Time: Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian, 66 MYA
Location: Montana
Mission Log: Day 2
Days Until Meteor Impact: 3
At the camp, the team is cleaning up a bit while Fluttershy crouches over the creek nearby to wash her face. As she does, she's still a bit disheartened that her first encounter with a T. rex was not how she planned. While she knows that the mission's first day is not guaranteed to end with bringing one to Prehistoric Park, she hoped she could have found a way to strategize a plan to catch one, especially since she has about three more days to do so.
Luckily, her disheartenment won't last much longer.
The following morning, the camp has some visitors.
Fluttershy continues to wash her face but stops when she hears grunting sounds approaching. She quickly wipes the water away from her eyes and sees a herd of dinosaurs approaching.
More creatures in the last throes of their existence.
Fluttershy gazes in awe as the herd approaches the creek. The dinosaurs have large frills and three horns, two from above their eyes and one on their snouts.
"Now this is an amazing sight to wake up to: A big herd of Triceratops," Fluttershy says. "This is a tremendous sight. These are Triceratops prorsus, which means straightforward three-horned face. They're believed to be the descendants of Triceratops horridus, a species whose name means horrid three-horned face. But how could they? They are gorgeous."
The team, who had stopped what they were doing, came to join Fluttershy as the Triceratops gathered around the creek. Some of the herbivores were coming for a drink, and others were browsing on the plants around them. Most of the herd doesn't seem to notice Fluttershy and the team's presence, but the ones in front do and stare at them. Like with the Ornithomimus and Tyrannosaurus rex from the day before, the three-horned herbivores are stunned by what they see and smell. The herbivores stared as Fluttershy motioned to her team to back away slowly and avoid eye contact in hopes of not causing them any stress.
"They're big too. The females have got to be at least five or six tons while the males could be pushing at least eight to ten," Fluttershy states before pointing to a particularly large one. "That one over there, a big male, must be at least 25 feet long, and look at how long his horns are. Fossils have shown variation in both the shape and length of horns between individual Triceratops, and the males likely used them to impress females and ward off and fight rivals and predators. And the frills, each individual has different colors and patterns-" However, she's soon interrupted by a loud, honk-like sound. She and the team turn to their left and see a herd of other dinosaurs approaching. These were taller than the Triceratops, and even the three tyrannosaurs Fluttershy had previously encountered. Their mouths were large, and their shape was reminiscent of a duck bill.
"This is terrific; we now have a herd of duck-billed hadrosaurs, Edmontosaurus. When you see hadrosaur dinosaurs in movies and television, many assume they're the size of a horse or maybe a little bit bigger. However, these blow that perception out of the water; they are huge," Fluttershy says. The Edmontosaurus herd joins the Triceratops in feeding, but do keep their distance. The ceratopsians don't seem to mind the hadrosaurs and vice versa, likely because they don't see each other as a threat. "And the good thing for us is there are a lot of them. They're both prey animals for T.rex, especially the Edmontosaurus. I've seen tracks of the predator over there," Fluttershy gestures towards the forest on her left. "Prey and predators are attracted to water sources, and what I'm going to do is follow the tracks to see if I can find one."
Fluttershy then begins to walk back towards the camp as some of the Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, who had just now noticed her presence, watch him leave. The edmontosaurs, while not necessarily afraid of Fluttershy since she wasn't threatening them and they're much larger than her, walk away a little to be as far from her as possible but stay in the area to continue feeding. The Triceratops, however, have now let their guard down and drink from the creek, although they do look up every little bit or so to keep an eye on the strange creatures settled nearby.
Sometime later, Fluttershy has been following the Tyrannosaurus rex tracks. She was walking up the hill of an open area overlooking a lake. However, despite the beautiful view, Fluttershy is vigilant so that she doesn't have a similar encounter to yesterday's.
As she continues to follow, she briefly stops and crouches at one of the prints on the ground before continuing.
The tracks are fresh, and it looks like a well-used trail. T. rex, despite their massive size and build, can walk for long distances when they need to.
The tracks that Fluttershy had been following only represented one animal, but she's now just come across two more sets on this trail, all walking alongside one another.
Fluttershy is hoping these aren't too far away.
As she continues to follow, Fluttershy spots a disturbance in the soil and quickly moves to investigate.
"The tracks are beginning to tell a story. Look here," She gestures to a large mark in the dirt. "That was a big tail sweep, and there are impressions here of bodies. There was a fight here, I think. Another tail drag over there," She gestures. "And the tracks are going on. I think we're getting close to the center of their territory."
Fluttershy continues to follow the tracks of the three. After several minutes of tracking, Fluttershy hears something. She crouches down and moves closer to a large rock outcropping. Once she reaches it, she sees something big moving and quickly realizes it's a T. rex.
"Crouch down." Fluttershy quietly orders. "Get over here." She gets on her stomach, hiding among the rock outcrop. Before her are three Tyrannosaurus rex. Two of them are biting and tussling with each other, while one is just walking around them, minding its own business. However, they don't appear to be adults. "Those three, I think they're the ones who chased me yesterday. I noticed they didn't appear fully grown, but I didn't have the opportunity to examine them. Now that I have a good look at them, my best guess is that they're around sixteen. Paleontologists believe that T. rex reached full maturity at around twenty years old. These three must weigh around five or six tons. Seeing these three together, I'm guessing they're siblings. Fossilized tracks have shown multiple individuals walking alongside one another, but no one has determined whether they're social or solitary. The leading theory is that T. rex was generally solitary but did work with others to hunt big prey from time to time. The ones who hunted together were likely siblings or mates, which makes sense since they would be familiar with one another and could cooperate rather easily."
