Beyond the Sea
Drew was sitting in his office, waiting for his team. Today's mission was one he was feeling especially excited for, as it would be the first time in literally ages that the Ancient Mariner and its crew were required for a mission – the consensus was that, after so many months docked in the harbour, it was about damn time. Whilst the crew enjoyed bolstering the aquarist team, they did look forward to a good mission. And it wasn't just them on the mission today. Like the Ice Age Poland mission, they had a plus one –Kaisumi Ishiara from the research division was accompanying them (on her insistence) – and they would be meeting her on the boat.
It was at this point that his eyes narrowed as he remembered another important detail. 'And while I'm thinking about it,' he thought to himself. 'Hopefully this time won't end with somebody causing trouble and getting suspended.' He shook his head. 'Seriously,' he mentally muttered. 'If this is the third Ancient Mariner mission in a row to end with me pissed off at someone, I swear...'
"Ahem."
Eyes widening, Drew turned his head in time to see none other than Adrian and Jack standing right there in front of his desk. Jack nodded, "We're here fearless leader." Drew raised his eyebrow, still slightly surprised, "So you are. How long have you been here?"
"Five minutes," Adrian responded. "Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't notice us arrive." Drew raised his eyebrow in disbelief. "That's impossible," he stated. "It's only been..." He then looked at the clock, and his eyes widened. He had apparently spent ten minutes staring off into space and thinking. "My god, that time already?"
Jack chuckled, "You must really be excited about today's mission to be this distracted. What are we going after?"
Drew snorted, "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." He shook his head, "In all seriousness though, I'm glad you asked." At this, he drew out a large manila folder and placed it on the centre of his desk before then drawing out five sheets of paper, one of which depicted a map of North America with a sizable portion of its central areas covered in blue highlighter while various images of pterosaurs, large fish and marine reptiles surrounded it. "The Late Cretaceous oceans were home to a great diversity of marine animals," Drew explained, gesturing at the four animal images he'd drawn out. "These included some of the deadliest marine predators of all time; the place has even been called Hell's Aquarium. The best fossils of the time have been found in a place in Kansas called the Niobrara Shale." He placed his finger emphatically down upon the area circled in blue, "which happens to be one of the best marine fossil sites in the world. That's where we're going today." He gestured once more towards the four animal images, "This bad boy..." He gestured towards the nearest picture, which depicted a large marine reptile resembling a cross between a crocodile and an eel, "is our primary target."
Jack whistled, an excited grin on his face, "Tylosaurus – the king of the Western Interior Seaway. We're certainly going big today." "Yeah", Adrian nodded in agreement and looked meaningfully at the pterosaur image, "And we're finally going after Pteranodon, which is a plus…" Drew chuckled, "Well in that case, with you guys and the Mariner ready to go..." He clasped his hands together, trademark grin on his face. "What are we waiting for?"
And so, they headed to the main aquatic portal site. Upon arrival, they noticed Kaisumi standing on the walkway leading up to the Ancient Mariner. Upon seeing them, she smiled and gave a mock salute, "Kaisumi Ishiara, reporting for duty." Jack smiled, "Psyched for your first mission?" Kaisumi enthusiastically nodded, "Wouldn't miss it for the world." Drew chuckled, "Liking your attitude for this mission already." He looked towards the boat just in time to see Stavros and Kira standing right by the starboard rail , "I take it you've got her ready?" Stavros nodded, "Aye Kapetanio. That we have."
Drew smirked, "Well then we'd best not keep her waiting." He looked to Jack, Kaisumi, and Adrian, "All aboard everyone!" Kaisumi nodded, "No need to tell me twice sir." And at that, the team boarded the Ancient Mariner as one of the technicians entered the time period and location into the portal generator and summoned the portal into life; at which point the boat went sailing straight through the familiar vortex of light and into the past.
. . . . .
It took only seconds for the Mariner to emerge from the portal and into what turned out to be a large prehistoric ocean bay. Kaisumi raised her eyebrow, a half amused and half awestruck look on her face. "Well now," she said. "I guess we're not in Kansas anymore." All joking aside, the vista was actually pretty beautiful. The sea was calm, the tide was low and the waves lapped gently on a nearby beach; they could even see the indistinct forms of creatures prowling the shoreline. There was no sound, aside from the lapping of the waves and the harsh calls of a distant pterosaur. It looked, for all in the world, like the coast of Patagonia; far from what it would look like over 75 million years in the future. It was a tranquil image of peace and serenity….
"Enough sightseeing, D-bags!"
And just like that, back to business.
Drew rammed his right fist against his left palm, trademark grin on his face. "Before we head out into deep water, we're going to bring back some animals from the shallows," he stated, a firm tone of excited authority in his voice, "Adrian, you're with me and Jack. Kaisumi, you stay onboard the Mariner and act as our lookout. Stavros, you and Kira are in charge until we get back…" He trailed off when he suddenly realised everyone had gathered around the bow and pointing out towards the water.
Feeling a little miffed, but at the same time curious, Drew walked calmly over to join the rest of his team and the Ancient Mariner crew at the bow and looked ahead towards where they were looking; at which point, it swiftly became clear exactly what it was that had caught their attention. The water was teaming with small, anchovy-like fish. "Apsopelix," Kaisumi stated under her breath. At the others' confusion, she elaborated, "A small fish that lived in the Niobrara. They must be coming here to spawn." Jack whistled silently, "Echoes of the sardine run off South Africa." At this, Drew chuckled, "It seems we've hit the jackpot." This was all Stavros needed to hear. "Should we start getting them through the portal then Kapetanio?"
Drew was just about to answer when Omoros the lookout yelled, "I see a shark! Heading for the apsopelix!" Everyone looked where he was pointing. Sure enough, a pointed dorsal fin cut the water, swimming towards the small anchovy-like Cretaceous fish. And everyone was sure the shark wouldn't be alone. Drew chuckled, his hands clasped together and fingers intertwining. "I was gonna say wait for some bigger stuff to show up, but…." he admitted. "But since the predators have already started showing up…"
A bird-like squawking filled the air from the direction of the beach, causing all to look in that direction in time to see birds flying down towards the shallow waters. The sight of this caused Adrian to look meaningfully at Drew, not even needing to voice the question. Drew nodded his head, "Right, new plan. Adrian, you and I will handle the fish. Jack, you go with Kaisumi to take care of those birds. Stavros, you and your crew stay here and keep a lookout."
Adrian raised his eyebrow in confusion. "Wouldn't it make more sense for me to be accompanying Kaisumi? Birds and pterosaurs are my usual specialty." Drew shook his head, "Complacency kills in this line of business… and I think it's a good time to shake things up." Adrian still didn't look convinced, but Jack placed a reassuring hand on Adrian's shoulder. "It's alright Adrian," Jack said, "I'm sure Kaisumi and I can handle this." Adrian sighed, "If you say so."
"You heard Kapetanio everyone," Stavros stated, evidently pleased. "Time to get to work. Waylon! Grossman! Help get a lifeboat ready for Kapetanio and Adrian! And be quick about it! We don't wanna risk losing the chance!"
. . . . .
Back at the park, in the desert building at the Flaming Cliffs zone, an oviraptor walked through the sandy ground of the combined oviraptorid and protoceratopsian paddock, head held high like a rooster, as a small gaggle of baby ceratopsians and two different species of oviraptorid, followed some distance behind it. As if realizing its charges were struggling to keep up, the oviraptor stopped in its tracks and waited for the creche to catch up. And as the hatchlings all capered around its feet, the oviraptor took the opportunity to scan the air watchfully; even in captivity, his millennia old instincts remained sharp.
A stockily-built, scruffy-looking African-American man watched this rather touching scene with a keen eye, his mind working furiously. This was Bernie Evans. He was a maverick in his field, once described as "a paleontologist in a conspiracy theorist's skin" – noted for his somewhat odd "bounded speculation" theories about various prehistoric animals on his blog Prehistoric Stew (named because a stew can have anything thrown in it, indicating the diversity of topics covered) and erratic personality.
Six months ago, Theodore had contacted him, offering him a considerable paycheck and "new horizons". He was astounded to find that the park consisted of a collection of de-extinct animals brought back via time travel. Apparently, Theodore had hired him partly because some of his theories had unexpectedly ended up vindicated from study of the actual animals (which was somewhat flattering) and partly to provide an "outside the box" perspective on the park's various extinct animals.
As he observed the juveniles, all playing under the oviraptor's watchful eye, his mind began to recap. Leon had theorized that the oviraptorids and the protoceratopsids associated symbiotically – rather flatteringly, based on ideas that he himself had come up with. The oviraptorids and protoceratopsids had made their nests after the Djadochta mission – almost six months ago now. And shortly after he'd arrived, two months ago, the eggs had hatched.
He began to muse further. Symbiotic relationships were very common in nature – creatures associating with each other for mutual protection or shared benefit. In Patagonia, rheas, tinamous and penguins would sometimes nest together, all co-existing rather harmoniously and even responding to each other's alarm calls.
In the African country of Eretria, olive baboons and African elephants frequently associated during the dry season – the elephants dug watering holes, which the baboons drank out of, as well as put all but the boldest predators off, whilst the baboons provided an early warning system for the elephants. The sentimental would say that these two intelligent, social creatures – united in their devotion to family – had struck an accord to their mutual betterment.
Others were more surprising. Many wading birds – storks, herons, ibises, and spoonbills – nested near large crocodilian nests, with some species even using their alarm calls to alert the mother crocodilians to nest raiders. Aside from the occasional chick that had fallen out of the nest being snaffled, the arrangement was one that worked for both the waterbirds and the crocodiles – meaning that both of their next generation had a better chance of survival.
It seemed the same was true of the oviraptorid/protoceratopsid relationship – the cantankerous protoceratopsids could put at least some smaller predators off, whilst the oviraptorids' alarm calls were able to alert the protoceratopsids to danger. From what he could observe, the bonding apparently started from an early age, with the oviraptorids almost acting like babysitters for the protoceratopsids, and juveniles of the various species playing with each other.
