Finally, the females try to help as they crash into the Liopleurodon, head-butting her in the torso. While this attack does not cause any severe harm, it begins to distract the Liopleurodon, making it difficult for the enormous predator to kill its victim. The Liopleurodon uses its 300,000 pounds of girth to pull the baby whale downward, its foot-long piercing teeth still gripping the infant’s tail. The Liopleurodon attempts to drown the baby, when all of a sudden the males soar back towards the sea monster, and ram their heads into the predator’s stomach. Finally, the Liopleurodon loses its grip and begins to dive deep.
The baby tries to swim to the surface, but its tail has taken too much damage to be of any assistance. The Liopleurodon is so large that it creates its own current of water as it swims, and pulls the baby down with her unintentionally. While the males dive down in an attempt to chase the Liopleurodon away, the females swim over and use their heads to try and help the baby reach the surface. The baby knows that it will soon die, for he is running out of air and will not be able to survive without its tail.
The males continue to chase the Liopleurodon away, but they are mistaken. The Liopleurodon fears absolutely nothing, and is simply leading them as far away from the baby as possible, so it can turn around and attack its victim again without the males being able to reach it in time. As the Liopleurodon leads the bulls deeper, the water becomes slightly darker, and the whales have a difficult time seeing their enemy. The Liopleurodon doesn’t need to see the whales, however, for its powerful sense of smell allows it to know their exact location without having to see them.
Almost instantaneously, the Liopleurodon turns around and dodges the whales’ attacks once again, this time moving as fast as it can to reach the baby. Having less agility, the whales turn around only to see that the Liopleurodon is already seventy feet above them. But the Liopleurodon faces another challenge… the females are still protecting the baby. Being determined to make a meal out of the juvenile, the Liopleurodon lunges and bites onto the tail of the larger female.
Using its colossal size, the pliosaur pulls the whale away from the baby and drags it away. Releasing her, the Liopleurodon turns back again and charges towards the baby. Not being able to hold the young whale on her own, the second female can only watch in horror as the baby sinks away from her. The baby humpback whale sings a death song to its pod as the Liopleurodon bites down on its back, shattering its spine. The four surviving whales can only watch as the greatest predator in the Earth’s four and a half billion year history swims away with the youngest member of their pod.
Chapter 14
Dolphin
Being rich in blubber, the juvenile humpback whale was able to allow the Liopleurodon three days without feeding, but it is now time to hunt again. With its powerful sense of smell picking up scents from miles around, the Liopleurodon’s reptilian mind debates which potential meal to attack. Suddenly, she picks up the scent of a pod of small, fast-moving animals. The Liopleurodon goes to investigate.…
The bond between a mother dolphin and her son is one of the strongest in nature. The pod is made up of three males, four females, and the young male who is struggling to keep up the rest of his group. Realizing her son is having difficulty, his mother swims to his side, and begins to whistle to the males to slow down. The males return the mother’s whistle, and one of the dominant males begins to dive deep. Turning upward, the dolphin sprints up to the surface and launches himself out of the water, and then dives back in head first.
While it may appear that he is trying to show off, the male dolphin is actually trying to get rid of some barnacles that have attached themselves to his underside. The barnacles cause him to become less stream-lined, causing drag, making him slower. Diving back into the water forces the barnacles off.
Suddenly, the dolphins’ sonar begins to pick up a school of fish nearby. They attack, using their ability to communicate to set up a strategy they have used several times before. The males use their dark backs to camouflage themselves as they move around the fish. The females then charge and use their sonar attacks to frighten the fish and chase them towards the direction of the males. The males launch up from the depths and use their needle-like teeth to grab a hold of their prey. The females begin to feed as well, and within a few minutes, the pod has eaten
their fill.
Now full of food, the mother begins to turn some of the food that she has digested into milk for her son to drink later. She swims next to her calf and playfully taps him with her tail. The baby goes up to the surface and sprays water out of his blow hole, then begins breathing for a few minutes before returning to his mother’s side. She greets him with some friendly whistles and clicks, and then they hurry to keep up with the pod.
Suddenly, the dolphins’ sonar picks up the presence of a massive animal about five hundred meters behind them. At first, the dolphins think that it is a whale, but then they realize that it is moving towards them at a very fast pace. The dolphins are not sure whether or not the attacker is hungry, but they do not wait around to find out. The pod begins to swim as quickly as they can, and the Liopleurodon is attacking at full speed now, but the dolphins are faster than the Ophthalmosaurus that escaped his jaws during the Jurassic. Plus, she has lost the element of surprise.
The dolphins are fast enough to escape the Liopleurodon, except for one member of their group: the young male! The calf is struggling to keep up with the rest of the pod, so his mother turns back to try and help. The best that she can do is stay by his side and support him. The Liopleurodon begins to thrust her upper flippers down harder, decreasing the distance between itself and the baby to just one hundred feet.
The mother is now left with a difficult choice: either leave her child to be killed or stay by its side and share his fate. She knows that her son will die either way, but she is too emotionally attached to leave him behind. She must choose soon, because the Liopleurodon is only fifty feet away. With only seconds left, the mother makes her choice: she leaves her son behind and swims after her pod. Her son whistles for his mother to come back and help him, but she tries to ignore him and continues swimming.
