2. The Giant Claw
I am zoologist and adventurer, Nigel Marven. For years, I’ve crisscrossed the globe in search of the most dangerous animals alive today. But just imagine a prehistoric safari. My dream is to meet the largest and most extraordinary creatures that have ever lived…
To travel back in time…and Walk with Dinosaurs!
Mongolia, 70 million years ago…
These primeval Asian deserts are an inhospitable landscape. In the height of summer, temperatures can soar above 60 degrees Celsius... and water evaporates in an instant. And even if some animals were well adapted to desert conditions, their survival here is often on a knife's edge.
But one man and a film crew have decided to make camp here in the dunes of the Mongolian desert. That man was wildlife adventurer and naturalist, Nigel Marven.
So, this was the start of my prehistoric safari, my adventure into the world of dinosaurs. But I wasn't just here to sightsee. I had a mystery to solve.
Inside his tent, he had a small dinosaur claw in his hand. "Look at this. This is the claw of Tyrannosaurus rex, the most notorious flesh-eater ever known." The English naturalist explained to the cameraman as he handled the Tyrannosaurus claw.
“So, if this is the claw of T-rex, what… is this?" Nigel said as he pulled out a massive claw. "A 28-inch claw. When it was first discovered by paleontologists in the 1950s, it was so extraordinary, they thought it was the rib of a giant turtle.”
“But later, it was found to have been attached to ten-foot arms, the longest arms of any creature ever found." He told the cameraman. "And paleontologists called the creature Therizinosaurus, or the ‘scythe reptile’—."
Suddenly, a light tremor beneath him made him stop speaking momentarily. As he looked around, he barely caught a silhouetted flash of blinding white light across his eyes, and the light disappeared as quickly as it came. His curiosity getting the best of him, Nigel zipped the tent open to investigate. But as he peeked his head out, a look of shock and confusion formed along his face at the most unusual sight.
There, sprawled along the desert floor, were a pair of young girls, probably high school teenagers, lying unconscious. They were the strangest looking girls the Englishman had ever seen, both with colorful hair and their skin tone having a strange colorful pigment. Regardless of their appearance, they appeared to need help as Nigel exited the tent, and headed in their direction, before kneeling beside them.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” He asked.
But no response came from either girl. Knowing these two could either die of heat stroke from the desert temperatures or be mistakenly scavenged on by predators, Nigel did the best thing he could do and with the help of the cameraman, the girls were taken inside the tent.
Soon it was a waiting game for them to wake up. Within an hour, the violet-skinned girl stirred and slowly moved, as Nigel breathed a sigh of relief knowing she was okay. He helped the girl sit up slowly, as her eyes opened and her vision steadily returned. Once she saw the unknown man holding her, naturally her first response was to back away as far as she could against the tent. Nigel held up his hands defensively, showing he meant no harm.
“Whoa! Whoa! Take it easy now,” he said, quickly.
The violet girl quickly searches her surroundings and then turns to her friend lying on the ground. She quickly shakes her violently, desperately trying to wake her up.
“Fluttershy, wake up! Wake up!” Twilight shouted, loudly.
The second girl too began to stir, waking from her unconscious state. As she slowly came to, she too searched her surroundings before acknowledging the man beside her. The yellow-skinned girl hid her face in her long pink hair, letting out a squeak of fear as she did so.
“T-T-Twilight, I-I’m s-scared!” Fluttershy whimpered.
“Who are you?” Twilight asked Nigel, fearfully.
Before Nigel could even respond, a loud bellowing trumpet was heard, and the tent immediately caved in on the trio.
“Hey!” shouted Nigel in surprise. “What the heck was that?!”
Soon, the trio got out of the trashed tent and saw the culprit leaving to join its herd.
The beast and its companions were enormous and were sandy gold in color, with darker brown stripes on their flanks and tails. But the most striking feature of their appearance was the beak that hardly resembled a duck’s bill.
Twilight’s mind felt like it was about to implode. Before them was a herd of hadrosaurs, dinosaurs!! The behavior of the herd was too fluid for any kind of puppetry — these were real animals!
She was equally worried about her friend and wondered how she was taking it.
"Fluttershy...are you seeing...what I’m seeing?" she gasped, looking at her friend next to her.
The animal enthusiast eyed her with disbelief and plain shock. No other words would describe her reactions in this state, for those would be the most accurate. "You mean those dinosaurs? Then yes…”
"Okay good. I'm not going crazy," Twilight said, straightening herself up, before noticing the Englishman had mysteriously disappeared.
It didn’t take long for her to notice him crawling through some foliage with a small camcorder in his hand, and he was getting close to one of the browsing herbivores. Fortunately, the animal didn’t seem to notice as it had some business to take care of, in this case, eating.
This was it. My first dinosaur encounter. My tent had been flattened by a gigantic herbivore called Barsboldia — at 33 feet long, not the biggest plant eater in the area, but one of the large plant eaters that lived here. There was something very unusual about these creatures that I wanted to get on camera. But first, I had to get very, very close.
"This is the biggest and most magnificent herbivore I've ever seen. She must be nearly 5 tonnes." Nigel said as he pointed the camcorder up to the Barsboldia. "She must have to pack in so much vegetation.”