True to Leon's word, every protoceratopsid group had its accompanying oviraptorids, each cluster roughly sticking to itself. Might this have contributed to speciation and/or generic separation in both groups? Genetic tests on the informally named "aguilaceratops" and the citipati indranil had found that they both were closely related to protoceratops and citipati osmolskae. Based on the two species' apparent rarity in the Djadochta ecosystem, it was (according to Khatin) entirely possible that the two species had a different geographical range and the populations at the park were representative of strays. Perhaps these were cases of peripatric speciation, in which speciation happened in populations at the periphery of the parent species' distribution.
He continued to observe, his mind working intently. Life at this park was truly a great wonder!
. . . . .
Meanwhile, a dracosuchus, some fifty feet long, moved sinuously through the water in its tank at Serpent Whale Lagoon, with the uncaring air of an apex predator. From the smaller, thinner horns and solid-coloured dorsal fins and neck frill, an aware observer could tell that this was a female. A juvenile roughly twelve feet long, accompanied it, sticking close to its mother.
A Norwegian man in his early sixties, with fair skin, piercing blue eyes and somewhat receding blonde hair observed the creature and its offspring swimming past and smiled, writing an observation down in his notebook. This was Oskar Willig, the new Curator of Aquatics at Prehistoric Park.
A marine biologist by trade, Willig had been recruited by Novum for their conservation aims, which had gotten him interviewed by Theodore, Percival and Bryce Bennett for a position as a curator at Theodore's secret project. He'd been intrigued by Theodore's enigmatic promise of new horizons – and naturally quite pleasantly surprised when he'd subsequently discovered the truth behind the park.
He got on well with his new co-workers (he hated using the word "underlings") and the rest of the staff – with many of the larger marine animals, he was aware that there would be some overlap with other teams, especially the mammals and reptiles.
Whilst the marine reptiles, placoderms, eurypterids and archaeocetes had certainly been interesting, in his months at the park, he'd become fascinated by the giant choristoderes – a previously-undiscovered group of large marine tetrapods, with a unique evolutionary path.
Part of it, of course, was his Nordic heritage – Norse and Inuit mythology was filled with sea serpents; whilst Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent, was the most famous, they had gone by many other names - Sisiutl, Tizheruk, Illhveli and Draugur, amongst others. Perhaps fossils of these creatures – or relatives of them – had been found in the past… or perhaps something else. There was so little they knew about the portal, after all.
Anyway, focus.
All the juveniles – about ten or twelve feet long – were single offspring, all mostly sticking to their individual mothers. The females, for the most part, were socially tolerant, but largely avoided each other – this was not a pod. The males, on the other hand, all distinguishable from the females via their large thick horns, striped dorsal fins, and brighter coloured neck frills, were quite aggressive with each other – apparently, they'd had to be separated when they'd first been brought back.
Even now, they were kept away from the females and calves, due to worries about infanticide, a behaviour common in many species – including quite a few cetaceans, such as bottlenose dolphins, Amazon river dolphins and orcas. Males were even known to kill calves in the gentle, filter-feeding humpback whale.
Giving birth to few, large offspring and engaging in protracted parental care had evolved multiple times in large, marine tetrapods – marine mammals, plesiosaurs… even large sharks, which showed no parental care, tended to have slow breeding cycles, producing comparatively few offspring that took a long time to mature. It seemed that these choristoderes also possessed this reproductive adaptation.
A sudden round of roaring from the adult males' portion of the paddock caused Oskar to turn to see that two of the adult males were confronting each other over a shark that had been thrown in. And now both males were roaring at each other with their fangs bared and neck frills fully extended, with all the other dracosuchus turning their heads in the angry duo's direction in mild curiosity, with the calves quietly moving closer to their mothers, before then returning their gaze back to what they'd been doing prior. Oskar sighed. "Always something," he muttered as he drew out his communicator to inform Kyle and Nikolai of the current incident unfolding.
. . . . .
Back in the past, Drew and Adrian got into the lifeboat and sailed out towards the apsopelix run as planned. Using a portable periscope, they looked into the water to see what was going on. What they saw was a feeding frenzy – predators were swimming in all directions as they snapped up Apsopelix like there was no tomorrow. Drew and Adrian noticed a small shark, only about six feet long, swam past. It looked like a miniature great white, with a grey back and a white underbelly. Drew nodded, "That's Squalicorax; a common kind of shark in this region.
The shark suddenly swam away, as a counter-shaded (bluish-grey back and white underbelly) marine reptile about ten feet long swam past. There was a vague resemblance to the apophisaurus back at the park, but with a shorter neck and a longer, vaguely gharial-like snout. Turning to Drew, Adrian said, "That's… a polycotylid, isn't it?", to which Drew nodded "Yup – cool little creatures. Distant relatives to the apophisaurus, believe it or not. There was a shitload of 'em in the Western Interior Seaway… so no idea which one it is."
Suddenly, the polycotylid swam off in alarm as a fish some twenty feet long swam past. Now, Drew and Adrian were not ones to hold prejudice towards any animal, but the nicest way to describe the fish was "fantastically ugly". It had an upturned, bulldog-like face, with protruding, interlocking teeth; it had a long muscular body, and a forked tail, meaning that it was, probably a powerful swimmer. It had a small dorsal fin, a large pectoral fin and smaller back fins, all of which were a brownish gold. The rest of its body was a blue-black in colouration, with a lighter orange stripe running down the side and a grey underbelly. Drew chuckled, "That's Xiphactinus; face only a mother could love, eh?"
As the Xiphactinus swam off, another creature ghosted past the shoal; it was some thirteen feet long and had a sandy brown colouration with even lighter tan spots across the sides of its body. It had a vaguely crocodilian head and pointed, tooth-filled jaws. Its limbs were large flippers, the tail was long and fluked and its body was long and vaguely serpentine. Adrian turned to Drew, "I'm guessing that's a mosasaur." Drew nodded, "Yup. Can't tell which one. Time for us to go down; the Apsopelix are only going to keep them occupied for so long."
. . . . .
At the same time this was happening, Jack and Kaisumi had disembarked from the now docked Mariner and begun walking across the sandy shore of the Niobrara Shale beach to where the birds they'd been sent after were currently gathered. Kaisumi had a wide eyed look of excitement on her face, complete with an ecstatic grin, as she walked as quietly as she could alongside Jack and towards the birds. 'This is so much fun,' she thought to herself, still giddy at her first mission. She then directed a very brief side glance towards Jack, a small blush starting to form on her face. It had been him who'd convinced Drew to let her accompany them. 'Jack's always been such a good friend,' she thought to herself, her green eyes narrowed affectionately as she looked intently at the younger Denham. A thought crossed her mind… was it possible that she was feeling a little something...stronger towards him...?
The sound of a squawking up ahead caused Kaisumi to hurriedly return her focus to the task at hand just in time to notice that she and Jack had now gotten close enough to get a good look at the birds. At first glance, they looked like larger versions of the brodavis back at the park, only covered in dark grey or black feathers, with a lighter underbelly. Their faces were largely red and there was a large, yellow, toothy beak. The flock varied in size and all of them were currently heartily digging in on whatever fish they were lucky enough to catch. Jack said with a grin, "Hesperornithids – like the brodavis. Probably at least four or five different species in this little mob – brodavis I think I recognise… not sure about the others" Kaisumi sighed mock-affectionately at him and asked, "Another question; how are we going to get this lot through the portal?" Jack smiled at him, "Oh, ye of little faith… I've got a plan. Kaisumi… could you do me the honour of passing a bait bag?" Kaisumi chuckled, giddy grin already back on her face as she eagerly drew out a bait bag from her backpack. But right as she was about to pass the bag over to Jack, a gull-like screeching split the air.
Eyes widened in surprise, Jack and Kaisumi turned their heads just in time to see a small flock of surprisingly stocky seagull-like birds with toothy beaks flying down towards where the baptornis were gathered. Much like modern-day seagulls, they were covered in primarily white feathers, with greyish wings and black tails with small white stripes. The upper portions of their faces, however, were a sandy golden yellow. And in that moment, they were all quite eager to feast as they landed not too far from the hesperornithithids. Kaisumi looked to Jack. "Ichthyornis?" Jack shook his head, "Too stocky. Probably iaceornis."
A loud shrieking from above caused Kaisumi and Jack to look up in time to see a combined flock of two species of large pterosaur descending from the top of a nearby cliff. They were large, with the largest having a wingspan of about eighteen feet. Their most distinctive feature was the large conical crest on their heads, with the larger individuals having the largest crests. The two species in the flock could be told apart by their colourations – one group were dusty brown with reddish-skinned faces and orange, pointed crests, whilst the other were ash-grey with white on the chest, dark blue faces and gold, roughly sail-shaped crests.
And before long, the entire flock had come to a landing; at which point they all started shrieking at the birds, which squawked right back. Jack recognized both pterosaur species immediately, "Pteranodon and, uh, Geosternbergia. I was always hoping to bump into these guys." He looked to Kaisumi, "Might wanna get out an additional bait bag – just to be sure there'll be enough to get everybody through."
Kaisumi nodded, drawing out an additional bait bag for herself while passing the first one she'd drawn out to Jack as instructed, both bags filled with fish. And with a deep breath, they emptied a sizable portion of both bags onto the sandy shore directly near the squabbling birds and pterosaurs; at which point they all sniffed the air, squawked in unison, and dove towards the pile of fish with a surprising speed. And right as the pterosaurs and birds all went eagerly descending upon the bait, Jack primed a portal grenade and tossed it into the mix, sending the entire gathering straight to the park in a flash of light. Once the light flash from the portal grenade had faded, Kaisumi directed her grinning face towards Jack, "How did we do?" Jack chuckled, "Excellently." He took a brief look around their surroundings, "Let's get back on the ship and wait for Drew and Adrian."
. . . . .
