Jack Patrick: The Secret World of Mesozoica

Hell Creek, Montana. 65,000,000 BCE...

It is a sunny afternoon in Montana.

But, on this afternoon and in this time, animals roam across the landscape. Animals that are far from ordinary and are the most magnificent creatures to ever walk the Earth--the dinosaurs.

On a conifer forest floor, a small feathered theropod dinosaur, with its hands facing each other and a large claw on its second toe, appears out of some bushes which are across from a large nest. This animal is an Acheroraptor.

With a few sniffs of the air, the raptor turns its head to find the nest in sight. It jumps out of the bushes and looks around to make sure that nothing is guarding the eggs. The Acheroraptor walks over to it, closing in on the nest until it’s over it like one would be with a dinner plate. Carefully, it digs into the nest for the treasure which it holds: eggs.

It stops for a moment because he completely struck oil: an egg the size of French bread.

But, before it can grab the egg.

CHOMP!

A large set of jaws grabs the raptor from above, crushing its ribs until it falls.

When the giant creature senses that the raptor’s life has been taken away, it devours the raptor, never to be seen again except for inside the creature’s belly.

The attacker: a male Tyrannosaurus Rex. A carnivorous bulky theropod that is gigantic, lips covered its teeth like a lizard, two small arms each with two clawed fingers facing each other, and extremely colorful, as well as the guardian of the nest to boot.

He checks his nest to make sure no eggs were stolen. Finding that everything is okay, he rebuilds the nest.

Just as the father T-Rex is finishing rebuilding the nest, he suddenly catches the scent of another creature nearby. Turning around, he finds...a female T-Rex, as shown by how dully colored she is, carrying a small hadrosaur carcass in her maw. The nest guardian growls at the intruder while showing his teeth to show signs of aggressiveness. But, instead of backing off, the female gently puts her food down and shows her gular pouch color.

Immediately, the male calms down, because he knew exactly who this is: his mate.

Wanting to show that he didn’t mean to act the way he did, he moves to his mate and nuzzles her with his nose, the female doing the same in return to show she forgives him.

After that, the male goes back to guarding the nest.

The reason that the male acted so aggressive before is that Tyrannosauruses are powerfully protective of their offspring and they become fiercely territorial towards anything, even a mate. All of this being because T-Rex hold extreme parental care towards their young.

The prime weapon that all T-Rex have is their mouth, which contains the most powerful bite out of any land animal. Their sense of sight, smell, and hearing are also some of the most powerful of any creature, making them perfect hunters.

The female moves the carcass towards her mate and even though he isn’t hungry because he already ate, he saves the carcass for later by concealing its scent with dirt. The female moves out, leaving the father T-Rex to guard the nest.

The mother moves further away to explore the forest and as she does, everything seems quiet, the only exceptions being the sounds of birds chirping in the distance. The female isn’t hungry, but, she is thirsty, so she uses her sense of smell to locate water. A few sniffs into the air and she turns right to the direction of the smell of water and follows it.

Meanwhile, a herd of Triceratops gather near a stream for a drink. If you look closely, you’ll find that the males have large colorful frills for display while the females have dull colored frills. You’ll also find that the youngsters, that have their horns curved upwards, of the herd are sticking closely to their parents and whatever adult they’re closest too, mainly because predators will take any opportunity to attack a baby. And it’s a good thing that they are because the sub-adults, that have straight waved horns, and the adults, whose horns are curved slightly down, definitely have what it takes to defend the entire herd, especially with the three horns they have to fight off meat-eaters, as well as to fight one another during mating season or for leadership of the herd.

Nearby, the mother T-Rex from before emerges out of the bushes, and she approaches the stream for a drink. She can see the Triceratops herd a few yards away, they, in turn, taking notice of her and immediately distancing themselves further from the large carnivore.

Triceratopses are the favorite source of prey for T-Rexes, but for this female, she doesn't mind bothering them. She ignores the herd and drinks from the stream.

On the other side of the river, a herd of Edmontosaurus arrive.

Edmontosaurus is the second favorite source of prey for T-Rexes. They don’t have too much defense, but they can run as fast as they can from predators and run for long periods of time when threatened.

A bull Ankylosaurus also arrives on the other side of the river, not hesitating to drink once he approaches the water’s edge.