The Barsboldia let out a bellow as she bent down and chomped down on the branches, unaware that she was still being watched.
“The most recognizable aspect of hadrosaurs are the flattened and laterally stretched rostral bones, which gives them the distinct duckbill look. And that’s what made duckbills special — they’re one of the few dinosaurs that can actually chew. No other dinosaurs can move their jaws like we can, but what the duckbills do, they got a battery of teeth. There can be over 2,000 teeth in that mouth, and they slam the lower jaw into the upper jaw, the bones distort, and they grind the vegetation between that battery of teeth." He explained as the female Barsboldia soon took notice of this strange creature.
"These are fabulous animals!” He said to the camcorder before the English naturalist got snorted on by the hadrosaur. "I don't believe it! Dinosaur snot! Thank you!" Eventually, he got up and let the Barsboldia be.
"That was a terrific start to the expedition, even though those brilliant duckbills actually trashed my tent." He said to the cameraman.
”Who are you?"
It was then that Nigel turned and forgot about the two newcomers he had met.
"Oh, where are my manners?" Nigel said before holding out his hand. "Hello, name’s Nigel. Nigel Marven."
The two stared at Nigel for a moment, until something clicked in Twlight’s head.
"Wait, you mean you’re THE Nigel Marven, the man on Shark Week?"
"The same."
Twilight’s response could best be described as SQUEE. Fluttershy was dumbfounded by this, as was Nigel.
"Wait, you know this man? And you watch Shark Week?"
"Guilty on both accounts and I am not ashamed to admit it.”
“So, who might you be?” Nigel asked.
“My name’s Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight introduced herself. “And this is my friend, Fluttershy. So, what are you doing here in the middle of a dino-filled desert in the first place?”
With the introductions out of the way, Nigel pulled out the Therizinosaurus claw from the destroyed tent, which greatly surprised the duo, having never seen a claw like that before.
“You see, this is the reason I'm here." He said to the girls. "This is a claw from a dinosaur called Therizinosaurus. The best guess by scientists is this belonged to a kind of theropod dinosaur—“
“That's the group of dinosaurs that includes most of the carnivorous ones,” Twilight interjected.
“That’s right, and just imagine a predator with claws like this," Nigel said, imagining what a predator with mighty claws like the one he held would look like.
"And I'm in just the right place to find the owner of that giant claw. This is the Nemegt Formation, and I’m on the eastern side of the giant continent of Laurasia in the Late Cretaceous. That’s 70 million years ago. In the 21st century, the arrangement of continents is very different, and where I am now will be present-day Mongolia." He explained to them, while the herd of Barsboldia wandered around the oasis calling to each other.
Just then, an idea seemed to pop into his head as he turned toward the girls.
“Hey, how would you like to have an amazing experience most people only dream of?” Nigel asked.
“And what would that be?” Fluttershy asked.
“How would you like to help me find Claws himself?” He offered.
Twilight’s eyes beamed with joy and excitement.
“That would be AMAZING!!!” She stated, very loudly, surprising the hadrosaurs, but not enough to spook them.
Fluttershy, however, seemed less than thrilled.
“Oh, come on, Fluttershy!” Twilight insisted. “This is the coolest thing to ever happen to us! Just think about it, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance!” How often do we get sent back in time to help a world-famous zoologist find a mysterious dinosaur?”
Fluttershy just sighed. She knew once Twilight set her mind to something, there was no way to change her mind. Then again, she really couldn’t blame her. If they ever did have a chance to do something they’ve always wanted to do, they wouldn’t be quick to go home either. Nodding her head, she turned to Twilight with a smile.
“Alright Twilight, you win,” Fluttershy said.
Nevertheless, Twilight squealed with excitement, hugging her friend tightly.
“Thank you, thank you, so much!” She thanked them. “You’re never gonna regret this.” She said to Fluttershy before she turned to the cameraman. “You know, I don’t know if we’re going to find this “Claws…”
“I don’t know what other amazing and wonderful creatures we could see…” Fluttershy added.
“But whatever happens, this is going to be a cracking adventure!” Nigel exclaimed as he and his new colleagues began their journey.
The trio had been walking across the plains of the Nemegt for about an hour or so, Fluttershy spending some of the time reading through one of Nigel’s field guides to get more knowledge on this vast and beautiful landscape. As they traveled across the plains, Nigel noticed a large, heavily armored dinosaur with a clubbed tail resting beside a clutch of eggs. It had a chartreuse-colored body with darker greenish-brown armor plating across its back and tail as well as the top of its head and also a tannish gold-colored underbelly.
"What a magnificent creature, a female Saichania," Fluttershy said to the cameraman. "These amazing animals are almost like the hippopotamus of the Nemegt. They may be vegetarians, but they've got really powerful tail clubs that are capable of breaking bones."
"This one is a mother with her clutch of eggs, typically Saichania stick to areas where there's water, so I assume that a stream or a lake isn't too far away," Nigel told the cameraman as the Saichania watched these strange creatures. "But I think it’s best to leave her alone ‘cos neither of us want to be clobbered by that formidable tail."