Meanwhile, back at the apsopelix feeding site, Drew and Adrian got their diving suits on and dived over the side of the lifeboat. Drew and Adrian stared, open-mouthed, at the sight that greeted them. The squalicorax, xiphactinus, mosasaur and polycotylid had been joined by at least three species of mosasaur (one group of which looked like juveniles of something bigger), another two species of polycotylid – one with noticeably longer necks than the others – and multiple species of large fish, including three more species of shark, one group of large fish that looked like miniature versions of the xiphactinus and another two whose lower jaws were longer than their upper, giving them a strange underbite.
The sight of all this was enough to make Adrian and Drew silently whistle. And while they could guess that the smaller xiphactinus-like fish were gillicus, that the long necked and long snouted polycotylids were serpentisuchops, the juvenile mosasaurs were probably juvenile Tylosaurus and that the fish with the underbites were saurodontids, the rest they had a feeling they'd be wise to let Khatin identify for them back at the park.
With the predators arriving at the spawning ground, the Apsopelix had grouped together as a defence mechanism – unfortunately, this was what the predators had expected to happen. United by a shared desire, the predators had formed a semi-alliance to herd the fish into a bait ball, with the predators occasionally dipping their heads in to snatch up fish. Drew and Adrian couldn't help but smile at the strange alliance – creatures that would normally be enemies working together to herd their bounty together.
But even in the chaos that ensued over their intended prey, the predators were curious about Drew and Adrian, sometimes approaching the humans in the shallows – however, Drew and Adrian had to be on constant guard, avoiding snaps from the predators that swam past them. Adrian, after narrowly dodging a Squalicorax that snapped at his hand, turned to Drew and asked, "How are we going to get this lot through the portal, without having our arms bitten off?" Drew chuckled, nonchalantly dodging a Xiphactinus' snapping jaws in the process, "I have a plan, and it's a cracker. Get a portal grenade."
As Drew and Adrian each swam incredibly close to the Apsopelix bait ball, several of the predators noticed this action out the corner of their eyes, keeping a close eye on the approaching humans. Once they had gotten close enough, Drew calmly threw a portal grenade into the centre of the bait ball… at which point it activated, swallowing up the bait ball and the predators with it. Once all the predators had been sent through, Drew and Adrian were able to send a sizeable shoal of the remaining Apsopelix through the portal by using the other portal grenades. Once that was finished, Drew looked to Adrian, trademark grin still on his face, "Wasn't that fun?!" Adrian rolled his eyes, "For you maybe." Drew chuckled, "Let's get back aboard the Mariner. I'm sure at least someone's already started to worry about whether we're still alive."
And so, Drew and Adrian returned to the Mariner, where Jack and Kaisumi just so happened to be waiting above deck. "Nice to see you rejoin us fearless leader," Jack chuckled as Drew and Adrian began removing their diving suits. "Glad you think so," Drew stated. "As you damn well should be," Adrian muttered. "Yeah," Kaisumi stated with a nod of her head before pointing in the direction of the door leading to below deck. "We have… good news and bad – the bad news is pretty important." Drew raised his eyebrow in half amused curiosity and half concern. "Well we'd best not keep them waiting then."
. . . . .
Sergeant Johanna Lucas silently whistled, her long blackish brown hair billowing in the gentle Florida breeze and her dark eyes widened at the sight of the predators that had been deposited into the main saltwater holding tank. Born and raised in Tanzania, she'd been lucky enough to be recruited by Novum after Theodore had happened to come across her during an outreach visit he and the board had made to Tanzania. After several years of good service, she'd been honoured to be hired to work at the mysterious 'Lazarus Project' in Florida. It certainly helped that the salary offered had been more than enough for her to support both herself and her family back in Tanzania, meaning that she could finally stop the shady "side jobs" she'd sometimes had to do.
And while she'd been astonished to learn about the fact that the project was a zoo filled with de-extinct prehistoric animals, she'd always been the type to face any challenge that came her way with her head held high and heart full of confidence; and this time had been no different.
And on this day, with Kyle and Nikolai on various assignments around the park, here she was serving as supervisor for the aquatic holding pens on today's mission while First Officer Willoby supervised the terrestrial holding pens – an attempt to soothe divisions between old and new. And seeing the staggering amount of Cretaceous aquatic wildlife that had been sent her way was enough to make her wonder if the first officer – who'd recently had a bunch of birds and pterosaurs – had gotten the better end of the bargain. And while several researchers had managed to identify them all as squalicorax, clidastes, polycotylus, xiphactinus, serpentisuchops, gillicus, serratolamna, pseudocorax, archaeolamna, ectenosaurus, eonatator, saurodon, saurocephalus, unktaheela and juvenile Tylosaurus, as well as a shoal of apsopelix (consisting of the survivors of a bait ball sent in with the predators mixed with a large shoal), she could barely concentrate on anything other than just how difficult the whole bunch would likely be to handle.
"I'll admit, the boss certainly wasn't kidding when he said that working at the holding pens on a mission day was never boring."
At this, Johanna turned her head just in time to see Sergeant Roberto Bratt, who was co-supervising the aquatic holding pens, nodding his head with a look on his face that was half awe and half irritated resignation. She raised her eyebrow, "You're not regretting accepting the offer to work here are you?"
At this, Roberto let out a brief snort of amusement, rubbing his right hand through his own dark hair as he subsequently took a deep breath to keep himself calm. "Not at all," he said. "Sure, working here may not always be a walk in the park. But… there's a surprise every day – keeps us on our toes." He then briefly narrowed his dark eyes into a venomous glare. "It's not the animals that really get on my nerves…"
At this, Johanna felt her heart sink. Even she could admit Roberto had a bit of a temper, which some had found difficult to put up with – apparently, there was a rule to limit Roberto's interactions with the conflict-avoidant Leon after a less-than-pleasant incident at the holding pens on the Pleistocene Australia mission. In particular, Corporal Peter Farnsworth and Private Joe Bristow, were a pair that Bratt particularly loathed, with the loathing being entirely mutual. Even now, Johanna could count on one hand how many interactions between Bratt and the troublesome duo hadn't ended in the three getting into a fight.
She shook her head. Now was not the time to get too worried about Roberto's rivalry with Bristow and Farnsworth, or his… temper. They had an important job to do right now after all. And once she had the time to take a break, she could always hang out at the Kem Kem Beds – she'd become quite fascinated with the animals there, especially the sauropods.
"Sergeant Lucas," said Private Doody, who just so happened to be nearby. "Should we start herding the new arrivals to elsewhere now?"
Right. Back to business.
"Correct private," she said, clapping her hands together, a no nonsense look on her light umber skinned face. "Time to get to work."
"You heard her everyone," said Bratt. "Let's get these critters rounded up! Knowing Luczynski, we won't have long before he sends in something bigger, toothier and meaner."
. . . . .
Ironically, back at the Western Interior Seaway, Drew would soon be given reason to give the holding pen team a bit of respite. At that moment, Drew and his teammates, Kaisumi included, were in the downstairs crew meeting room with Stavros and the rest of the Mariner crew…. To discuss a matter that was very important indeed. Drew raised his eyebrow at what Stavros had just told him. "A storm? Seriously?"
Kira nodded his head and pointed towards a nearby window which allowed everyone in the room a clear view of the gathering storm clouds. "First noticed this half an hour ago," he explained. "While you and your team were busy. According to Omoros, it could hit us in at least an hour."
At this, Drew sighed. "Well shit."
"Aye," Stavros agreed, "A storm moving that quickly is bad – and it looks like it could be a big one. My suggestion is that we see if we can sit the storm out in a cove – shallow enough not to run aground." Drew nodded, "No argument from me there. You heard your captain everyone - let's find a safe spot to wait the storm out."
Fortunately, it was only five minutes before Omoros spotted a suitable shallow cove close to the bay; at which point the Mariner swiftly set sail towards the cove, with everyone aboard feeling a little less worried. Half an hour later, the Mariner had successfully pulled into the cove and laid anchor – just in time, as it transpired, since shortly after the anchor was laid, everyone aboard noticed that the waves were already beginning to rise higher, with silt and sand drawn up from the bottom turning the water opaque… and with a boom of thunder splitting the air, the storm at last came upon the Mariner's position. Jack sighed, shaking his head as he observed the weather outside from the safety of a nearby window, "Anyone wanna play some poker?" Kaisumi sighed, "I'm game" and Adrian nodded, "Me too." And so, with not much else to do to pass the time, everyone aboard the ship got to various tasks.
Outside, the rain swiped at the land and the waves rode up, with thunder booming and lightning flashing relentlessly in the skies above. Every creature that could not swim had headed for higher ground in order to sit out the storm. Out to sea, the waves rolled across, plucking at the sea creatures, some clinging to rocks and others heading to deeper parts, jetting frantically back and forth to hold themselves in place. The passengers aboard the Mariner occasionally cast glances out of the window at the devastation surrounding them.
. . . . .
The storm continued to pound the shallow sea for the rest of the night, with everyone aboard the Mariner ultimately ending up having to both eat dinner and sleep for the night aboard the ship. The next day, when the storm finally ended and the sun finally rose, the team climbed out of the Mariner alongside the crew and gasped at what they saw. The coastline was a mess. The sea had swept away almost the entire understory of the forest north of the beach, piling the uprooted foliage up in large, rotting heaps upon the shore. The lower parts of the larger uprooted trees were festooned with a mixture of ferns and seaweed. Along the top of the beaches, dead birds and pterosaurs lay crumpled up, alongside dead ammonites as well as stranded fish and aquatic reptiles. Jack snapped out of his open-mouthed shock to ask, "What's the plan, fearless leader?" Drew turned to the assembled team, "Jack, Kaisumi, you come with me. The rest of you, stay with the boat; we'll radio you if we find anything. And Adrian, if you and the crew happen to find anything that somehow survived this while we're away, feel free to do what you can." Adrian nodded, "Can do." Stavros nodded, "Godspeed Kapetanio."