Ankylosaurus is the largest armored dinosaur ever. The back of an Ankylosaurus is covered in boney plates that protect itself against attacking predators, and if that isn’t enough, the club on the tip of its tail provides as a defensive weapon against predators like T-Rex. They are however vulnerable in the soft underbelly, so the Ankylosaurus has to support its weight to prevent it from flipping over and exposing its soft belly.

The female T-Rex doesn't mind bothering the Edmontosauruses who are distancing themselves like the Triceratops are. The T-Rex doesn’t even mind an Ankylosaurus on guard, although unlike the others, the Ankylosaurus, in turn, doesn’t mind because his armor and tail give him confidence.

At last, the Tyrannosaurus finishes her drink, and goes off into the forest, leaving the ceratopsians and hadrosaurs to calm down and drink in peace.

Back at the nest, the father Rex sleeps around it for protection, his body encircling it like a barrier protecting the city. Suddenly, however, he wakes up to hear squeaking from the nest, so he stands up and checks on it.

What he finds...is one egg shaking a little, meaning that the newborn is ready to hatch. However, he’s having trouble getting out of the egg.

With his mouth, the T-Rex picks up the hatching egg and puts it in his mouth without swallowing it. He then closes his jaws to help the baby break out of the egg.

He then reopens his mouth and reveals a healthy male Rex hatchling the size of a house cat and unlike adults, the babies are skinnier than their parents and its head is narrow. The father Rex gently put his offspring on the ground, allowing him to walk for the first time in his life.

The T-Rex hatchling looks around, seeing the world for the very first time. Then, he smells something for the first time ever. He directs himself to the origin of the smell to find the hadrosaur carcass that his mother brought earlier. He runs over to it, but tripping in the process when he's halfway there. His father helps him up before his son continues to run over to his meal. When the hatchling reaches it, he feasts, digging into it like it’s the best thing he ever tasted.

All of a sudden, he and his father hear more shaking and cracking. They turn to find three more hatchlings emerging out of their eggs, and climbing out of the shells and nest.

The hatchlings immediately run over and join in the feast with their brother.

They aren’t the only ones attracted to the feast.

Nearby, a group of small mammals, Didelphodons, watch them as they feed. They want nothing more than to take the carcass, but they're unable to approach because the male T-Rex would kill them if they get too close.

One Didelphodon leaves the group, finding himself wanting to do better things than waiting. His destination: his territory.

After traveling for five minutes, the Didelphodon comes across a lone Pachycephalosaurus that is feasting on ferns.

Pachycephalosauruses are related to ceratopsians, although they don’t have horns or a frill; instead, they have a thick boney head for defense against predators or for competing against males.

The male Didelphodon moves out, ignoring the lone bipedal herbivore.

A few more steps away from the herbivore, and he comes across a burrow. His home.

Without hesitation, he enters it and meets up with other members of his kind: his mate, as well as pups that are feeding on their mother's milk glands.

Outside the burrow, a large feathered raptor that looks like an Acheroraptor but the only as tall as a man called a Dakotaraptor is nearby and she spots the Didelphodon territory. She immediately investigates, hungry enough to see if what’s inside is a perfect picking. She suddenly hears some scuttling inside the burrow.

Then, like a gopher popping out of a hole, the father Didelphodon pops out of the burrow and suddenly catches the scent of the nearby meat-eater. He spots her and screeches at the intruder. Finding this creature slightly intimidating, as well as having an interest for something else, the raptor backs off and moves out.

Dakotaraptors are large dromaeosaurs about as tall as a fully grown man. For the past decades, we thought raptors hunt in packs like modern-day lions, but it was debunked since there's no evidence of dromaeosaurs that are social creatures so Dakotaraptors are solitary hunters, and this female is looking for food. Similar to T-Rexes and other carnivorous theropods, she has a highly developed sense of smell used for locating food, water, and even danger.

Her snout picks up something in the air. Something...delicious.

Following her nose and taking a few steps to the east, she comes across the perfect source of food for her: A flock of Ornithomimus, gathering around and feasting on insects and vegetation from the ground.

Ornithomimus are the size of ostriches, and they're almost similar to ostriches, including that they have feathers only of different color. They're omnivorous, eating both plant and animal matter, including insects, small reptiles, small mammals, eggs, fruit, and leaves.