Suddenly, the silence of the desert was broken by distant roaring calls.
"Shh. Shh!" Twilight quickly ushered everyone to silence. "I think I hear something."
The sound broke out again, allowing her to pinpoint exactly where it came from. "Over there, I think,” Twilight said before she turned to Nigel and Fluttershy. “You guys go ahead; I’m going to go check out what’s making that noise.”
“Alright, just don’t take too long!” Nigel called out as Twilight wasted no time following the calls to their source.
It looks like I was about to encounter one of the Nemegt’s oddest animals.
The search led Twilight to an arid basin where a herd of dinosaurs were wandering as she watched them, the violet-skinned girl was most excited as this species and its relatives were very well known for a dome-shaped head. Each herd member had black stripes and white spots on their necks, bodies, and tails.
A herd of Prenocephale, bizarre creatures with thick, dome-shaped skulls.
A Prenocephale roared as Twilight watched from nearby.
"Wow, these Prenocephale are incredible. I've always wanted to see these dinosaurs because they and their relatives were famous for their dome-shaped heads, giving them the nickname, ‘dome-heads’." Twilight said to the cameraman.
She watched as the Prenocephale wandered as one sniffed an old dead tree.
They prefer to feed on fruit and leaves... but they’re not too picky to eat roots and insects.
One male then rams an old tree and pushes it down with full strength and starts getting at the beetles hiding underneath. The Prenocephale forage as Twilight watched them, and among them was a big male.
"Check out this guy," Twilight said. "He must be the dominant male of the herd. But you’re probably wondering: ‘Why the dome-shaped head?’ Well, scientists are still working on that answer. But for the longest time researching these animals, many believed it was a built-in battering ram like with bighorn rams of the Rockies.”
“And I'm noticing that the Prenocephale’s head has some red color on it," the spectacled genius observed. "Fossil skulls have shown what looked like fibers for showing bright colors, so it must’ve been for display as well."
She watched as the dominant male bellowed out onto a rock as if keeping watch on the herd.
But trouble is starting to brew within the herd.
Twilight then noticed a commotion as the leading male saw one young male ramming the leg of another herd member.
This young male is throwing his weight around.
The young male rams his opponent again as it runs off.
The dominant male leaps off his rock and confronts the younger male as he turns to him as he bellows.
It's time for the dominant male to put him in his place or kick him out.
The older male paws the ground and then swings his head side-to-side as his dome-shaped head turns a brighter red.
He flaunts his colorful headgear...
The other members of the herd watch along with Twilight.
...trying to intimidate the youngster.
The younger male paws the ground as he isn't deterred as the confrontation grows intensely.
But he's not going to back down that easily.
Seeing that his rival wasn't backing down, the alpha bellowed as he pawed the ground as the herd and Twilight watched. Soon, he charges as the two males headbutt each other, and then the older male shoves the younger male by the shoulder.
"Did you see that?! That was a full-charge headbutt!” Twilight exclaimed. "It's almost like two football players coming at each other."
She turned back to the battle as the herd watched as the younger male rammed the alpha's leg as he lifted high and they bashed each other's heads hard.
If a human skull took that kind of blow, it would shatter like an egg!
The dominant male bellowed and grunted as they bashed heads again, and Twilight watched as the battle grew more violent.
But ten-inch-thick skulls enable them to survive powerful, head-on collisions.
The alpha took a few steps back, and then charged as he rammed the young male and pushed him aside. And now the battle was heating up more as the younger male ran off as the dominant male chased him. And the herd follows them as the head honcho knocks his opponent off his feet and the two fall over a short ridge and quickly get up and fight again.
"This is getting serious! They seem evenly matched." Twilight said, alarmed. "Sometimes these battles could lead to serious injury or even death. But they always end eventually with one backing off."
The older male is heavier, but the younger is more agile and has more stamina, and that tips the balance in his favor.
The two males continued fighting as the younger male then threw the lead male off his feet and hit the ground. Having won the battle, the younger male stood in triumph as the other Prenocephale stood.
The young male bellows in victory, but then his triumph is short-lived when the dominant male strikes a blow against his shoulder knocking him to the ground, and whines in pain.
And not just in the pain of his shoulder, but possibly his pride.
The final blow has been settled.
The young male turns to the lead male as he stands over him as the herd and Twilight watch, and he manages to get to his feet.
The loser has to pay a heavy price...
The loser then limps off.
Exile.
He then runs off as the head honcho watches his rival leave while panting and the young male runs off in the distance.
“Those dome-heads are really formidable, but I’ve gotta get through this herd and over to the other side,” Twilight told the cameraman. “I can see Nigel and Fluttershy in the distance and there’s some lush forest over there, and that may be the home of the Giant Claw.”
She then took off her backpack, zipped it open, and pulled out one of Rarity’s fashion bandannas that were for a canceled Wild West fashion show. But it might act as a bit of help for Twilight as she grabbed a long stick.
“And I think I have an idea that just might be crazy enough to work. Pachycephalosaurs like Prenocephale were non-avian dinosaurs, their closest descendants were birds. And just like birds, they could’ve seen well in color, especially the color red.” Twilight explained as she tied the bandanna onto the stick, making it into a makeshift flag. “And if I use this, the Prenocephales might pay no aggressive attention to me, and they’ll follow the flag instead.”