And at that, Drew, Jack, and Kaisumi walked along the ruined beach, looking at the devastation as they did; as their feet squelched under a festering layer of destroyed plants, they walked past rows of dead fish, ammonites and pterosaurs, with the occasional marine reptile. This period of rest lasted about ten minutes before the sound of birds calling nearby attracted the resting humans' attention. They looked in the direction of the sounds in time to see an assortment of scavengers gathered near the dead body of a beached mosasaur.
A small family of lythronax stood at the carcass, ripping off chunks of flesh, whilst two pairs of scorpioraptor circled nearby. A flock of seven black and grey pterosaurs with ten-foot wingspans and large, midnight blue, antler-like crests, which Kaisumi identified as Nyctosaurus, and two species of gull-like birds with toothy beaks, one group of which had jet black feathered heads and tails and chocolate brown wings and bodies whilst the other had the white sea gull-like feathers, but had brownish gold wings and jet black feathers covering the upper half of their heads. "Icthyornis and Apatornis". The scavengers were swiftly sent through the portal when Drew enticed them into chasing after him via acting as if he were about to try to steal their food.
As they continued to look upon the devastation afterward, they suddenly noticed some movement by the broken corpse of an adult female Pteranodon. Running over, they found a baby Pteranodon with a two-foot wingspan, dragging itself out from under the carcass of what was presumably its mother.
After a few seconds, the baby groggily lifted its head and squeaked piteously. Kaisumi gently picked up the weakened creature; its breathing was ragged and shallow and its eyes looked at the three humans in a glazed stupor. Kaisumi looked nervously at Drew, who said, quietly, "We need to get him back to the boat." Jack nodded his head, "Agreed."
Heading back to the boat, making sure to keep the baby pterosaur secure, they came over the crest of a sand dune to find the Ancient Mariner still parked. As they approached the boat, Stavros smiled, "Kapetaino! I take it you found stuff to rescue while we were gone?" Drew whistled, "You could say that – and it was quite a tale." However, he gestured towards Kaisumi, at which point Adrian and the Mariner crew finally noticed the weakly warbling juvenile pteranodon in her arms. Kira sighed, "You've found an injured animal too? Drew nodded, "Yup – we found him near his dead mother. We need to check if he's okay and… what do you mean 'too'?" Smiling, Adrian and the Mariner crew parted to see a young icthyornis with a broken wing, hastily splinted, sitting and sleeping on the bridge. Kira said, "We found him on the beach – harassed by some other scavengers. We were able to save him and get him on board."
Grinning, Drew said, "Well, let's get on board and get out of hear – I think it's time we head into deeper waters…" The sound of grunts and squeals caused everyone to turn their heads in time to see a small group of baby niobrarasaurus and claosaurus near the dead bodies of several adults; presumably their herds. "They must have been orphaned by the storm, too" Jack whispered to Drew. Drew nodded his head and looked to the rest of the assembled travellers. "You guys can all get aboard the ship. I should be able to handle these guys on my own."
. . . . .
After Drew got the orphaned ankylosaurs and hadrosaurs through the portal using offerings of fresh vegetables from the ship's galley, he returned to the Mariner, rejoining his team and the crew. After quickly checking over the juvenile Pteranodon and the icthyornis, who was now asleep in the ship's galley, the mission team joined up with the crew in the meeting room, where a meeting was now taking place. Drew addressed everyone, "These predators in the shallows were, comparatively, small fry; to find the bigger stuff, we'll need to head out into deeper water." Adrian gave Drew a puzzled look and said, "We almost got eaten in the shallows; are you sure it'll be safe to dive out there?"
Drew shook his head, "No, it will not be safe; it's probably going to be very dangerous if we dive out there. However, the plan is that we're going to try avoid diving in ourselves as much as possible. In order to do that, we're going to use an ROV in combination with the ship's radar to patrol the waters and track down any Tylosaurus or other large animals in the area. We can also use a Novum tracking drone if we have to. Point is, we're only going to dive if it's absolutely necessary."
Jack said, "So… we're heading out into deeper water in order to find these giant mosasaurs?" Drew smiled, "That's precisely what we're going to do; we've been through a lot of things together. I'm sure that we can beat the most dangerous sea ever." Adrian sighed and looked to Jack, "He does have a point. I mean, we visited Hell Creek on the day of the KT-Event and lived to tell the tale." Stavros nodded, "In that case, I say let's get a move on!" And at that, the Ancient Mariner lifted anchor and went rolling into the surf, before turning around and heading out into sea.
The search had begun.
. . . . .
Oskar couldn't help but smile and nod his head. With the 'standoff' between the two angry male dracosuchus reported and resolved, he'd decided to see if there was anything he needed to do at the park's aquarium. And right now, he was feeling very happy indeed to have come as he and two of his younger coworkers from before his hiring quietly observed the onychodus. Whilst this wasn't the first time he'd observed or worked with the fish in question, it was, however, the first time he was able to hear more details about their biology – one such topic was that in the years since their rescue in the Gogo Reef mission, the onychodus pair had mated and had seven offspring. And as it so happened, Oskar had just now learned an especially intriguing additional fact. "Live birth you say?"
Laura nodded, "Just like a coelacanth." Mia also nodded, "We were quite surprised when we saw it happen on the exhibit camera, let me assure you, given the gogonasus laid eggs."
"Shouldn't really come as any surprise."
Eyes widening in brief surprise, Oskar and the younger aquarists turned their heads in time to see Bernie standing nearby and nodding his head with an almost smug look of pride on his face. "It might be easy to forget, but the sarcopterygians were a very big clade, and quite diverse – especially in things like reproductive strategies." He then gestured towards the onychodus, "After all, just look at the onychodus and the gogonasus – they're both reef-dwelling ambush predators, like moray eels… but it's convergent – they're part of different groups of sarcopterygian, so one lays eggs and one gives live birth".
Oskar sighed and nodded his head. "Yes," he stated. "It's something we'd never expect from fossils – but, well, you think outside of the box…" Bernie shrugged, a nonchalant look on his face, "You can believe what you want to believe. After all, as I'm quite honest about on my humble blog, it's all speculation."
At this, Laura and Mia looked to each other. "I really do hope this won't be the start of an ongoing enmity," Laura whispered. "You and me both," Mia muttered before shaking her head. "Dr. Evans' current dynamic with Dr. Schorzberg and Dr. Ogden is already setting up to be enough of a headache around here as is."
The sound of Oskar's comm going off caught everyone's attention, with the elderly aquarist curator swiftly drawing out the device and answering the call. "Wellig, over?"
"This is Rumsfeld," said the voice of one of the younger aquarists. "Are you available right now, sir?" At his tone, Oskar raised his eyebrow. "I'm not actively working on anything if that's what you're asking. Is something wrong?"
"Hard to say," Rumsfeld stated on the other end of the comm-line. "I noticed the tanystropheus were starting to act oddly, and since Mr. Taymor and Captain Koshkin appear to be busy and you're the curator, I felt you were the next best option to see if there was any reason to be concerned sir."
"I'll be there shortly," Oskar responded. He then let a brief smile of mirth come on his face. "And please; do call me Oskar."
"Yes sir...I mean, Oskar."
And at that, the call ended. Oskar sighed, and shook his head side to side. "Some people take people in authority far too seriously," he muttered before looking to Laura and Mia. "Are you at a good stopping point here? I get the feeling I'd be wise to have assistants."
Laura gestured in the direction of the Kuanti Formation zone. "Dylan and Zoey should be finished in the Kuanti Formation section soon," she said. "Mia and I can see if they can finish things up here in Gogo Reef."
Mia nodded, "So long as Dylan and Zoey can help fill in for Laura and I here at Gogo, we'll be happy to come along."
"I'll come as well." Oskar and the girls looked to Bernie, who had a giddy grin on his face as he nodded his head and drew out his notebook. "A good researcher takes advantage of every opportunity for study."
Oskar shrugged, "I suppose I may need all the help I can get."
. . . . .
Roberto Bratt was in a rare calm mood as he took a walk through the holding tanks while on a short break from his duties at the main holding tank, observing the various marine animals swimming around their temporary holdings. As he approached one of the tanks, a mosasaur moved sinuously past him - despite not even being fully grown, it was still as big as a great white. He had to admit, it was times like this, when he was calmly observing the animals while on break, that he remembered how much there was to appreciate about his new job.
Even now, he could remember how his life had been prior to getting hired by Theodore to even work at Novum, let alone at Prehistoric Park. His short temper, he blamed on his heritage – his mother had been Mexican and his father Cuban. Both had been loud and volatile, always fighting. Naturally, this had left him often forced to protect his younger sister Maria, who he even now felt relieved had managed to grow up to become a successful journalist in America and make a new happier life for herself since. They'd caught up at the park opening.
For him, things had been a bit more… difficult. For while he'd managed to become a cop, his temper had not exactly done him any favours in life. In fact, when Theodore had first found him on a visit to Mexico, he'd been facing suspension over "unnecessary force" used on a "domestic disturbance" call… the husband had come off worse. Fortunately, where the police force had seen a hothead, Theodore had seen someone with potential – in that meeting, he'd asked Roberto to work with Novum. In Europe, he'd met and become good friends with Johanna – a few months ago, they'd been both hired for "the Lazarus project". He'd been understandably surprised at the news the project was a collection of de-extinct prehistoric animals – but it was a good decision.
Sure, there were several coworkers that he didn't necessarily like working with, and the unique nature of the park did come with its fair share of headaches. But… at least every day was surprising – and even with the coworkers he currently knew that irked him, there were a few that he at least kind of liked.
Nodding his head, he took one last look at the most recently arrived new animals from that day's mission before then turning around to return to the main aquatic portal site. At this point, he had a feeling his break had gone on long enough. And besides, knowing Drew, it probably wouldn't be long before another batch of prehistoric fauna arrived – most of whom would probably be big and toothy.
. . . . .
