"This is a fossil of Meganeura, a genus of extinct insects which closely resembled modern-day dragonflies. They belonged to the order Meganisoptera and the family Meganeuridae." I said as the tour group I was leading arrived at the section where the Arthropod fossils were held; my favorite section.
"Megaeura lived during the later parts of the Carboniferous period and had wingspans of around 25.6 centameters when fully grown, making the three species of Meganeura the second largest known ancestors of modern-day dragonflies to gave ever lived."
After that short explaniation I led them to a collection of similar, but slightly larger insects. I waved at Aurora as she led her group past mine and headed towards the Cambrian fossil section. Aurora was my girlfriend, and I felt like the luckiest guy in the world for finding someone who not only shared similar intrests, but also liked me for who I was; A paleontologist, a gaming nerd, and a guy who loved Arthropods.
Aurora game me one of her radiant and contageous smiles, and waved back before blowing me a kiss and entering the Cambrian section.
"This is Meganeuropsis permiana and its smaller relative Meganeuropsis americana. They are closely related to the species of Meganeura, but were larger. Meganeuropsis permiana is the largest member of the Meganeuridae family, with the largest known fossil having an estimated wingspan of about 30 centameters.
The two species of Meganeuropsis lived during the Permian period. It is during the Permian that the continants became little more then an enormous desert, and about 90% of all species on the planet became extinct." I led the small group towards the end of the Arthropod section, explaining various extinct Arthropods as we neared the end of the tour.
I smiled as we reached the the end of the section, and the spot where fossils of the two largest Arthropods to have ever lived were housed.
"This is Arthropleura; the largest land Arthropod and the largest land invertabrate of all time."
I smirked as I saw the few kids that were on the tour get all excited when they realized how similar Arthropleura looked to a centapide.
"And as the children have noticed, Arthropleura is the oldest ancestor of modern-day centapedes and millapedes, living from the start of the Carboniferous period all the way to the early parts of the Permian period. Due to its size and how strong its exoskeleton was, Arthropleura could have been an apex predator if it wasn't an herbavoire. Anthropleura most likely did not have very many predators, if it had any at all."
"And over there," I said as I led them to the prize of the Arthropod section. "Is Jaekelopterus rhenaniae; the largest Sea Scorpion and the largest Arthropod to have ever lived.
"Jaekelopterus rhenaniae is a species of eurypterid, also known as sea scorpions, and lived during the middle of the Devonian period. Jaekelopterus most likely lived in freshwater lakes and streams rather then in saltwater seas. Jaekelopterus was without a doubt an apex predator. Very few creatures were as big as a mature Jaekelopterus and those that were wouldn't have lasted long if they attacked one. Baby Jaekelopterus on the other hand, were much easier to kill and wouldn't last very long on their without their mother to protect them, which is precisely why many Paleontologists, myself included, believe that the mother Jaekelopterus would protect and feed her children until they were big enough to survive on their own, not unlike many modern scorpions do today."
I took a breath as I ended my explaniation. "I hope you enjoyed the tour today, is there any questions that you'd like to ask? I may not be able to answer all of them, but I'll answer the ones I can to the best of my ability."
A child of about ten years old raised his hand up the moment I stopped talking.
"Yes?"
"Why is it called a sea scorpion if it didn't live in the sea?" The child asked.
"There are several reasons for that, but it'd take a while to explain all of them," I replied. "So I'll just explain the easist reason to understand.
The reason its called a sea scorpion is because when eurypterids first evolved in the late Ordovician period, they did live in the sea, but by the middle Devonian, which is when Jaekelopterus lived, most species had evolved to live in freshwater, where they could remain the top predators and live safely away from the earliest sharks and other large fish that were beginning to evolve in the oceans."
After answering several other questions, I led the group to the gift shop and bid them adeiu. Walking back to Arthropod section, where I often came to relax when I wasn't leading a tour, I walked to the end where the fossils of Arthropleura and Jaekelopterus were on display.
"What the..." I said as I took notice of a ball of rainbow light that was floating above the Jaekelopterus fossil. After looking around to make sure no one was watching, I reached out and lightly poked the ball of light with a finger.
If only I had been smart and payed attention to the warning signs...
~~~
"Aaggh!" I screamed as I felt myself collide with a body of water. I held my breath on instict once my head, which felt strangle heavy and stiff, went under the water.