“Well…” she said, before heaving a hopeful sigh. “Let’s see if this works.”
And so, Twilight walked straight towards the herd. The dinosaurs immediately caught the sight of this new competitor and bellowed and made mock charges towards it, but they had more of a grudge against the bright thing on the end of the stick it was holding.
For Twilight, her plan seems to work more than she expected. Within a few seconds, she was through the herd of dome heads, calling out to the film crew to join her on the other side.
"Oh, my lord," muttered the boom operator, holding out his boom mic defensively in front of him as a Prenocephale snorted at him, flashing its red dome at the intruder.
Fortunately, the film crew was able to make it through the herd and rejoin Twilight and the others.
The search for the elusive Giant Claw had taken the trio of explorers to a large, forested area, where the sandy dunes end and vibrant green forests begin.
“This area of the Nemegt Formation is called a productive dune system. You've got these great big dunes and plains, then sandwiched in between is this verdant forest." Twilight explained to the cameraman. "It's windy here, you can see the sand grains whipping off the top. These dunes are marching. So, every now and then, the forests are swamped and then, eventually, a new forest grows. So, there's always new growth here."
"And this is the first forest we’ve found, and hopefully down there are some big carnivorous dinosaurs," Nigel told the cameraman before he and the girls went down into the forest.
“This is a perfect dinosaur forest,” Nigel told the cameraman. "There’s cycads, ferns, and these conifers, some of them can soar 200 feet into the air.”
Somehow, for some strange reason, they couldn't help but feel like they were being watched by someone...or something. Fluttershy heard something calling in the forest and she looked back, but whatever it was ran off.
However just as soon as Fluttershy turned her back, Twilight heard the same noise again, this time she and the others heard something tearing through the undergrowth, but it didn't sound like a big creature. These were several small creatures.
"We keep getting glimpses of fast-moving dinosaurs in the vegetation, along this creek," Fluttershy told the cameraman. "And I think it's a pack of Zanabazar. We don’t know what they’re looking for yet."
They decided to follow them as one of the Zanabazar leaps into the undergrowth.
We soon found out; that our hunch was right. Moving through the trees, there were 6 or 7 Zanabazar.
The Zanabazar pack ran through the forest, their bodies were covered almost entirely from head to toe in jet-black feathers, with four of them having resplendent red feathered crests atop their heads.
"This is an interesting dinosaur," Fluttershy said to the cameraman. "The generic name is derived from the first spiritual figurehead of Tibetan Buddhism, Zanabazar."
"They’re part of the family group called troodontids," Twilight said as she and the others followed the pack. "All troodontids have unique features of the skull, such as large numbers of closely spaced teeth and raptorial hands.”
“But they’re not interested in us. I think they’re stalking bigger prey. And we’re gonna try to follow them." Nigel deduced.
They continued to follow them until they saw the carcass of a Barsboldia and the Zanabazar pack was feasting on it.
“This is what they were after," Nigel said. "A dead Barsboldia. they must've picked up the scent of the carcass. They’re not paying any attention to us. They’re totally focused on feeding.”
"But what kind of predator could’ve done this to a Barsboldia?" Fluttershy thought to herself. "There's only one animal I could think of that could’ve done this damage, and I just really hope we don't run into it."
It was getting late, we had to leave the Zanabazar alone before they started paying attention to us, and we needed to find a safe place to set up camp.
Fluttershy felt a little nervous as she began to settle in for her first night in prehistoric Mongolia. Whatever brought down that Barsboldia had to be from the apex predator of the region. There's no way that the Zanabazar pack could’ve brought it down. An angry Barsboldia would’ve made short work of the troodontids.
I had trouble sleeping that night. Just the thought of the Nemegt’s apex predator raiding our campsite while we were asleep. I just hoped it wouldn’t happen to us.
The next morning, the trio were packing up camp, ready to move on with their search for their mysterious target.
“So far, we’ve seen a herd of Barsboldia, a mother Saichania and her eggs, a group of Prenocephale, and now a pack of Zanabazar,” Twilight said to the cameraman. “But neither of us haven’t seen any evidence of the Giant Claw, at all.”
“Maybe this habitat’s just too dense,” Fluttershy deduced. “There might not be enough herbivores for it to prey on if that’s the case.”
“We’ve got a long way to go, but if we can get through there, maybe there’s some more open habitat on the other side,” Nigel suggested.
Soon, after putting out the campfire and packing up the tents, the explorers left the forests for now as there didn't seem to be any sign of the Giant Claw. And if that wasn't enough, the forest was getting too dangerous with small and large carnivores just around the corner.
“We came out of the dense forest into this scrubbier habitat and Twilight found our first real clue. This may be the nest of The Giant Claw.” Nigel said as he and the girls stood next to a large nest that had been raided.
"It’s been broken into," Twilight said to the cameraman. "Perhaps this was the work of the Zanabazar. Just like monitor lizards in Africa that break into crocodile nests. The Zanabazar must have raided this nest and that’s what happened here."