"We've certainly found a lot, Kapetanio."
Drew nodded his head in agreement. For indeed, as Stavros had just pointed out, they in fact had found a pretty respectable number of species – mostly smallish fish, including enchodus, megalocoelocanthus and some species of pycnodont, but some giant squids, some larger fish, including banangomimus, bonniericthys and caproberyx, and a group of globidens and ptychodus - since they'd set out into deeper waters. "I won't deny that's the case," he admitted. He then looked further to the horizon beyond the Mariner's bow. "But for now, we'll need to keep on searching. Still haven't found our Tylosaurus yet." He then looked to where Jack was positioned, looking over the starboard rail alongside Kaisumi, Adrian, and several of the crewmen. "And on that note, see anything?"
Jack pointed ahead of his current position, "Don't see any tylosaurus. But it does look like there's something swimming off the starboard side. A giant fish of some kind – I understand that doesn't narrow it down., but…"
Drew walked over. "I'll be the judge of that," he then said before looking towards Omoros. "Scope please?" The lookout handed his small portable telescope to Drew, who put it up to his eye as he looked in the direction Jack had indicated, at which point a proud smile came on his face as he saw just what was currently swimming about near the starboard rail. Specifically, he could currently see a large flotilla of 3-meter-long fish that resembled sailfish, only with shorter and rounder edged dorsal fins and small blade-like teeth in their mouths. Currently, they were all darting about as they attempted to feast upon a large group of apsopelix that had formed a bait ball. And naturally, Drew could easily guess what they were. "Protosphyraena," he chuckled. "Named for the fact that it was mistaken for a barracuda when its remains were first discovered." His smile then widened further as he noticed that additional predators were starting to make their way towards the bait ball as well. Lowering the scope, he looked to Stavros. "Set a course for the protosphyraena. Opportunity only knocks once."
Stavros nodded, "As you wish Kapetanio." He looked to his crew, "You heard him everyone! Full steam to starboard! We've got fish to rescue!"
And so, the Mariner sailed over to where this second apsopelix hunt was starting to unfold. And as they got closer, everyone aboard the Mariner took note of not only the protosphyraena, but also the various other predators heading over to try their luck with a second large gathering of apsopelix. So far, also hunting the apsopelix were at least four different species of mosasaur, one dark skinned with white underbellies and coal black stripes across their backs, one a solid tan, another tannish-scaled with black stripes and another grey with a white underbelly, a small shiver of large greyish white skinned sharks with jet black backs and fins as well as tiny black spots across their bodies, and a medium sized 'pod' of grey skinned and white bellied polycotylids. "The polycotylids are definitely dolichorhynchops, the mosasaurs are platecarpus, plesioplatecarpus, selmasaurus and latoplatecarpus and I think the sharks are cretalamna, but Khatin'll probably know." Drew chuckled, "Think that can wait. Let's get this lot through – we're going to use chum this time."
And so, chum was dropped into the water near the bow of the Mariner. Naturally, it wasn't long before the scent of the chum, plus the obvious prospect of easier food, started to attract the attention of the carnivores, with the mosasaurs and dolichorynchops being the most reluctant, Once they had all gathered Drew nodded his head and looked to Stavros. "You know the drill," he stated. Stavros nodded and opened the portal attached to the ship's bow, causing the chum to start flowing through, with the predators swiftly following. "So far so good," Drew stated as he watched the predators vanish through the portal, with only an adult female dolichorhynchops and her two offspring were left to go through the portal...
...only for the mother to suddenly get chomped upon from below by the jaws of a massive shark!
Jack's eyes widened, "Holy..." Kaisumi similarly went wide eyed and pale faced, "By Kami..."
The sight of the two orphaned dolichorhynchops moving, wide-eyed away from the shark galvanized Drew into hurriedly dropping more chum by the portal just in time to entice them through the portal to safety; and no sooner had the two vanished through the portal when three more sharks of the same species as came swimming into view to join in on the feast. As this happened, everyone aboard the Mariner got a good look at them, taking note of how they resembled great white sharks, only a fair amount larger and with coal black fins. "Cretoxyrhina," Kira muttered, his face slightly blanched at the sight, "Definitely not a shark I'd want to be in the water with."
A sudden movement out the corner of their eyes caused the Mariner passengers to turn their heads in time to see that the cretoxyrhina were joined by a small group of mosasaurs about fifteen feet long with jet black skin, snowy white underbellies, and blood red stripes along their backs. Kira nodded his head, "I think these are Jormungandr."
Before long, the mosasaurs reached the sharks, who started swimming in a circle around the dolichorhynchops carcass as if trying to defend it from getting stolen. Jack looked to Drew, "Should we drop some more chum?" Drew shook his head, "Let's use a portal grenade this time. We might need the chum we've currently got left for something else."
"Consider it done Drew," Adrian said as he prepared a portal grenade and threw it into the water just in time for it to send the squabbling sharks and marine reptiles to the park in a flash of light alongside the slain mother dolichorhynchops they'd been about to fight over. Drew flashed Adrian a thumbs up once this was done, "Good job." He then took a look at the still ocean waters. "We should probably see if we can find anything else..."
"I see something!" Omoros yelled, a wide eyed look on his face as he pointed further ahead of the Mariner's current position while looking through his telescope. "About a mile or so ahead!"
In a flash, Drew and his team, plus the rest of the Mariner crew, all looked ahead. Sure enough, they could all just barely see...something...in the water a mile or so straight ahead. "Could be worth investigating," said Jack. "Read my mind," Drew agreed before looking to Stavros. "Let's take a look." And so, the Mariner set sail for the mystery creature. And as the boat got closer and closer, Drew and his team proceeded to access the bow camera to see if they could get an advance look at whatever this mystery creature was. At the sight that greeted them, Drew, Jack, Adrian, and Kaisumi all went white with shock. "My god," Drew stated, completely flabbergasted at four dizzyingly massive squids, each about sixty feet long and with brown skin and snowy white spots tore at the carcass of a long dead giant mosasaur, stuffing chunks of meat from the carcass into their beaks. Surrounding them were a group of pale-coloured sharks that resembled goblin sharks.
Kaisumi looked to Drew. "There were cephalopods back then… but none this big," she whispered, "These are most likely an undiscovered species!" Jack looked to Drew as well, "Shouldn't be hard to squeeze these guys into the mix, but we need to call Nikolai – we promised." Drew rolled his eyes and sighed, "But please make it quick. That carcass won't keep those krakens over there occupied forever."
"Roger that fearless leader," said Jack, a grin on his face at Drew's referring to the squids as krakens as he drew out his communicator to contact Nikolai. Thankfully, it wasn't long before the call went through. "Koshkin speaking, over?" "Nice to hear you Nikolai," said Jack. "Listen, we kind of found a gigantic species of Cretaceous squid, along with a bunch of… Scapanorhynchus and we all had a feeling we'd best give you and the park fair warning."
"And that is much appreciated," said Nikolai. "How many are there?" Jack nodded, "Four." There was about five seconds pause before Nikolai responded, "Sounds workable. I'll let the holding pens team know to expect them. Good luck out there." And at that, the call was ended. Jack flashed a thumbs-up to Drew, "We're good, fearless leader." Drew nodded and looked to the Mariner crew. "Let's see if the chum we've got is something that would be on the average kraken's menu. We need to be careful where we throw the portal grenade – it would be such an inconvenience if they'd go after the boat…" Stavros shuddered, "No arguments from me there."
And so, a large amount of chum was thrown into the sea – after a few nail-biting moments, all four of the squids, as well as the sharks, abandoned the mosasaur carcass to feed on the chum. For several minutes, all aboard the Ancient Mariner watched with bated breath as the deep-dwellers began to feed, waiting until they were absolutely confident that they'd gotten too close. And eventually, with nods all around, everyone looked to Drew. "I'd say now's looking as good a time as any," Adrian stated. "Agreed," Kaisumi added. Drew nodded, already drawing out and preparing a portal grenade. "Moment of truth," he muttered before walking up to the bow and tossing the grenade into the midst of the feasting predators...which promptly vanished in a flash of light as the grenade activated!
Letting out a noticeably audible gasp of relief, Drew turned to his teammates and the Mariner crew while flashing them a thumbs up. "Good work everyone," he said before wiping his brow. "Hoowee, that took a lot out of me." Jack chuckled, "Can't say I blame you." Kaisumi nodded, "Agreed, I'm sure we were all just as nervous as you were." Drew chuckled, "That's debatable." He then looked to Jack and Stavros, "Do you think you two could handle things up here for a little bit? I think I need to take a quick rest below deck and clear my head." Stavros nodded, "Go right ahead Kapetanio." Jack nodded in agreement, "We can handle things up here for a while." Kaisumi also nodded, "I should probably be heading down to check on the pteranodon anyway."
Drew nodded, a look of relief on his face, "Thanks guys. You're real lifesavers." And at that, Drew turned and departed down below deck to rest and clear his head. Right now, he had a feeling he'd more than earned this opportunity.
. . . . .
Johanna and Roberto couldn't help but gape, eyes wide and jaws open in bewilderment at the sight of the four large cephalopods that had newly arrived in the main portal tank – the sharks had easily been rounded up. The rest of the assembled staff at the holding tanks were likewise stunned at the sight. Admittedly, they'd all been expecting the squids to be large thanks to the warning they'd gotten from Nikolai… but somehow, it still felt awe-inspiring.
Johanna looked uncertainly towards Roberto, "Do you really think we can handle creatures like these?" Roberto sighed, shaking his head side to side as he continued looking at the squids. This was something nobody had ever encountered – even the dracosuchus somehow felt unexciting in comparison. "At this point," he stated, "We don't have much choice but to find out the hard way."
Upon saying this, he took a brief look in the general direction of the staff bar. Already he was starting to get a feeling that perhaps it wouldn't be so unlikely for him to need a seriously strong drink before the mission was over.
. . . . .
