by David Pratt
In the twenty-first century, sharks will be the most feared predators in the ocean, but for now, they were merely secondary hunters.
Back on shore, Olla had turned away from the seabird colonies. Something drew her away from them. It was the smell of easy carrion. She looked out and saw what looked like a large rock being washed up amongst the surf.
Hurrying over to the source of the smell, Olla discovered that this was no rock. It was the dead body of an extremely large turtle. ‘I didn’t know turtles ever grew this large.’ Olla pondered what else was out there. The dead turtle itself was massive at fifteen feet long and a flipper span of eighteen feet. Olla now had two tonnes of dead turtle meat to herself. As she began to feed, she noticed that the head and two flippers were missing, apparently bitten off. Also a large chunk had been taken out of the turtle’s shell. ‘What could’ve torn this armoured animal up like this?’ Olla questioned. Back in her environment, not much tackled turtles. The meat itself tasted salty. ‘This is no ordinary water.’ Olla reflected her own lack of experience with seawater.
Then she saw it, a large conical tooth with serrated edges sticking into the large bitten chunk. ‘What is that?’ Olla had never seen a tooth like that before. The only teeth of that size she’d seen were from Tyrannosaurs, but this was somehow different. Then she thought it best just to keep feeding. ‘Bladefoot is waiting for me back home.’ Olla decided now wasn’t the time to go solving mysteries. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what was out in that salty water…….
A new day dawned on the Cretaceous beach. During the night, female giant turtles called Archelons had come ashore under the cover of darkness to lay their eggs. Just like their descendants in the twenty-first century, the female Archelons simply laid hundreds of eggs in a dug out sandpit, covered them and abandoned them to their fate. The dead turtle that had washed up on the beach was a male Archelon.
Every year, Archelons would return to this stretch of beach to mate and lay their eggs, something which again hadn’t gone unnoticed by predators. In the early morning, one late female Archelon struggled to get back to the waves. Although she was successful laying her eggs it had taken ages to find a right spot amongst the other females.
And now she had to get back to the ocean before a T.Rex showed up. The surf crashed around her as she slid in. Off the beach, it was a case of out of the frying pan into the fire for the female Archelon.
The sun began to rise above the reef as the Archelon used her front flippers to push her way through the ocean currents. Once again the reef itself is bustling with activity. Hesperornis fished amongst the corals and elegant ammonites drifted around, looking to snag small prey with their tentacles. The female Archelon was wary of the huge Crow Shark that she saw on her approach to the beach and knows that the big predator will be lurking around again. However Crow Sharks were the least of her concerns once she reached the open ocean. For now, she drifted amongst the colourful corals, sponges and anemones.
A Cretaceous coral reef looked very similar to a coral reef of the twenty-first century, only with reptiles being the dominant sea animals. The female Archelon dived deeper to graze on the seaweed growing on the sea floor. Normally she’d hunt jellyfish and ammonites but today she fancied a change and most of the ammonites were darting away at the sight of her anyway.
As a coelacanth fish swam away, the female Archelon noticed something lurking in the gloom. The Hesperornis scattered at the shape. As if appearing from nowhere, a twenty five feet long Platecarpus swum like a snake towards the ammonites. The Platecarpus belonged to a group of marine lizards named the mosasaurs. Mosasaurs were the top ocean predators and many different species had evolved. The Platecarpus was a specialist: ammonites were its prey of choice. Using its tail, it quickly swerved towards a pair of ammonites caught off guard. One jutted to safety while the other was not so lucky. The Platecarpus bit into the shell using its sharp straight teeth and then kept turning the ammonite over and bite into the shell again. The ammonite’s blood spilled everywhere and pieces of the shell sank to the ocean floor. Smaller fish darted in to grab pieces of ammonite meat, playing a game of chicken with the Platecarpus who was now swallowing the meaty parts while leaving the rest of the shell.
The female Archelon had nothing to fear from this species of mosasaur because Platecarpus didn’t attack Archelons. She left the Platecarpus to go on the hunt for more ammonites and headed out into the open sea.
The open ocean seemed lifeless but the female Archelon knew that wasn’t the case. She’d spent most of her time looking for jellyfish, but there were none to be found today. She did notice that there was a Crow Shark following her. She found the big shark an annoyance, besides the Crow Shark had no hope of bringing down prey of her size. Archelons were no pushovers with a leathery hard shell and a powerful beak that could do some serious damage. Now a second Crow Shark had shown up. She thought that maybe they were going to work together to kill her. The female Archelon felt very frightened.