"But look at what I've found inside," Fluttershy told the cameraman after she picked up one of the eggs from the nest. "This must be the embryo of a Therizinosaurus, the Giant Claw. Even as a little baby inside the shell, you can see the claws at the front of the body."
"But if this is a nest site, it’s really strange, because look… at this," Twilight told the cameraman as she pointed at a pile of dung. "This is herbivore dung. It’s not carnivore dung.”
She handed one of the dung balls to Nigel, who opened it apart to see what was inside the poo.
“Look inside. There's pine needles, bits of cycads.” Nigel said as he examined the fresh coprolite before he sniffed it. “It smells like a herbivore. And we can't understand why this is all scattered around here, around the nest site of the Giant Claw, which--which must be a predator."
We’d been tracking for two days, yet we weren’t any closer to understanding our target. There’s nothing else left but to continue our search through this extraordinary land.
{pause at 0:45 and play video below to begin the hunt}
Leaving the mysterious nest behind, the trio were heading across a relatively open area when suddenly, an animal cry was heard in the distance. And it was getting closer now. Only this time it got louder, repeated by many more animals.
Soon, dozens of thundering feet just around the next bend before a large herd came into view. There were at least twenty Barsboldia, young and old, but they were joined by another group of dinosaurs.
The ostrich-like dinosaurs had feathers that heavily resembled those of modern ostriches, with the males being largely covered in jet-black feathers with a blood-red patch along the back of the lower portions of their necks and similarly red-colored feathers on the backs of their arms while the females being largely covered in tawny gold feathers with a snowy white patch across the backs of the lower portions of their necks and similarly white colored feathers on the backs of their arms.
“I know what these are, I just can't place the name,” Fluttershy muttered, her brow in deep thought. “It was something like Galli– galli-uh–"
"Gallimimus?" offered Nigel.
"Thanks, Nigel."
The Gallimimus was a large species of ornithomimid, or ostrich dinosaur, a fleet animal using its speed to escape predators and may have had good vision and intelligence comparable to ratite birds.
“Look at the wheeling—” Nigel pointed out. “The uniform direction change! Like a flock of birds evading a predator!”
“Guys… I think we better start running,” Fluttershy suggested nervously.
“Why?” Twilight faced Fluttershy.
“Because one—they’re flocking this way,” Fluttershy answered, backing away before pointing to something in the distance as she took off running. “And two— because of that!”
Soon, all four eyes turned as they saw the reason behind the panicking herd: chasing them was a large predator. It looked like a T-rex, but it had a longer, narrower skull and light, sandy gold scales with a tan underbelly, graduating to a greyish brown on its arms and legs and with steely grey feathers around its neck and on the tip of its tail. Its head was large, broad, and powerful-looking and a roar revealed broad, powerful-looking teeth. Its arms were disproportionately small in comparison to its massive body and its hands had two fingers. Most distinctively, it had, rather oddly, bright, blue eyes.
Without another moment's delay, the duo ran like hell in the other direction as Fluttershy did just as the Gallimimus and Barsboldia herd came thundering at their heels, all sixty strong trying to escape the approaching predator.
It was a real footrace, but the herd was far faster, and Nigel knew they weren’t going to make it at this pace.
“Quick! Head for that fallen tree!” Nigel instructed.
They proceed to jump over a huge fallen tree. There was enough space to hide under. They covered their heads as the herd thundered over the roots. Their clawed feet struck the roots dangerously close to them, but otherwise, they were unscathed.
Finally, the whole herd passed. The trio peered up, over the wooden fortress. They looked toward the trees, which the herd now ran alongside, as the predator began to slow down.
Suddenly, a thunderous roar was heard somewhere within the trees ahead, making everyone's blood run cold, especially Fluttershy’s as her fears from last night were confirmed. The top predator of these lands was the prowl.
Soon, a second predatory dinosaur, the same species as the pursuer except with black speckles around its body, erupted out of the tree line, scattering the herd, and throwing them into disarray, causing the animals to run in all directions. The whole party bore witness to the tyrannosaur’s ferocity as he kicked into overdrive, running down a straggling Barsboldia and sinking his teeth into the animal's neck. The Barsboldia struggled and pulled free as the male bit down again, the female rushed in and rammed the hadrosaur off its feet. Soon, the male lunged and bit down on the neck of the Barsboldia as the female held their target down. The duckbill never stood a chance.
The Englishman and the girls half rose to their feet, staring in wonder as the pair of apex predators began to devour their prey.
“This is what I was fearing about last night,” Fluttershy whispered nervously. “Those have to be Tarbosaurus, the Asian cousins of Tyrannosaurus Rex. I’m pretty sure that’s what brought down that Barsboldia last night."
"On any safari, you always want to see the top predator, but neither of us aren’t that keen... on these guys. They are so huge, 40 feet long.” Nigel whispered, sharing the same fear as his friend.
"They’re tearing away massive chunks of flesh and bone before swallowing them whole!" noted Twilight. “It's estimated that, like T-rex, a Tarbosaurus could rip away five hundred pounds of flesh in a single bite, and those jaws can exert over eight thousand pounds per square inch!"