Back in the Cretaceous, Drew managed to have a ten-minute nap after the encounter with the krakens before he was suddenly awakened by the sound of a bump, followed by the sound of people running around. Immediately jumping awake, he rushed above deck. Upon arrival back above deck, he immediately turned to Jack, "What happened?" Jack's voice was frantic, "We must have hit something; maybe a floating rock…" Drew sprinted over to the starboard camera, to see what was showing on the camera. He finished Jack's sentence, "Or a carcass."
And sure enough, the cause of the bump was indeed the carcass of a massive dead animal. Using a net, the carcass was hauled out onto deck and Drew, Jack and Adrian proceeded to examine it. The carcass was of a large turtle; by their reckoning, it was some ten feet long and twelve feet wide. It looked like a gigantic leatherback turtle, however, it was a sandy green-brown.
Immediately, it was clear it had died a violent death; one of the rear paddles had been ripped off and there were bite marks on the shell. Drew knew what it was immediately, "Archelon; one of the largest turtles of all time. This one probably isn't even fully grown." Jack said, "Looks like it met a foul end; one of the flippers is missing and there's damage to the shell. What could have done that?" Drew shrugged, "Probably a Tylosaurus." Jack turned to Drew and, "And with that, I'm guessing, we're on the right track." Drew nodded, "Bingo. It's a good sign; we're in Tylosaurus territory." At this, Kaisumi smiled, in equal parts nervousness and excitement, "So I take it we press ahead?" Drew chuckled, "You betcha." He looked to Stavros, "Full steam ahead captain!"
. . . . .
Oskar thought to himself, his brow furrowed as he carefully observed the activity going on within the paddock where the tanystropheus and nothosaurus lived. The four tanystropheus males were hissing and snarling as they each paced along a stretch of rocky landscaping whilst occasionally doing push-up gestures and waving their necks, with the female tanystropheus all lying on a large rock formation in the centre, intently watching the posturing males. "Rumsfeld was not kidding," Oskar admitted, "This is certainly strange." "Which means the question," Mia stated, "is why this is all happening." Laura nodded in agreement, "Before this, they mostly avoided each other."
A hissing caused Bernie and the aquarists to direct their attention to see a subadult nothosaurus peeking in their direction in curiosity. Mia and Laura chuckled and nodded their heads with warm smile – they knew him very well. This was Nemo – at almost nine feet long, he'd grown quite a bit since he'd been brought back to the park. Chuckling again, Laura drew out a small fish from her supply bag and tossed it over to Nemo, who eagerly caught it, "Good to see you too, Nemo." At the juvenile nothosaur's eagerness, Oskar and Bernie couldn't help but smile. As generally practical and unromantic as their worldview tended to be, their hearts weren't made of stone.
Anyway, back to the tanystropheus. Continuing to observe the displaying males, Bernie snorted, "I'd say the answer's pretty ding-dang obvious. I mean, obviously, once you get past our obvious and inherent mammalocentric biases…" As he rambled on about biases in observation, Oskar and the two young girl aquarists looked to the eccentric researcher, waiting for him to get to the point - eventually, he did, "They're starting to gather, the males are becoming more aggressive and carving out sections of the beach, making displays – and their throat markings have changed colour, becoming brighter. What does that indicate to you?"
At this, Bernie pointed his fingers at Oskar and the girls, a clear 'your turn' look on his dark face; at which point Laura and Mia both winced, gritting their teeth as they realized that, when Bernie put it like that, the explanation was indeed obvious. "It's mating season, isn't it?" Mia said, almost resigned. Oskar sighed and shook his head, "Yes – it makes sense." Bernie nodded enthusiastically, "It's a lek – like in marine iguanas - and the males are carving up display territories. Relatively, we don't have much to worry about." Oskar nodded, "Most inter-male conflict is likely to be just noise…"
A sudden noticeably louder round of hissing caused Bernie and the aquarists to look back in the direction of the tanystropheus in time to see that two of the male tanystropheus squaring off – it seemed they were both angling for a spot on the centre stage. As the two archosauromorphs bobbed their heads and exposed their throat markings, sizing each other up, Mia and Laura looked to Oskar once more. "Now what?" Laura asked.
Oskar sighed, shaking his head side to side. "I'm afraid there's not much we can do," he muttered before looking to Bernie. "We're just gonna have to let them fight." Bernie chuckled, a proud grin on his face as he flashed the elderly aquarist curator a thumbs up. "Now you're catching on!" And in that instant, the squaring off tanystropheus males lunged at each other.
. . . . .
Back in the Cretaceous, the Mariner sailed through the prehistoric ocean for several hours after acquiring the archelon carcass before finally coming to a stop, at which point all aboard looked around the vast expanse of ocean. Drew, Jack and Adrian stood out on the deck and Jack sighed, "It's gonna take us some time to find a Tylosaurus out there." Adrian turned to him, smiling, "Which is why we call in special help…"
And at that moment, a grinning Kaisumi, who'd spent almost the entirety of the last several hours below deck watching over the orphaned baby pteranodon, finally came back above deck. And from there, she walked confidently over to the three boys, a small drone in her hands that she'd acquired on her way back up from below deck. This was another product of Novum's robotics advances – not only could it scan for miles wider than any other of its kind, it could also scan for a certain profile and log the precise co-ordinates of it. They'd logged it with multiple images of the area's local wildlife. "Got it ready," she said, looking intently at Drew as she handed the drone over to him. "Exactly as asked." Drew nodded, and gently accepted the drone. "And for that I'm truly grateful," he stated as he entered in the 'area of affect' he wished for the drone to scan. Jack nodded his head, a look of approval on his face, and then turned to face Kaisumi, "I'll admit, I'd forgotten about you telling me about this drone last week. Ta for the reminder, though." Kaisumi chuckled, a slight blush forming on her face as she rubbed the back of her head. Adrian nodded and looked to Drew, "Here's hoping it proves of good use." Drew chuckled, "Well I suppose there's only one way to find out now." And at that, he activated the drone entirely, at which point it flew off the boat, flying about sixty feet in the air and well out of reach of any of the local predators. And upon reaching this height, it scanned the area for about an hour before finally descending back down to the boat.
A short while later, everyone aboard the Mariner had gathered around to watch the footage the drone had recorded. Most of the footage was sadly unpromising... until a point where it picked up several large animals moving through the water; it was too high to tell what animals they were, but it was a start. Drew turned to Adrian, "We'd better head to those co-ordinates." Adrian looked to Stavros, "You heard him captain. Let's get moving."
And so, the Ancient Mariner turned into the surf and headed towards the co-ordinates. And as the ship sailed calmly along to its new destination, Drew stood on the deck and looked out to sea; it was amazing as to how truly little the ocean changed over the eons. The vista of 75 million years ago was near-identical to the one today; only instead of whales, seals and gannets, there were mosasaurs, plesiosaurs and pteranodon. The same roles, just different actors. "That's nature for you," he whispered under his breath. "Always rebuilding after every demolition." Suddenly, Adrian's voice called out from the bridge, "Drew! We've found something on the starboard cam." Running in, Drew saw the rest of the team, plus the Mariner crew, standing by the starboard camera with excited smiles on their faces. Drew turned to Jack and asked, "Have we found some Tylosaurus?" Jack smiled, "Nope." They parted and enabled Drew to have a good look at what was being seen through the camera.
A pod of at least two different species of plesiosaur were swimming through the water. Both groups had leathery skin, long serpentine necks, small flattened heads with hundreds of sharp interlocking teeth, and large flippers. Drew looked at the creatures swimming past, "Elasmosaurus and styxosaurus – two kinds of plesiosaur", he told the rest of the group. "Largely fish-eaters; not too dangerous, but they definitely shouldn't be taken too lightly. They must be riding the wake, like dolphins." Stavros nodded, "They certainly are majestic, eh, kapetanio?"
Suddenly, a large turtle glided past the plesiosaurs; the team recognized it immediately. Drew smiled, "Those are Archelon; living ones." He turned to his team and said, "Right, that settles it; we're going down ourselves. Jack, you're with me. Adrian, Kaisumi, tell us if anything else is coming our way." Kaisumi flashed Jack a thumbs up, "Be careful down there." Jack chuckled, "Aren't I always?" And with that exchange out of the way, the pair got into the lifeboat and sailed out towards where the plesiosaurs and turtles were located, at which point they got their diving suits on and dived over the side of the lifeboat.
Once they had plunged into the water, they took note of the plesiosaurs swimming around them. Up close. Looking at them up close, they could see details that they hadn't been able to discern before. Their skin was counter-shaded and leathery, with some of the older individuals having scars on their bodies, presumably from earlier encounters with predators. They got a closer look at their long necks, small heads, tooth-filled jaws and large flippers, lazily alternating to propel them through the water. Whilst the larger plesiosaurs paid no attention to them, the younger ones were being rather playful and inquisitive, even getting close enough at times to be petted by the two mysterious creatures that had attracted their curiosity.
However, the plesiosaurs were swimming surprisingly fast; even their most determined attempts at speed-snorkelling rendered it near impossible to keep-up. Jack sighed, "How are we going to catch up to this lot?" It was at that moment that the archelon from earlier happened to come swimming into view, at which point Drew smirked smugly, "I have an idea." Drew waited for the Archelon to swim past, before gently alighting onto its shell. When another came past, a chuckling Jack repeated the action. The turtles swam along, sedately, unaware of their new passengers. When they reached the plesiosaurs, Archelon and a group of smaller turtles they identified as protostega, porthochelys and toxochelys and the time came to use the portal, Drew turned it on. The plesiosaurs and turtles briefly stared, coming to a halt as they found themselves transfixed at this strange, shining vortex of light, before heading through the portal into the park. Drew and Jack released the archelon they had been 'riding' and they, too, swam through the portal. "That was fun," said Jack. "Glad you think so," said Drew. "Now let's get back aboard the lifeboat. Knowing our luck, things could soon get dangerous."