She ducks down a little more when the first T. rex, the one walking around, passes by the outcrop. After it walked past, Fluttershy looked back up and watched the three. "It's terrific. That fight back there, it must've been those two over there," Fluttershy gestures to the two fighting. "I don't see any food for them here, so they must have been fighting for practice. Many animals need to learn how to fight, as it may help them one day take over another's territory, food, for mates, or to defend themselves and those three things."
It's a dangerous game. T. rex has huge jaw muscles, giving them the strongest bite force of any known terrestrial animal at over 12,000 pounds of force, over three times that of a saltwater crocodile, and over twelve times more powerful than a lion's.
"I can't tell whether these three are male, female, or both. But I guess that they're males due to the crests above their eyes. T. rex had these crests on their postorbital bone above each eye. These crests could have been used for display, but no one really knows what they were used for. I've yet to see a fully mature T. rex of either sex, but given the size of their crests, they're probably male."
The one T. rex who had been walking stopped and stood still while its siblings continued to wrestle.
"They're a real mob, like a gang looking for trouble," Fluttershy says. "And they really interact." Suddenly, the one rex straightens itself up and looks to its left, sensing something. Fluttershy notices its sudden behavior change, but before she can say anything, the rex hisses at its siblings to get their attention. The two stop their squabbling and quickly sense it, too. The first rex begins to walk toward the outcrop where Fluttershy is hiding, with the other two following suit. Fluttershy gets down to avoid being seen.
"Suddenly, they all started moving this way." Thankfully, the three don't notice Fluttershy and walk past the outcrop. However, they're all walking quickly, as if trying to follow or avoid something.
It's one thing to find a T. rex, but it's another thing to take one home.
After several minutes, Fluttershy gets up from her hiding spot, the three T. rexes now gone. Their sudden behavior change, however, has Fluttershy confused.
"I have no idea why they just left," Fluttershy states. "I don't think it was something they smelled; the wind was moving downwind in the direction they headed, and they weren't sniffing the air. It must have been something they heard. Tyrannosaurus rex had an excellent sense of hearing, even picking up on low-frequency sounds. It's possible that they heard another animal nearby and either went to investigate or get away from it."
Fluttershy, however, decides to avoid following them. Instead, she goes down to where they were moments ago. Climbing down from the outcrop, Fluttershy goes to the clearing and witnesses the footprints and disturbances on the ground where they walked and tussled. However, she notices something else near the treeline. She walks over and finds another T. rex footprint; only this one is bigger than the rest.
"Now I see why they left," Fluttershy says. "This footprint is of an adult Tyrannosaurus. It must belong to the ruler of this territory, and those three must have heard it. They probably moved into this area recently, looking for resources or to establish their own territory, only to discover that it's already occupied. This individual is likely to be double their weight, so even though those three have a numbers advantage, they won't chance an encounter with an adult."
Being in the territory of a larger T. rex may sound more worrisome, but for Fluttershy, it opens a new opportunity.
"If I can find that adult, I might be able to get it back to Prehistoric Park."
Two hours have passed since Fluttershy started her search for the adult T. rex. The downside for T. rex hearing low-frequency sounds is that the adult is likely miles away. Traveling several miles in one day is not a big deal for a T. rex, but it's long and exhausting for Fluttershy.
Fluttershy eventually sees something in the forest. She moves closer to get a better look. To her disappointment, it's not a T.rex, but it might just be something else to bring back.
Fortunately, dinosaurs lay eggs and are much easier to carry.
"It looks like a nest. I'm going to go have a look now and see if I can find any eggs." Fluttershy says as she moves towards the nest.
Unfortunately, she's too late.
Fluttershy reaches the nest, only to see that it's mostly empty aside from a few eggshells.
"This is all I could find, empty T. rex eggshells," Fluttershy says as she examines the nest. "They might have been broken into by a predator, or more likely, they're last season's eggs. It's so disappointing; if we could have found a fresh T. rex nest, got the eggs, and taken them back to Prehistoric Park, that would have been the easiest option for us."
Fluttershy, finding no luck searching for the adult or a fresh nest, decides it's time to head back to camp.
It's now evening, and Fluttershy, who has already returned to camp, sits at a fire, enjoying her beverage.
Another day, and she's still no closer to saving a T. rex. And up above are the first signs that the meteor is closing in. Streaking across tonight's skies are shooting stars. Huge boulders are entering Earth's atmosphere at 20,000 miles per hour. They are the precursor of something much, much bigger.
"Look at this cosmological activity going on here; those are meteors. Nothing to worry about; they burn up in the atmosphere. But they're in the bowway of the meteor. When that comes through, that's going to smack into the Earth. And that's the problem, we really have such little time here, and I'm hoping tomorrow will go better, and we can save a T. rex or two."