Suddenly, the two Crow Sharks turned and swum away quickly, because something nastier had scared them off! The female Archelon looked around. She couldn’t see anything. Then it hit her. Something rammed into her from underneath. She felt the shock, completely taken by surprise! She snapped her jaws at her attacker but couldn’t she was it was. Taking evasive action she spun to the left to get a glimpse of her new aggressor. It was another species of mosasaur named Halisaurus.
The Halisaurus sank its teeth into one of the Archelon’s rear flippers trying to disable her. A tooth snapped off and got stuck in the Archelon’s flipper as the Halisaurus broke off the attack. But mosasaur teeth grew back again so it was no big loss to the Halisaurus which began to circle the Archelon, looking for another weak spot. The female Archelon turned on her side, raising her ‘shield’ against the Halisaurus. She kept her jaws ready as the Halisaurus attempted to bite her head off. The Halisaurus tried a series of ‘mock’ charges to scare the female Archelon, but the slower moving sea turtle held her ground. The Halisaurus then tried to bite the shell in vain, leaving scratch marks as it did. Then the predator knew what it had to do. The Halisaurus had to go in and rip away one of the front flippers to disable the female Archelon, preventing her from swimming away. The female Archelon screamed as the Halisaurus charged in for the kill, but then the water turned blood red around her! But it was not her blood. It was the blood of the Halisaurus.
Through the red cloud she could see the Halisaurus in the jaws of a Mosasaurus. This was one of the ‘giant’ mosasaur species that grew up to forty nine feet long and had ambushed the Halisaurus from below, just like the Halisaurus had attempted to ambush the female Archelon. The Mosasaurus breached the water surface with the screaming Halisaurus in its jaws and then came crashing back down, breaking the Halisaurus’ neck.
The female Archelon wasted no time in righting herself and dived down away from the giant predator as the Mosasaurus swallowed its catch whole. The Mosasaurus’ teeth enabled it to feed like a snake did. Although the female Archelon was wounded her injuries would heal over and she sank deep into the deep blue abyss, living to swim another day.
Chapter 9
Back on land, life continued its daily routine just as life continued in the oceans. The two Troodons were still incubating their eggs. The heat of the midday sun didn’t get to Bladefoot as he and the nest were in the shade. Once again Olla was off hunting and Bladefoot was dependant on her more than ever.
Olla had told him about her experiences on the beach and the tale left Bladefoot intrigued. Giant turtles, marine predators, colonies of seabirds with a bad attitude, all this was new learning material for him. That turtle meat that Olla had regurgitated for him had a nice salty taste to it to.
Bladefoot decided that he would have to see this beach for himself. There was so much to learn in this world and Bladefoot felt that there was always so little time. Bladefoot wondered just exactly how big this world was. He heard of distant lands such as Alaska and Wyoming bu
t did the world really end there? Many questions ran through his mind.
He looked down at his twenty four eggs. Bladefoot knew that some of eggs were badly formed and others were infertile. Although he’d been successful in mating with Olla, volcanic activity hundreds of miles away was affecting his environment once again. Bladefoot hadn’t seen much activity during the day, apart from a passing herd of Stygimoloch, which had paid little attention to his nest.
‘Where’s Olla? She should’ve been back by now?’ Bladefoot fidgeted, needing to relieve himself. He knew that he should wait for Olla to return but he was getting desperate. He stood up, forming a plan in his head. ‘If I go, I’ll need to do it so not too close to the nest. I better not draw attention to it in any way.’ Bladefoot stretched his legs and walked carefully away from the nest, carefully looking back at it as he did. Once he was satisfied that he was going to do his so called business away from the nest he crouched down. After all, he didn’t want to smell his own faeces while he was incubating his eggs!
He got back up once he was done and started walking back to the nest. Once he approached it through the scrub, he discovered, to his horror, that something had already reached his nest! A female Ornithomimus named Light Foot was snacking on his eggs, breaking them open with her toothless beak! Bladefoot reacted immediately. He didn’t even think about it. ‘No! Get away!’ He screeched with his hand claws outstretched. Light Foot smashed some eggs in her escape and sprinted off into the open with Bladefoot chasing after her.
Light Foot lived up to her name, seemingly flying across the land with her high speed. Bladefoot was fast but couldn’t keep up with her. He then broke off the chase out of breath as Light Foot bolted away.