"Eight thousand—that's even more bite force than a saltwater croc's, which is only more than three thousand!" silently exclaimed the animal enthusiast, wide-eyed.
"And their bite is the strongest in the Animal Kingdom!" added the English naturalist, just as amazed.
If T-rex was the King of the Cretaceous, then Tarbosaurus was the Emperor.
The male Tarbo paused in the middle of his meal and blared a loud, unearthly roar. In their excitement, neither the Englishman nor the girls had realized that they were directly upwind of the tyrannosaurs’ keen noses.
Upon realizing their position, Twilight and Nigel exchanged sheepish looks before nodding in agreement. "Fun's over," murmured Twilight.
"Okay. Keep low and back away slowly." instructed the Englishman. "That roar was only a warning." That being said, the troop withdrew slowly away from the feasting.
It was time to change our tactics. Across the scrubland, was several large freshwater lakes. Instead of searchin' for Claws, we’d wait for him to come to us.
After traveling for nearly two hours, the trio trekked away from the Tarbosaurs to their surprise, a rare desert hotspot of life.
An oasis with dozens of dinosaurs gathered to drink water from Barsboldia, Prenocephale, Saichania, and Nemegtosaurus, the sauropods that had dark reddish-brown scales with tannish white stripes across their backs, necks, and tails, as bellows filled the air.
It was like a dinosaur paradise here.
Open water attracts desert animals of every kind from many miles away. And some dwarf everyone else.
Nearby approaching the oasis, a herd of desert giants is on the march as they make their way to the waterhole.
The Mongolian Titan.
The nomadic herd of gigantic titanosaurs, all with grey and golden scales, made their way towards the oasis as they may've smelled the water from several miles away. And a few enantiornithines flew by as one rested on the neck of one of the herd members.
They are colossal. Weighing over 70 tons, they are among the biggest animals to have ever walked the Earth.
"I can't believe what we are seeing," Nigel said. "I think these are the Mongolian Titan."
"There aren't any fossils of them yet found," Twilight said. "But the only evidence we have of this dinosaur was a fossilized footprint."
"But they're huge," Fluttershy said. "I bet these Mongolotitans could be the biggest dinosaur to have ever lived in the Nemegt."
"Yeah, you got that-" Twilight then frowned, baffled by what her friend said. "What'd you say?"
"Oh! Mongolotitan." Fluttershy said. "A name I came up with for the Mongolian Titan."
"What?" Twilight said. "Fluttershy, this species hasn’t even been discovered yet."
"Technically speaking, yes," Fluttershy said. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't call it something."
"She has a point, Twilight," Nigel said. "I think Mongolotitan could work. It’s kind of a cool name."
The ‘Mongolotitan’ herd approaches the waterhole as one nears the shore of the water as a few Barsboldia move out of its way. The intrepid explorers managed to sneak through the crowd to get a better look at the giant as it lowered its head and neck down to drink.
There may be a crowd, but if you've got the longest neck on Earth, you can jump the queue.
"This is beautiful. On any safari, you look for watering holes; they’re magnets for animals. And on a dinosaur safari, it's no different." Fluttershy told the cameraman. "And this must be the best chance for us to find evidence of the Giant Claw.”
“The thing about water holes being a magnet for wildlife, is the predators know that too. In Africa, lions and crocodiles wait for zebras and wildebeest to come to drink." Twilight told the cameraman. "Predators like Tarbosaurus could show up at any time. So, we’ve really got to watch our step here."
Not too far away, near the edge of a small forest, they found what looked like the carcass of a Therizinosaurus. Unfortunately for them, the head and neck were scavenged completely and had been removed from the body.
However, the massive arms were still intact and more impressive in real life than in a photograph.
“Look at the size of this!” Nigel exclaimed as he laid down next to one of the fallen beast’s arms. “I’m six-foot-two, and this arm actually dwarfs me.”
“And to be honest, we’re actually a little nervous about meeting an animal with claws like that. They have to be for disemboweling its prey!” Twilight said in a nervous and fearful tone.
“But the more we closer to solving this mystery…” Fluttershy said, before heaving a confused sigh. “The more we get confused.”
She then held three small white objects in her hand and showed them to the camera.
“Look at these. I found them around the body, and these aren’t the teeth of a carnivorous dinosaur; they’re leaf-shaped and serrated. These were designed for slicing through vegetation.” She explained as she turned to the dead body of the seemingly monstrous beast. “And earlier, when we found the Giant Claw’s nest, there was also that pile of herbivorous dung—“
Before she could finish her sentence, she immediately let out a silent gasp in sudden realization as a small smile appeared on her face.
Maybe Therizinosaurus, the Giant Claw, may not be what it seems.
While the trio were busy looking at the carcass, suddenly, they could hear the herbivores starting to panic. Something had disturbed them as they began to leave en masse, with only the ‘Mongolotitans’ left behind because of their size, nothing could take an animal like them down.
Soon, the threat revealed themselves as the same Tarbosaurus pair that the trio had seen earlier that day during the stampede.
Fortunately for the Englishman and the girls, the Tarbosaurs showed no signs of hunting behavior as they didn't look interested in a meal and stood in place for a few moments.