The Dakotaraptor finds an easy meal to get from hunting the flock. Quietly, she creeps toward the Ornithomimus, concealing herself behind a tree before taking another peek at her food. But, before she attempts to strike, a loud bang startles the Ornithomimus, causing them to run in panic. It doesn’t bother the predator because it evens causes her to run away scared.

Meanwhile, at the stream, the herds of Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, including the Ankylosaurus, are running scared because of the same loud bang, and it painfully punctures their eardrums, causing many of them to shake their heads to try to shake away the pain.

Just then, a flowing cloud of vaporized rock appears southwest on the horizon. The cause of the loud bang, as well as the flowing vaporized rock, is a six-mile-wide asteroid that has landed in the Yucatan Peninsula. The loud bang is a soundwave from the asteroid, and the flowing cloud of vaporized rock is a deadly shockwave that is ruddling towards Hell Creek.

The animals run from the shockwave, but they're unable to outrun it. The shockwave engulfs Hell Creek, tossing everything in its path, including pterosaurs that are flying in the skies. The painful and scared cries of each and every creature could be heard as the shockwave continues to spread across the quarter part of North America.

In the aftermath of a shockwave, the lands have now become a barren wasteland.

Everywhere you look, you not only find the plant life gone, but the bodies of several dinosaurs killed off from the blow.

The Ankylosaurus, with all the confidence he had, did not survive the impact, his entire body slumped down on the ground belly first.

Half of the Edmontosaurus and Triceratops herds also died, but half of those herds are still living because they each took cover in a hillside. A mother Edmontosaurus ushers her babies on, while a male Triceratops supports his mate.

Sadly, none of the Ornithomimus flock survived the asteroid impact. Except for a few babies, who managed to take cover in a burrow.

The female Dakotaraptor also survives. She manages to take shelter in a cave, but the shockwave caused a rock to fall on the tip of her tail and crush it. But at least it didn’t cause anything fatal to her.

And finally, there is one last creature whom we’ve caught sight of that is among the lucky ones of this devastation.

Out of a burrow, comes the first male T-Rex hatchling from the nest. The only survivor of the T-Rex family, and worst of all, an orphan who barely had a life with his family, to begin with.

He looks up at the sky to find the sun to still be showing itself and he walks over to something in particular: the fallen bodies of his father, mother, and siblings. Slowly, he decides to consume the carcasses of his family to not let them go to waste and to have help from them one last time.

For several months, a cloud of dust blocked out the sun, turning our planet into total darkness. Acid rain comes down from the sky and kills all plant life, destroying the food chain. The dinosaurs are once again forced to seek shelter and when the rain finally stops, not even a flower is in sight.

Plant-eating dinosaurs, such as this female Edmontosaurus, are unable to find food and collapse on the ground because of starvation.

The meat-eating dinosaurs are to be the last to die from starvation, only at a much slower pace since carcasses have been a common sight and find for them.

For instance, after all these months, the male Tyrannosaurus hatchling has now become a juvenile with its snout is slightly wider than his younger age and narrower than the adults, truly standing as a young king amongst others. But he’s starving, and with each passing day, food is growing scarce, which will cause him to weaken and die.

Hope, however, comes to him...in the form of a dead Triceratops. The only trouble, however, is that a Dakotaraptor is already feasting on it. She’s the same one whose tail got crushed by a rock.

The raptor spots the young T-Rex not far away from her and she screeches at him to back off. But the T-Rex isn’t going to stand down and he roars at her to tell her he won’t leave. The Dakotaraptor jumps over its food and starts to engage in a fight. Competitions can be fierce, but the two of them are willing to do whatever it takes to survive.

But before the two dinosaur species could engage...two beams of light shine down at the two dinosaurs from above, and then...they slowly ascend towards the sky.

More tractor beams from the sky pick up the surviving animals, large, small, predator, and prey, and as each of them disappear into the sky because of the tractor beams, the beams themselves disappear.

Some of the animals are left behind to stay on Earth.

The male Didelphodon and his family, for instance, are the only ones able to pull through the impact of the meteor without any problem.

They leave the burrow and approach a dead Edmontosaurus and they eat it up like Tasmanian Devils.

The reason they are left behind, of course, is because, indeed, they will be leaving quite a legacy on Earth.