The calf continues to try escape from the Liopleurodon, but there is no hope. The Liopleurodon opens its massive jaws, surrounding the juvenile dolphin, and snaps shut with seventy thousand pounds of force. The dead baby rolls down the Liopleurodon’s throat. Having successfully killed its prey, the Liopleurodon begins to dive deep.
The female dolphin has lost her son, and continues to swim after her pod. The bond between her and her son has been destroyed by the Liopleurodon. While the dolphin mourns the loss of her son, the Liopleurodon was not evil, it is just trying to survive, and will use the baby’s nutrients to feed not just herself, but also her unborn offspring.
Chapter 15
Parthenogenesis
The Liopleurodon’s twelve-foot-long flippers allow it to slice through the blue sea. The baby dolphin was barely enough to sustain the adult Liopleurodon. Since she is pregnant, the pliosaur must hunt again. Instead of wasting precious energy chasing the swift pod, the reptile finds another scent.
Within minutes, the Liopleurodon stalks its next victim: a school of minnows. These fish may each be only three inches long, but enough of the small fish are a suitable meal.
The fish swim together as if they are one organism, making it difficult for predators to grab hold of individuals. With a mouth the size of a mini-van, the Liopleurodon does not have this problem. Having eyes near the top of her head allows this monster to watch the school of silver fish from below, as she waits for the perfect moment to strike.
During the Jurassic period, the Liopleurodon would attack swarms of fish in similar fashion. She knows how to get a meal efficiently; she has done this thousands of times before. Finally, after several minutes of waiting in ambush… she attacks!
Powerful down strokes with its front flippers allow the Liopleurodon to accelerate upward at a staggering pace. Sensing danger, the fish panic. As one,
they swim away from the Liopleurodon, using their small size and agility to escape.
The Liopleurodon uses its four flippers to turn rapidly, as she begins to open her jaws wide. She lunges forward, reaching for her prey…but misses! The fish turn and flee from the pliosaur, descending into deeper waters. The Liopleurodon is not far behind, however, and she lunges again.
This time, she grabs a mouth full of fish, and her powerful jaws crush them all to bits! A large chunk of the school is gone, but the rest are able to get away.
The Liopleurodon does not bother to give chase. She begins swimming freely, as nutrients from the fish feed her and her offspring.
…
During the age of the dinosaurs, it was very difficult for giant-marine predators such as Liopleurodon to find mates. They were so large and aggressive, that the individual reptiles would try to avoid one another. When it came time to mate, it was sometimes impossible to locate mature males. Things only became more difficult when the temperature change occurred, and dozens of her kind died.
Decades before this Liopleurodon became frozen in ice, she gave birth asexually. Asexual reproduction usually occurs in microscopic organisms such as bacteria, but can also occur in larger animals.
One type of asexual reproduction is regeneration. This occurs in invertebrates such as starfish. When a limb of a starfish is removed, the severed part has the ability grow an entire body.
There is another type of asexual reproduction that occurs in hundreds of living species known as parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis is the term used when a non-microscopic animal gives birth without a mate. Dozens of insect species use parthenogenesis as a way to give birth. Bees, ants, and termites are all examples.
Many types of predators use parthenogenesis as a method of reproduction. Several species of hammerhead sharks reproduce by parthenogenesis. In an aquarium, a captive hammerhead can give birth without a mate. This was the first “virgin birth” ever documented in a shark.
On the island of Indonesia, komodo dragons occasionally give birth asexually. Being endangered, the giant monitor lizards are sometimes forced to use parthenogenesis. Two females were isolated in a zoo exhibit and one gave birth without ever having a male mate.
In the southwest Unites States, whip-tailed lizards reproduce entirely asexually. The males are extinct.
…
Parthenogenesis occurs after a process known as meiosis. Chromosomes divide and the eggs are fertilized by the female itself. Juveniles form within the parent’s womb. Because the DNA of the resulting offspring is exactly like that of the parent, the fetus grows very quickly within the womb. They will reach full size much faster than juveniles who are conceived through sexual reproduction with the benefit of a male parent.
Without the Y chromosomes, females give birth to females, identical to their mother. This includes insects, fish, and several types of reptiles.
…
Similar to sand-tiger sharks, the juvenile Liopleurodon are already conscious. All three are attached to the umbilicus cord and swim freely. It is very dark within the womb. Luckily, the juveniles’ senses of smell are already active, allowing them to navigate around their small quarters.
The nutrients from the food are passed to them through the umbilicus cord. The three offspring are of different sizes. The dominant offspring is already three feet long. It bullies its siblings.
The middle size juvenile is just over two and a half feet long, while the smallest is only two feet long. By the time that they will be born, the baby pliosaurs will all be five times larger.
It uses small flippers to push through the fluid. It senses its smaller sibling nearby, and snaps its minute jaws. While its teeth are not fully developed yet, the attack is still intimidating. The youngster moves away.