Soon, the Tarbosaurus pair bent down and started lapping up water as they drank to wash down their meal of Barsboldia flesh.
But as they drank, there was suddenly a loud eerie screech, catching the attention of both the tyrannosaurs and the explorers.
"What… is that?" Nigel muttered as he took out his binoculars and peered through them.
Then just 60 feet away, something had emerged from the brush. The creature was large; about thirty feet long and was as tall as a giraffe. It had a small head atop a long neck with a bipedal gait and a heavy, deep, broad body, with short, stocky legs. Its’ arms were their most striking feature, almost disproportionately long compared to its body, with incredibly long, vicious-looking claws tipping its fingers. It had a coat of sandy-brown feathers everywhere except its belly and legs, which were featherless.
“I don't believe it! At last, there's Claws! Therizinosaurus!” The English naturalist exclaimed excitedly.
“I couldn’t even imagine a creature like that! Tiny head, pot belly, and those huge claws! This could be the oddest of all dinosaurs!” a stunned Twilight muttered.
"The Tarbosaurs... they noticed too." Fluttershy worriedly pointed out as the predators approached the strange creature in front of them.
"Normally big predators avoid each other. But it looks like... there could be a clash, so we better... get under cover!” Nigel ordered as the trio and cameraman headed for the cover of the bushes.
The beasts approached each other as a bloodbath was certainly about to take place.
Advancing toward the claw-fingered dinosaur, the tyrannosaurs snarled and bellowed, with the female rearing her entire body upward as if trying to make herself look bigger than she actually was. But then the Therizinosaurus raised his massive, clawed arm and slammed it into the female tyrannosaur's head, horribly maiming the left side of the Tarbo’s skull and sending her spinning. The female Tarbosaur landed in a great thud to the ground, dazed by the powerful swipe. The male charged towards the Therizinosaurus, hissing angrily, only for the Therizinosaurus to swing its arm into the dinosaur's flank, leaving three long gashes on its side and causing the Tarbosaurus to hiss in pain and discomfort. The Therizinosaurus swished its arms from side to side and hissed menacingly at the mighty predators. Defeated, the tyrannosaurs slunk off and left the Therizinosaurus. They would have to find food elsewhere.
Fortunately for the Tarbosaurs, they’ll survive the nasty injuries they received, and they’ll heal, whereas if a mammal received the same injuries, it would die in seconds.
The Therizinosaurus let out a triumphant roar that caused a lot of enantiornithines to flee in sheer terror.
It was an awesome fight. But the Tarbosaurus pair eventually backed down. And we got a chance to sneak out and observe the Therizinosaurus.
Soon, it wasn't long before the lone Therizinosaurus was no longer the only member of its kind by the lakeside. Five seconds later, eight more had also arrived at the lakeside and did something rather extraordinary.
We were in for a rather shocking and unexpected surprise: a whole herd of them had appeared from the forest and began browsing on the trees!
"Now everything adds up!" Twilight told the cameraman. "Those teeth Fluttershy found at the carcass, were the teeth of a herbivore. There was also the dung crammed with vegetation at the nest site. That could only mean one thing…”
“Therizinosaurus, it’s a plant eater, not a predator!” Nigel concluded with awe as they watched the Mongolian oddities feed off the trees.
“Look at them, they’re using those giant claws to drag leaves towards their mouths, just like Ice Age ground sloths.” Twilight observed in wonder. “And their necks are just like that of a giraffe browsing for leaves. And those pot-bellies; those are great fermentation chambers for all that vegetation they have to eat.”
The duo continued to watch the Therizinosaurus feeding from a safe distance to avoid disturbing them. They knew that these animals may be herbivores, but even they can be dangerous.
As the pair continued to stare in wonder at how they thought the so-called predatory Giant Claw was in fact a herbivorous creature, Fluttershy looked on at the beasts, before an idea hatched in her mind.
Cautiously, she took Nigel's camcorder out of his backpack, surprisingly without him or Twilight noticing, and inch by inch slowly walked towards the herd of therizinosaurs.
Twilight was the first to take notice. "Fluttershy? Fluttershy, what are you doing?!"
“Don’t worry, it’s alright.” Fluttershy hopefully reassured them. “Because of my scent, I smell like a mammal, I won’t be attacked. Besides, the only mammals around here in the Nemegt were the sizes from rats to small badgers, so they shouldn’t be threatened by me.”
At least, that was her theory. As far as we could see those huge claws weren't for killing things, although they clearly showed those Tarbosaurus a thing or two.
In fact, they seemed to have given Fluttershy an idea. Something that would bring our quest for The Giant Claw to a natural end.
"They seem completely oblivious even if I speak in this tone. So, I'm gonna go even closer and see if I can touch one." Fluttershy said as she edged closer to the herd.
The therizinosaurs had never seen such a creature like this before, coming ever closer to them. Was it a threat like the tyrannosaurs earlier or was it like them: a harmless vegetarian?
As the beasts looked on at this strange animal, Fluttershy had just gotten two feet away from one of the giant’s legs and slowly began to reach out a hand and successfully touched both the scales and feathers of the Therizinosaurus.