Meanwhile, back on the boat, Adrian, Kaisumi and the majority of the Mariner crew had returned to the bridge and were watching the events from the starboard camera. The only one absent was Lumpy, who was currently in the galley keeping an eye on the juvenile Pteranodon and icthyornis. Stavros whooped and said, "Kapetanio has done it again! This might be the easiest mission we've had yet." Suddenly, the radar beeped, startling all in the bridge. Adrian turned to the radar and his eyes widened in horror, "Umm, guys…"
. . . . .
Back at Triassic Trek, only three minutes had passed since the two duelling tanystropheus had begun their duel. At that moment, both tanystropheus were hissing and snarling in rage as they swung their necks side to side and rammed their heads together like giraffes. The other two males had paused their displaying and watched, whilst the females scrutinised the combatants. Bernie, Oskar, Mia, and Laura also watched; albeit, for different reasons. "Interesting," Bernie stated, an excited smile on his dark face as he recorded the tanystropheus duel on his "emergency video camera" for further research. "Very ritualised – mostly necking and shoving… which makes sense, I mean they don't want to get injured…"
"I'm glad to see the behaviour being reported for posterity," Oskar grumbled as he himself, plus the two younger aquarists, directed noticeably more concerned looks towards the spectacle. "But as for me, I'm gonna be more concerned with the state they're gonna be in once the battle's over; the loser especially so." Laura winced as she continued watching the duel as the two angry male tanystropheus reared up on their hind legs and locked arms and chests, attempting to shove the other to the ground. "Can't say I blame you, sir," she then stated. Oskar briefly gritted his teeth in annoyance, but kept quiet so as to continue focusing on the dueling tanystropheus.
As the battle wore on, each fighter attempted to wound the other – attempting to shove each other to the floor and raking the opponent's skin with their teeth and claws. Mia winced, shaking her head side to side as she watched. "Points for versatility," she muttered. "No shit," Laura grumbled. Oskar sighed, "Let's just hope that this doesn't end too badly."
For another three minutes, the battle continued – whilst Bernie intently watched with a natural curiosity, occasionally muttering something to be noted down later, those three minutes felt like an eternity to Oskar and the two young female aquarists. But eventually, with a bitter hiss of defeat, the incumbent male, finding himself outmatched, managed to separate himself from the challenger. Exhausted and slightly wounded, the male lowered his head in submission and retreated to the water, as the challenger let out a hiss of victory. And as the defeated male found a territory on the periphery and resumed his displaying – albeit rather more half-heartedly than before – the challenger, now claiming the centre stage, began to display more vigorously. And with the battle over, the other two males resumed displaying while the females remained atop the rock formation, scrutinising the males. The nothosaurus chose to keep a wise distance.
Bernie nodded his head, "Well then. That was illuminating. I can already tell that I've probably gathered some quite valuable data… more observations and I should have this in the bag." Oskar nodded, "And I'm happy that you're pleased." He then gestured towards the tanystropheus. "But I trust you won't mind if we call to have the vets check on the combatants?" Bernie made an 'It's all good' gesture. "No problem… sir," he said, a cheeky grin coming on his face as he said the word 'sir', but otherwise being entirely genuine. "At any rate, there were a couple of observations I'd like to make on the placodonts, so I'm in the area anyway." And with a nod of his head, the self-acknowledged 'oddball' researcher turned around and headed off in the direction of the placodont exhibit. "Farewell for now ladies and gents! And like I always say at the end of all my blog posts, stay...primeval!"
Oskar sighed, shaking his head side to side. "Sometimes it feels like that cheeky bugger can't take anything seriously." He then looked to Laura and Mia, "But at any rate, I'll get to work on seeing if the vets can spare anyone to check on the male tanystropheus. Can you please make sure nothing happens while I do so?"
Mia and Laura nodded. "Shouldn't be a problem," said Laura. "Let's just hope it doesn't take too long for help to arrive though," said Mia before she then looked in the general direction of where the cymbospondylus paddock was located. "After all, we're scheduled to help Ellicott and Ness with the cymbospondylus in a half hour or so." She then looked in the general direction of the almost finished Hell's Aquarium, the Assemblers having recently done the finishing touches. "And I really do hope that we'll be ready to handle what's being sent our way today."
. . . . .
Back in the Cretaceous, Drew and Jack had just gotten back aboard the lifeboat, when it suddenly impacted, knocking them right back into the water! Once they recovered from their disorientation, they looked around to see themselves surrounded by a small group of counter-shaded mosasaurs; the largest must have been forty feet long. Drew knew what they were immediately, "Tylosaurus. Our targets. They must have thought the boat was a turtle." The Tylosaurus were currently choosing the boat over the humans; the lure of the perceived larger meal outweighed the appeal of attacking these small morsels. But with no actual meat inside the boat, the mosasaurs would only be distracted by the boat for so long...
Meanwhile, on the Mariner… "Guys, there's something coming! Hello? Can ANYONE hear me?!", Kaisumi screamed into the communicator, as the crew stood around, looking nervous. The situation was urgent; they needed to warn Drew and Jack that several large shapes, presumably Tylosaurus, had been detected on the radar, heading directly towards them. However, something was wrong; their in-suit communicators weren't getting the message. The crew looked at each other, worried; hopefully, they'd get the message. "Just keep trying to contact them Kaisumi," Adrian said encouragingly. "I'm sure they'll turn out perfectly fine."
Back in the water, the Tylosaurus were still occupied with the boat, hissing in an uncannily varanid-like fashion in the process. Drew and Jack were staying as still as they could while still floating in the water, for they didn't want to provoke one of the predators into attacking them. There had been an incident when a smaller individual approached and snapped at them, but otherwise they had ignored the two humans. But even so, the two smaller individuals amongst the group were already starting to show signs of growing restless over the lack of meat inside the apparent 'turtle', which almost certainly wouldn't end well for Drew and Jack if something didn't happen to further draw the mosasaurs' attention. Suddenly, their in-suit communicators hissed and Kaisumi's voice crackled over the radio, "Jack? Drew? There are giant mosasaurs coming towards you and it might be best to-". Drew chuckled, "It's a tad too late for that. We've already met them. They capsized the lifeboat." Kaisumi chuckled awkwardly over the communicator, "Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, stay where you are; we'll come to you. We have a plan." Jack shuddered. "Well try to be quick about it," he stated nervously. "The two smaller ones among the group are already getting antsy over the lack of meat inside the lifeboat. And I really don't want them settling for having Drew and I as a light snack."
At this, Kaisumi nervously chuckled from her position in the bridge, "Right, no pressure. We'll be there real soon." She ended the transmission and looked to Stavros, "You hear that Captain? We'd better get moving." Fortunately, the Ancient Mariner was swift to set sail towards the upturned lifeboat, arriving while the now still partially surfaced tylosaurs were still swimming menacingly around the wreckage. Kaisumi watched the spectacle and said, "Get the dead Archelon out from the hold." When Adrian turned to her, confused, she said "The tylosaurs attacked the boat because they thought it was a turtle; let's give them a better meal."
Back in the water, Drew and Jack were waiting, nervously, for whatever plan Kaisumi had apparently come up with. Whatever it was, it would need to be enacted quickly; soon the tylosaurus foursome would run out of patience with the boat. And Drew and Jack very much did not want to find out the hard way whether the mosasaurs would be willing to settle for snacking on them in lieu of the nonexistent meat in the boat. And it certainly didn't help that the two youngsters were currently glaring viciously in their direction and hissing with increasing frequency, with the two adults slowly starting to get increasingly agitated as well...
Suddenly, there was a noise and something very large impacted the water, hitting the water so fast it was, for all intents and purposes, a blur. The mosasaurs turned to look at it and Drew and Jack peered at it in confusion; when the bubbles cleared, they could see that it was the dead Archelon they had found. Drew laughed and said, "Kaisumi's using the Archelon as bait! I knew it'd come in handy!" Jack nodded, a clear look of approval on his face. "So you did," he admitted before directing a cheeky look towards Drew. "And you'd best thank God that Kaisumi evidently agreed with you." Drew chuckled, "I'll add that to my to-do list."
The tylosaurs turned their attention from the lifeboat to this new, more substantial meal, snarling and hissing in predatory delight. This gave Drew time to lift the portal remote and point it directly at the carcass, which got sucked through the portal. Unchanging their trajectory, the mosasaurs followed the carcass through the glowing orb, moving as if a single entity. Drew sighed in relief; the adventure was over, and he and Jack were both safe and unharmed. Adrian's voice crackled over the radio, "We're sending down the shark cage to pick you guys up. After that, I think it's time we all went home." As he said this, the shark cage was lowered into the water, and Drew and Jack swam into it. "No arguments from me Adrian," Drew stated as he and Jack closed the cage door after entry. "After all, I'd say we've rescued just about enough for this mission." The shark cage was then lifted above water, allowing Jack and Drew to get back aboard the Mariner.
No sooner had Jack and Drew embarked back upon the Mariner when Kaisumi rushed over towards them, coming to a stop right as the two had just finished removing their diving masks. "You guys alright?" Jack smirked, "Takes more than some oversized sea lizards to kill me." Drew walked up to Kaisumi and nodded, "Good plan. I had a feeling that archelon carcass would come in handy." Kaisumi blushed and said, "Think nothing of it; you probably would have done the same." Jack chuckled, "That he would." He flashed her a thumbs up, "And on your first day too!" Kaisumi chuckled, a small blush once again forming on her face, "Glad to hear that. Makes me feel all the more hopeful that my first mission with you guys won't be my last." Drew chuckled, trademark grin on his face, "It's a hell of a first time, so… fingers crossed." He then drew out his portal remote and activated the portal. "But for now, I say it's time we all got our asses home." And at that, the Mariner sailed through the portal and back to the safety of the present.
. . . . .
That evening, after several hours of hard work, all the animals rescued from that day's mission had finally been transferred to their new homes at the park. Naturally, a sizable number of them now lived within the newly constructed Western Interior Seaway zone, which had also been informally nicknamed Hell's Aquarium.
