beyond sexual maturity, but was determined, i.e. the animals stopped growing at maximum size. Mammals grow rapidly, but sexual maturity falls typically at the end of the rapid growth phase. In both groups, the final size is relatively constant, with humans atypically variable. Extant reptiles show a sauropod-like growth pattern, initially quick, then slowing after sexual maturity, and almost, but not fully, stopping in old age. However, their initial growth rate is much lower than in mammals, birds, and dinosaurs. The reptilian growth rate is also very variable, so individuals of the same age may have very different sizes, and the final size also varies significantly. In extant animals, this growth pattern is linked to behavioural thermoregulation and a low metabolic rate (i.e. ectothermy), and is called "developmental plasticity". Plateosaurus followed a trajectory similar to sauropods, but with a varied growth rate and final size as seen in extant reptiles, probably in response to environmental factors such as food availability. Some individuals have fully grown at only 4.8 meters (16 ft) total length, while others reached 10 meters (33 ft). However, the bone microstructure indicates rapid growth, as in sauropods and extant mammals, which suggests endothermy. Plateosaurus represents an early stage in the development of endothermy, in which endothermy was decoupled from developmental plasticity. This hypothesis is based on a detailed study of Plateosaurus long-bone histology conducted by Martin Sander and Nicole Klein of the University of Bonn. A further indication of endothermy is the avian-style lung of Plateosaurus. Long-bone histology also allows estimating the age a specific individual reached. Sander and Klein found that some individuals were fully grown at 12 years of age, others were still slowly growing at 20 years, and one individual was still growing rapidly at 18 years. The oldest individual found was 27 years and still growing; most individuals were between 12 and 20 years old. However, some may well have lived much longer, because the fossils from Frick and Trossingen are all animals that died in accidents, and not from old age. Due to the absence of individuals smaller than 4.8 meters (16 ft) long, it is not possible to deduce a complete ontogenetic series for Plateosaurus or determine the growth rate of animals less than 10 years of age.

The first step to growing up for the hatchlings is to learn how to walk on their own two feet. Walking proves to be a bit difficult for the hatchlings, but in time, they finally get the hang of it. Plateosaurus's hind limbs were well adapted for allowing the animal to walk on just its hind legs, but it lacked muscles that were capable of letting the animal run. Future decedent Sauropods will lose the ability to walk on two legs entirely because they'll evolve much bigger body organs that will be too heavy to let them walk on two legs.

The Plateosaurus trossingensis mother is joined by the Plateosaurus longiceps mother with her offspring as they traveled to a plain to browse the ferns and trees. Plateosaurus had the typical body shape of a herbivorous bipedal dinosaur: a small skull, a long and flexible neck composed of 10 cervical vertebrae, a stocky body, and a long, mobile tail composed of at least 40 caudal vertebrae. The arms were very short, even compared to most other "prosauropods". However, they were strongly built, with hands adapted for powerful grasping. The thick, leaf-shaped, bluntly serrated tooth crowns were suitable for crushing plant material. The low position of the jaw joint gave the chewing muscles great leverage so that Plateosaurus could deliver a powerful bite. The babies feed on their mothers' dung as it provided nutrients and bacteria to help digest the solid plant material.

The mothers take the plateosaurus to a river to drink hiding in the water in an amphibious creature hiding in the sediment floor. A temnospondyl amphibian called Gerrothorax measured about 1 meter (3.3 ft) long and had a remarkably flattened body. It probably hid under sand or mud on river and lake bottoms, and in brackish waters, scanning for prey with its large, upward-facing eyes. Gerrothorax had an unusually shaped skull with angular protrusions on the sides. This looked vaguely similar to the skull of the earlier, unrelated, amphibian Diplocaulus, but was not so developed. Some Gerrothorax fossils preserved hypobranchials and ceratobranchials (bony gill arches) near the neck. This shows that Gerrothorax was pedomorphic, retaining its larval gills as an adult. When originally described in 1946, these bones were considered to correspond to feather-like external gills similar to those of modern-day neotenic salamanders, such as the mudpuppy, the axolotl, and the olm. However, a 2011 paper found that it was more likely that plagiosaurids such as Gerrothorax had internal gills, like those of fish, rather than salamander-like external gills. The authors of that study noted that plagiosaurids and other ancient amphibians which retained gills as adults had grooves on their ceratobranchials. Grooved ceratobranchials are present in both modern and ancient fish, but unknown in modern amphibians. Therefore, they were indicative of internal gills. This would have also been advantageous for survival in large animals, as internal gills would have been protected by a large skin fold and were less likely to have been damaged by the environment.