The therizinosaur, however, slightly jolted and looked down at the creature, and as Fluttershy began filming it, out of curiosity and to both Nigel and Twilight’s shock and amusement, the beast licked the camera lens, causing the animal enthusiast to fall flat on her back onto the sand, causing her to let out a little chuckle as she got back up and continued filming one of the Cretaceous’ most bizarre dinosaurs ever as it and the rest of its herd began to move on in search of greener shrubbery.
Nigel was definitely right about one thing: this had certainly been ‘a crackin’ adventure!’
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this is a pretty great chapter
Not bad, not bad at all.
I still think the 'velociraptors' in Prehistoric Planet were descendants of Velociraptor Mongoliensis. So the ones in Giant Claw could be the same species.
11796081
I know, but I decided to use Zanabazar instead because Velociraptor isn’t known from the Nemegt Formation. You know, maybe I could’ve used Adasaurus instead if I decide to update this chapter.
11796174
That was my other idea
Something tells me you might not resume Prehistoric Park until this story is complete.
No rush, take all the time you need.
11796350
Thanks for the supportive comment, Skywalker215! 😉
Point of fact: Mapusaurus weighed roughly five and a half tons at maximum, still less than the maximum weight of T-Rex.
When Nigel, Fluttershy, and Twilight visit Jurassic England, I wonder if any Ophthalmosaurus or some other icthyosaur might ride in the Ancient Mariner’s bow wake.
11797692
Actually, Ophthalmolosaurus never lived alongside Pliosaurus funkei or as you dino-fanatics called it: Predator X. A better replacement for this species of ichthyosaur would be Brachypterygius.
As for the ichthyosaurs riding in the Ancient Mariner’s bow wake, I’ll include it when Twilight does the Pliosaurus’ sense of smell test for the wetsuits.
Regarding Cretaceous Kansas, Platecarpus and Thalassomedon were already extinct by 75 million BC. A suitable alternative to the latter would be Styxosaurus. Maybe you should either keep Halisaurus or include Globidens as an alternative.
11797720
Yeah, I’ll use Styxosaurus and keep the original Halisaurus for my Hell’s Aquarium chapter.
11797772
Maybe you could also include Dolichorhynchops and maybe you should keep the original Archelon since Protostega was already extinct by 75 million BCE.
11797807
Well, I’m going to have Nigel and the girls travel to Kansas, 84 MYA instead of 75 MYA. And here are the other updated time dates for the Sea Monster adventure:
Ordovician New York: 449 MYA
Triassic Switzerland: 210 MYA
Eocene Egypt: 36 MYA (same as the original)
Devonian Ohio: 360 MYA
Jurassic England: 155 MYA
Miocene Peru: 5 MYA
11797851
5 MYA was the early Pliocene. The Devonian and the Jurassic are also the same time dates as the original.
11798455
Ok then, how about 7 million years ago?
Also, the Jurassic and Devonian dates are kept the same, yet in different locations. The Devonian sequence is in the Cleveland Shale of Ohio, and the Jurassic sequence is in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation in England.
11798719
Ok
How goes progress?
11808492
It’s going well, Land of Giants will be out on Valentine’s Day.
11808508
Ok
Hey, if you’re wondering why “The Giant Claw” is first and not “Land of Giants” like how the DVD release was, I doing it how it was originally released with the Therizinosaurus mission first, then the Argentinosaurus and finally the (new) Seven Deadliest Seas!
Sorry, I accidentally published this chapter by mistake, I’m still working on it! 😬
Are sea scorpions real?
11816267
Yeah, they’re real and also called eurypterids.
Guess which dinos I just referenced in this chapter.
Theoretically speaking, do you think icthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs would produce a spout when surfacing for air, like modern cetaceans do?
11818031
Who knows? 🤷♂️
11816677
i'm at a loss as to what this dino could be
11818918
I’ll give you a hint: they’re from a South Korean movie about dinosaurs.
11819193
okay i'll be honest with you i've never seen any south korean movies in my life
images.dinosaurpictures.org/The%2BTarbosaurus_89c0.jpg
Does this ring a bell? 😑
11819375
Tarbosaurus.
11819375
not really
11819737
But who? Here’s another hint: try to look up this Korean movie title “점박이: 한반도의 공룡 3D” and maybe see if it seems familiar to you.
11819806
Does the title “The Dino King” sound familiar to you? Hmmm? 😒
11820133
sorry i've never heard of that moive before until today as i'm more fimillar with moives that i grew up like jurassic park, plus i'm not playing dumb with you as i didn't really know about this movie
11820130
I’ve seen it a few times. That’s Speckles.
11820233
Correct. And guess what his mate’s name is?
11820352
Blue eyes
11820362
Yeah, the Tarbosaurus pair in the Giant Claw chapter are based off of Speckles and Blue Eyes.
So, you guys agree with Fluttershy’s name idea for the Mongolian Titan? What other name you would’ve given the colossal titan of a sauropod?
11822773
I think it's perfect
how goes the Land of Giants?
11825306
It’s going well.
11825690
I just thought you were posting it yesterday
11825716
I had to delay it because I had work yesterday.
How is the Land of Giants chapter coming along?
11830478
It’s going well. 👍