A decently sized coastal themed aviary was positioned at the very back of this zone for the aquarium; and it was this aviary that all the newly rescued birds and pterosaurs were now using as a shared home, since they were all fish-eaters and unlikely to harm each other. Quite fittingly, there were minimal barriers between the animals and any humans who'd visit the aviary in the future, which would allow both the animals inhabiting the aviary as well as any human visitors to freely interact with each other. Currently they were all exploring their new home, waiting to be fed. The pterosaurs were exploring the artificial cliffs that they'd claimed as their roosts, with the pteranodon and geosternbergia flocks claiming the highest section while the nyctosaurus were positioned on the sandy ground, while the birds either flew throughout the aviary or swam about in the waters within.
The only two not present were the injured male icthyornis, who Kira had named Ahab, and the juvenile male pteranodon, who had been named Petrie and was currently fast asleep in one of the rehab pens in the vet offices – he'd be moved to the park nursery in due course. Kaisumi smiled warmly as she watched the sleeping Petrie. "Worry not little one," she whispered as she watched the sleeping baby pterosaur. "You're gonna love it here. I can promise you that."
The centerpiece of the Western Interior Seaway zone, however, was a large, indoor Tethys Ocean exhibit; a series of large, saltwater tanks positioned directly outside the Western Interior Aviary. And it was this massive collection of tanks that now served as home to the aquatic Cretaceous creatures. The larger tanks that served as home to giant fish and marine reptiles of Hell's aquarium were over thirty meters each, and likewise contained over ten million litres each.
The largest tank was home to the elasmosaurs, polycotylids, turtles, and globidens; complete with a land section themed after a sandy beach designed entirely for the turtles to rest and reproduce on. And at that very moment, the protostega were currently resting on the manmade beach to continue recovering from their experience in the storm after their time getting treated by the vets while the rest of the turtles continued swimming in the deeper portions of the tank alongside the globidens and polycotylids and the elasmosaurs all bobbed along peacefully in the shallower waters closest to the land section. The two orphaned dolichorhynchops, who'd been affectionately named Dolly and Dalton, had managed to be swiftly adopted by an adult female who hadn't had any offspring of her own. And at the same time, two of the elasmosaurus, a female named Hikari and a male named Satoshi, were currently spending a quite noticeable amount of time together while one of the styxosaurus, a male named Gobber, seemed to largely want to keep to himself as he slunk about the edges of the shallower section of the tank. And rather fittingly, this single massive tank was the one positioned directly in front of the entrance to the Western Interior Aviary.
The sharks, squids, ammonites, smaller mosasaurs, and predatory fish all had large tanks of their own. Some of them were able to share tanks together – the smaller predatory fish all shared a tank, as did the xiphactinus and some of the mosasaurs, for example, were one pair of species that proved able to coexist in a single tank together. The newly discovered 'kraken squids', dubbed titanoteuthis by an excited Khatin, and the scapanorhynchus had a darkened section themed like a deep, dark sea. For added immersion, a giant walkthrough acrylic glass tunnel went through the majority of the aforementioned exhibits, plus the massive rear tank, allowing people to watch marine reptiles, sharks, and various predatory fish swimming around them, with only the deep sea inhabitants excluded. The parapuzosia tank was also excluded from the tunnel's path due to being positioned too close to the center of the room to conveniently fit.
Also positioned directly in the center of the Hell's Aquarium chamber was the second largest tank, which was home to the tylosaurus. And at that moment, all four of the adult mosasaurs, each of them given a separate living space within their new tank due to concerns of cannibalism, were swimming around their new territories as they waited to be fed. The adults, were currently the most attention grabbing as they swam in clear view of onlookers while the two subadults were so far sticking to the darker areas of their territories as much as they could, keeping away from the adults. The juveniles had their own tank, kept separate to avoid cannibalism. The smaller fish, meanwhile, all had separate, smaller tanks spread throughout assorted areas of the chamber, and were all calmly swimming through their new homes in curiosity over their new surroundings.
Outside the aquarium, all four groups of newly rescued dinosaur had been transferred to brand new homes at Wahweap, with the orphaned baby claosaurus and niobrarasaurus now in the central Wahweap herbivore paddock alongside the larger herds of their kind, and the scorpioraptor and lythronax paddocks now divided to accommodate for the new additional members of both species. At that moment, Alex and Sabina, the leaders of the previously rescued scorpioraptor pack were snarling threateningly at their new neighbours, who were currently chowing down on a provided pig carcass. Similarly, the adult male of the additional lythronax family, named Buttram, was currently roaring in challenge at the resident pack's alpha male Wayne as he himself feasted on a freshly provided cow carcass alongside the rest of his pack.
As this all happened, Drew was relaxing in his office, thinking fondly about the adventures he'd underwent with his team at the Western Interior Seaway. And with the current influx of pterosaurs, birds, and marine life, it hopefully wouldn't be long before the Prehistoric Park Aquarium got a sorely overdue boost in attendance. Not to mention he was quite understandably relieved that this mission had quite thankfully not ended with him forced to place one of his teammates on suspension. His eyes briefly narrowed in annoyance at the subsequent memory of how Matthew and Jenny were still in their current positions of power at the park, and also how they were still proving incredibly popular amongst the park staff. But then he shook his head to clear his thoughts. "You can worry about those two later," he muttered under his breath. "Right now, it's best to think happy thoughts." He looked to the clock on his desk, whistling slightly as he caught sight of how late in the night it was "And on that note, I should probably turn in – it'll be a busy day tomorrow." And with a nod of his head, Drew got up from his desk and departed from his office to retire to his onsite dwelling. But even as he did so, he couldn't help but wonder excitedly about what sort of creatures Theodore would assign for him to bring to the park next. After all, at a place like Prehistoric Park, life could only be peaceful and smooth sailing for so long.
Rescue Tally:
* Apatornis celer (28; all adults; 14 male, 14 female)
* Apsopelix anglicus (55; all adults; 27 male, 28 female)
* Archaeolamna kopingensis (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Archelon ischyros (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Bananogmius aratus (27; all adults; 13 male, 14 female)
* Baptornis advenus (18; all adults; 9 male, 9 female)
* Bonnerichthys gladius (13; all adults; 7 male, 6 female)
* Brodavis varneri (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)
* Caproberyx pharsus (18; 9 male, 9 female)
* Chelosphargis advena (10; all adults; 4 male, 6 female)
* Claosaurus agilis (6; all youngsters; 3 male, 3 female)
* Clidastes propython (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Cretalamna appendiculata (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Cretoxyrhina mantelli (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Ctenochelys stenopora (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)
* Dolichorhynchops osborni (19; 13 adults, 6 youngsters; 6 male, 13 female)
* Ectenosaurus clidastoides (10; all adults; 4 male, 6 female)
* Elasmosaurus platyurus (18; 12 adults, 6 youngsters; 9 male, 9 female)
* Enchodus petrosus (17; all adults; 9 male, 8 female)
* Enchoteuthis melanae (8; all adults; 3 male, 5 female)
* Eonatator sternbergii (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Ferrifrons rugosus (16; all adults; 8 male, 8 female)
* Fumicollis hoffmani (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)
* Geosternbergia sternbergi (27; 13 adults, 14 youngsters; 9 male, 18 female)
* Gillicus arcuantus (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)
* Globidens alabamaensis (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Hadrodus hewletti (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Hesperornis regalis (27; all adults; 14 male, 13 female)
* Iaceornis marshi (29; all adults; 14 male, 15 female)
* Ichthyodectes ctenodon (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Ichthyornis dispar (27; all adults; 14 male, 13 female)
* Ischyodus williamsae (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)
* Jormungandr walhallaensis (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Kansastega copei (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Latoplatecarpus willistoni (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Lythronax argestes (4; 2 adults, 2 youngsters; 2 male, 2 female)
* Megalocoelacanthus dobiei (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Micropycnodon kansasensis (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)
* Niobrarasaurus coleii (5; all youngsters; 2 male, 3 female)
* Nyctosaurus gracilis (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Pachyrhizodus minimus (14; all adults; 7 male, 7 female)
* Parahesperornis alexi (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)
* Parapuzosia bradyi (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Platecarpus tympaniticus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Plesioplatecarpus planifrons (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)
* Polycotylus latipinnis (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)
* Porthochelys laticeps (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Protosphyraena perniciosa (19; all adults; 9 male, 10 female)
* Protostega gigas (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Pseudocorax laevis (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)
* Pteranodon longiceps (28; 13 adults, 15 youngsters; 8 male, 20 female)
* Ptychodus mortoni (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Saurocephalus lanciformis (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Saurodon leanus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Scapanorhynchus raphiodon (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Scorpioraptor diablos (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Selmasaurus johnsoni (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)
* Serpentisuchops pfisterae (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Serratolamna serrata (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)
* Squalicorax falcatus (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Stratodus apicalis (9; all adults; 5 male, 4 female)
* Styxosaurus snowii (18; 12 adults, 6 youngsters; 9 male, 9 female)
* Titanoteuthis lovecraftii (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Toxochelys latiremis (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)
* Tylosaurus proriger (10; 4 adults, 6 youngsters; 4 male, 6 female)
* Unkateelah specta (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Xiphactinus audax (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Various pycnodonts (Micropycnodon, Hadrodus and several speculative species)
Next time on Prehistoric Park: Reimagined:
The rescue team travels to a mysterious Cretaceous island.
(A small herd of dwarf armoured sauropods and beaked ornithopod dinosaurs browse upon foliage in a clearing while a flock of small feathered theropods watch in curiosity from atop nearby tree branches.)
Where pterosaurs rule the land.
(A pair of dwarf abelisaurs run in terror as a massive azhdarchid pterosaur rears up to full height behind them.)
And a couple other unexpected surprises may yet await discovery.
(An unidentified flying creature rapidly descends, feetfirst, towards the camera!)
All next time, on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Insula Dragonului!