The middle size baby continues swimming, when the largest offspring attacks, and bites down on its flipper. No damage is done due to the small teeth, but the juvenile begins to thrash its body to and fro. While all the siblings have the same DNA as their mother, the largest sibling is developing its own unique personality.
The smaller sibling struggles, and finally escapes. The larger offspring does not follow. It is simply showing that it is in charge.
Chapter 16
Statistics
Luke’s feet are exhausted by the time he reaches the doorway to his room on the USS Jupiter. This ship is huge! Luke thinks as he looks at some of the pictures on the grey walls. Many of the pictures are photos of other Naval ships, while others are photos of important men who at one point or another served in the Navy.
Captain Hawkins opens the door to Luke’s room and says, “Make yourself at home, we’ll begin tomorrow morning.”
Luke enters his small room and puts down his backpack full of clothes and equipment. In one corner is a bed which is half the size of the bed in his apartment. He sits on the small, hard bed, and pulls his laptop out of his bag. Happy that the ship has internet connection, he goes to the CNN website. Pulling up Anderson Cooper’s podcast, he sees the latest report:
“Cody Brown says that he is happy to be alive, even though he will miss Jessica with all of his heart.” The screen suddenly changes to an African American man on his Jet Ski going very fast, when suddenly the Liopleurodon’s jaws exploded from the water and attempted to attack him. The Jet Skier is able to turn at the last moment. The monster misses and submerges.
“What? When did this happen?” Luke asks the computer. Great, that’s just what we needed. Now this footage is going to end up all over YouTube and those other internet sites and there is going to be a panic. That means we are not going to have as much time to kill the Liopleurodon as I had hoped.
Cooper continues, “When asked about his experience, Mr. Brown said:”
The screen suddenly switches to the African American man in his hotel room. Cody’s eyes form tears as he says, “The worst part of it all was, after it had killed Jessica, I could swear that the monster was smiling at me. I know I sound crazy, but the thing had some type of demonic grin. It was the creepiest thing that I have ever seen.”
Luke disconnects from the internet. Demonic grin, Luke thinks as the words chill him to the bone.
…
The next morning, Shawn walks to the conference room when he spots Kelsey. He can tell that she is annoyed when she gives him a mean look. I may as well apologize, Shawn thinks as he walks over to her and says, “Hi, Kelsey.”
“Hi,” she responds, looking angry.
Shawn sighs as he says, “Look, I just wanted to say that I am sorry for everything that I’ve done recently. I know that I’ve been acting like a jerk, and I apologize. Do you forgive me?”
Kelsey can’t help but smile as she says, “Of course, I forgive you.”
Shawn embraces her and thinks, if you only knew what I’ve done… and what I plan to do.
After a few moments, Shawn and Kelsey enter the conference room. Captain Hawkins and the others are already there. Shawn and Kelsey take their seats while Will asks Luke, “How was I not the last one here?”
Luke shrugs as Ryan Hawkins says, “Hello, everybody, I hope that you all had a good night’s sleep.” Everybody nods so Hawkins continues, “I’ve decided that before I brief you on the mission, I want to know more about this animal.” He turns to Luke and says, “Since you probably know more about Liopleurodon than anyone else here, you can give us some of the statistics?”
Luke nods in compliance, “Sure. Obviously Liopleurodon’s main weapon is its jaws. Large muscles wrap around both the animal’s lower jaw and neck and allow it to have an extremely powerful bite. The lower jaw can swing up so quickly that it releases a tremendous amount of force. The teeth are kept sharp by rubbing together under the immense pressure. Like a crocodile, the teeth lock, making it so the animal cannot escape.”
Hawkins asks, “How much force? Do you have any idea?”
Luke thinks for a moment before saying, “Well, since we have never actually discovered an eighty-foot-long
Liopleurodon skeleton before, it’s hard to be sure. A few years ago I had estimated that by comparing the Liopleurodon’s jaw size and body weight to other large-predatory sea creatures like Megalodon, that it would have a bite force of about seventy thousand pounds… which is thirty-five tons.”
“That’s a lot of force. Tyrannosaurus Rex only has a bite force of about four tons,” Will says.
Ben processes all of the information in his head. He is extremely deep in thought. After several moments, he looks up and states, “You’ve only described Liopleurodon as a two-dimensional animal. I need a better-rounded picture. What animals were in Liopleurodon’s diet?”
Luke considers his answer for a moment: “Liopleurodon ferox lived near England. Due to the fact that each individual weighed more than one hundred tons, every Liopleurodon would have an enormous territory.
“Most animals during that time evolved ways to escape Liopleurodon and the other pliosaurs. A good example is Ophthalmosaurus. It was a fifteen-foot-long ichthyosaur that was common during the Jurassic. They had a similar appearance to modern dolphins. As its name suggests, Ophthalmosaurus had large eyes. This not only allowed nocturnal hunting, but it also was able to see predators coming. Ophthalmosaurus was also built for speed. It was able to hit speeds of over thirty-five miles per hour; much faster than Liopleurodon. If Liopleurodon wasn’t able to launch a surprise attack in time, it had no chance of killing its prey.
Liopleurodon King of the Carnivores Page 6