I cursed the rainbow sphere in my head, it had done something to me, and I was not ecstatic at all about it.
After a while of holding my breath and failing to swim to the surface, I realized that I wasn't actually holding my breath, because I was clearly still breathing. This bothered me for several reasons, but I had more important things then worrying over how I was breathing, I still had to get to the surface and get to dry land.
My feet felt like they had been fused together, so I did what came naturally and moved them up and down, desperately hoping it would push me forwards from my place on the bottom of what I assumed was a pond or lake.
It took aproxamentally ten minutes by my count, or at least it felt like that long, to breach the surface of the water, and what I got was not what I had been expecting at all.
The part of me that was out of the water felt all weird, a cross between a tingling and a burning feeling. I quickly ducked my head back under the water and to my relief the feeling went away. I saw what looked like a sign from my spot under the water, and wanting to know what it said, poked my head out of the water again quickly before going back under again. "Ponyville?" I wondered. "What a stupid name for a town."
It was at this point that I bothered to move my hands in front of my face, and what I saw made me scream like a little girl. My hands had been replaced with claws that I had seen enough to recognize as the claws of a Jaekelopterus.
Once I was done having a mental breakdown and my nerves were all calmed, I summed up what I was thinking with three words.
"Fuck my life."
~~~Meanwhile In Ponyville~~~
"Excuse me Twilight..."
Twilight, Ponyville's residant Librarian, looked up from the book she was reading and blinked in surprise, she hadn't even heard Fluttershy come in, an odd occurence since her shy friend always knocked before coming in. "Yes Fluttershy? Is there something you need?"
Fluttershy fidgeted, unsure of how to start. She had grown much more confident over the years she'd known Twilight, but her shy personality still showed through more often than not. "Umm... Well, I was at the lake to feed the fish and they didn't show up."
"And?" Twilight asked.
"S-so I looked around, and there was this new creature in the lake, I've never seen anything like it."
Twilight's eye twitched. "Why didn't you just say so?!" she practically shouted, causing Fluttershy to cower slightly, as she closed her book and hopped off her couch.
After Twilight had gone and grabbed some quills and paper, she turned towards Spike, a purple and green dragon she had hatched as a filly, who was bouncing gems off the wall and catching them in his mouth. "You want to come Spike?" She asked him.
"Let's not." Spike replied as he picked up the book Twilight had been reading and flipped it over his shoulder into its rightful place on one of the bookshelfs.
Twilight huffed in annoyence. "Fine, be that way." Turning to Fluttershy she smiled. "Let's go Fluttershy!"
~~~
I noticed something moving just above the water out of the corner of my eye at the same moment a low buzzing reached my ears.
I slowly turned around, making sure to move what I now knew was my tail very slowly so as to not scare whatever it was away.
I was calm now, having already done enough panicing for the day, and I knew that I would have to eat at some point, so whatever it was that was flying above the water would be a great start to figuring out what I could and couldn't eat.
The creature turned out to be a sphere that was a vibrant green, two huge eyes and a small mouth that it was currently using to drink water made up it's face. The creature had two transparent wings on its back that fluttered rapidly. All in all it looked like a mutant bug.
Once I had drifted close enough to the bug, which luckily still hadn't noticed me, I lashed my left claw out and grabbed the bizarre bug. Dragging it underwater, I brought it up to my face.
"Well, here goes nothing." I said as I shoved the bug into my mouth. It took less than five seconds before I spat the bug back out and ripped it apart with my claws. "Disgusting!" I screeched. How I was able to talk with a mouth like this was beyond me, but I suppose it might as well be a blessing that I could.
Looking around It wasn't long before I spotted some fish, they would make a good second test.
Once I'd had my fill of those delicious fish, I finally took notice of the yellow horse with a pink mane, and wings, and what appeared to be a mostly purple Unicorn, staring at me with intrest. If I hadn't been transformed into a Jaekelopterus then I probably would have freaked out, but I did transform into one, so I wasn't really surprised.
After a minute of watching them watch me I grew bored and swam deeper into what I had determined was a decent sized lake.
"If those two are still here in a few hours I'm blowing my rape whistle and drowning in a fire." I said to myself as I looked for a good place to take a nap.