One of the longiceps hatchlings got too close to the water and the Gerrothorax snatches the hatchling with its jaws. A 2008 study showed that Gerrothorax lifted its head rather than dropping its jaw when catching prey, which has been compared to how a toilet seat opens.[5] In 2011 the skull of Gerrothorax was scanned using microtomography, revealing that the braincase and palatoquadrate regions are highly ossified. A 2013 study argued that Gerrothorax consumed prey using suction feeding. Gerrothorax had strong muscles capable of both raising the cranium and lowering the jaw rapidly. The robust internal gill apparatus would have expelled water through the gills during this motion, creating intense pressure in the throat that would suck in small prey items. The gill arches were also covered in small denticles, prohibiting any prey from escaping once devoured. Although suction feeding is common in fish and modern larval amphibians, Gerrothorax differs from these animals by its lack of cranial kinesis, meaning that its cranial bones could not flex against each other to envelop prey. Although they always needed to live in an aquatic habitat, they may have been able to live in a variety of different water bodies with a wide range of salinity. The parents and hatchlings just watched as the Amphibian disappeared.

The Gerrothorax shared its habitat with other amphibians from the larger Cyclotosaurus with an elongated skull up to 56 cm (22 in) and the similar in size Plagiosaurus which was paedomorphic, retaining the larval gills in adulthood. Wading in the shallows is a large turtle called Proganochelys the oldest stem-turtle species with a complete shell discovered to date. The forelimbs were believed to be a physical feature that reflects the preferences and adaptations to a specific environment, indicating the environment a turtle would be most likely to reside in. Based on morphological data, Proganochelys is believed to have lived in a semi-aquatic environment, though a 2021 study grouped it with tortoises and other terrestrial taxa. Turtles possessing short hands are believed to be most likely terrestrial, while turtles with long limbs are more likely to be aquatic. The majority of all Testudines are short-handed and terrestrial, while all cheloniods are long-handed and aquatic. The specific ecology of the Late Triassic stem turtles has been disputed and a major point of disagreement for many years among scientists. Triassic stem turtles, including Proganochelys, appear to have been both aquatic and terrestrial. Shell proportions are believed to be correlated to the environment in which a turtle lives, seen in modern turtles today. Using this concept, scientists were able to infer the habitat in which Proganochelys may have lived. A comparison between modern turtles and Proganochelys found that it was not likely that stem turtles had differentiated into specialized ecologies such as open-water swimmers or solely terrestrial turtles in the Late Triassic period. If this is the case, a freshwater habitat would be the most likely environment for Proganochelys to have lived in. On the other hand, it is noted that some believe Proganochelys were solely terrestrial. Shell bone histology of extant turtles revealed congruence with terrestrial turtles for the earliest basal turtles, including Proganochelys, taxa in one study. The common ancestry of all living turtles is believed to be aquatic, while the earliest turtles are believed to have lived in a terrestrial environment.

The Plateosaurus longiceps leading her young away to another place to feed find themselves in a trap. The Liliensternus has returned as it bolted out of the bushes the mother hisses and spreads her clawed arms at the predator as the babies hide in the bushes. The two predators fought with one another biting, slashing, and wrestling one another. The plateosaurus grabs the Liliensternus in the neck before it can bite her in the throat and slashed with her claws at the predator's chest and shoulder blades as she tossed the predator off of her. The theropod weakened and injured retreats in defeat.

As the sunsets two Platoesaur mothers watched the sunset with their offspring while standing on top of a hill. One Day, their descendants will become the largest land dinosaurs that have ever existed. Not only they will evolve in size and change their mode of locomotion from biped to quadruped. Their reproductive strategy will change too they will have many eggs and will abandon them leaving the young to fend for themselves in hopes a few will survive to adulthood just like in turtles and tortoises in modern times.

Trivia/References:

-The Male Plateosaurus with brightly colored necks and throat sacs battling is based on an All Your Yesterday's Artwork titled "Wrestling Platoesaurus" by Rachel Lowrie along with info from a story by Salde824 and inspired by the Dreadnoughtus fight in Prehistoric Planet.

-The Liliensternus attacking the Plateosaurus babies is based on the segment from the "Walking with Dinosaurs: Live Arena Spectacular" and Mesozoic World on DeviantArt by JPLover764.

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The Next Story is "Protos of Mongolia" which follows a herd of Protoceratops traveling through the deserts of Mongolia as they face many predators including the infamous Velociraptor.

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