Returning to the nest, he was devastated once he saw the damage. His clutch was down by half now, only twelve eggs remained. ‘I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid. I should’ve waited.’ He cursed his own stupidity. He kicked himself inside, wondering why he didn’t just wait for Olla to return. Then again, he knew that that may have taken some time. ‘Damn!’ He roared to himself. Olla was not going to be happy with Bladefoot at all. Bladefoot became worried that his female would think less of him and leave him for Cutter.
But Bladefoot stopped fretting. Olla would get over this and Cutter may be dead for all Bladefoot knew. All that mattered was protecting the rest of the eggs.
Meanwhile, Light Foot had managed to escape, but she hadn’t gone very far from the Troodon’s nest. She licked her lips: that yolk tasted good. She loved raiding nests during breeding season and she’d never tasted Troodon eggs before. Now she knew where the nest was, she would go back and finish the job. But she knew that the volatile male Troodon would be more protective now, on top of that, the Mother Troodon would have been alerted too. Light Foot needed help from some of her aides. They could distract both the parents while she went in for the rest of the eggs. It was a risky but well formulated plan. Light Foot knew that a bite or slash of the Troodon parents could wound her. That was a handicap that she wanted to avoid. She headed back to her flock to tell them the news and formulate the plan.
That evening Olla returned with a lizard in her jaws for Bladefoot. Bladefoot stood there in dismay with a sad look on his face. His head sunk low and Olla knew something was wrong. ‘What’s happened?’ She asked. Then she saw the state of the nest. Although Bladefoot had repaired it she could see the missing eggs and smashed shells. ‘I’m so sorry Olla. I turned my back for a moment and….’ Bladefoot’s head hung low. ‘Bladefoot you are an idiot!’ Olla snapped her jaws at him. She screeched in anger. Her male had failed in his parental care. She looked down at the remaining twelve eggs and she knew some of them wouldn’t hatch. ‘It was a Bird-Mimic dinosaur. It got them.’ Bladefoot informed her of the Ornithomimus. Then Olla calmed down. There were still healthy eggs left after all so it wasn’t a total waste. Once she’d calmed down, she came up with a new idea. ‘I’m sorry I got angry. It wasn’t your fault I probably should have been back earlier.’ She nuzzled her mate’s snout. The next day, everything would be correctable. Both parents would stay with the nest in the day once the territorial patrol was done and Olla could then hunt at night when the Ornithomimus would be asleep. There was still hope. Hope was faint but still there.
Olla dropped the dead lizard and Bladefoot fed, regaining his energy, for he would need it. ‘One day the Bird-Mimics will pay for this.’ Bladefoot prayed. Olla snuggled next to her male. ‘Don’t worry. As long as we are both together we’ll lay more eggs and have more chicks.’ Olla knew that this was only a temporary set back to their plans. ‘We will raise lots of babies I promise you.’ Bladefoot re-assured her. The two Troodons settled down with their remaining eggs as the sun set in the Cretaceous sky.
The next day began early for the two nesting Troodons. Olla had gone off on the territorial patrol at first light, before any egg raiders would be up and about. Olla had re-scented the boundaries and had seen some activity from Cutter! Bladefoot’s long time rival was still alive after all. From the scents, Cutter had also been holding down his own home range, but had found no female yet. Olla didn’t hesitate to report back to Bladefoot who had taken severe notice to this. He acknowledged that his rival had survived his injuries for the moment. Bladefoot hoped things wouldn’t get more complicated than they already were.
Now both Troodons were at the nest. For the moment everything seemed quiet but Bladefoot knew that in the Late Cretaceous tranquillity was a short thing. He sometimes wondered whether they would ever be at peace with this savage land. Death and danger came from every angle for them and Bladefoot hated it. Then he felt a change of heart for he was lucky to have survived to this stage at all. Besides, he had a territory and a breeding female, so he soon got over his woes. Olla raised her head. She’d seen something in the bush. Bladefoot saw movement too and got up to confront whatever threat came. Whatever it was out there wasn’t giant sized and Bladefoot could handle it. Sure enough, Light Foot the female Ornithomimus had returned along with two escorts. Bladefoot screeched at them. One of them broke away which Olla didn’t take her eyes off. ‘This time we defend the nest together.’ Bladefoot signalled. ‘I was about to say that.’ Olla replied. Bladefoot challenged Light Foot. Light Foot stood there, defiant. She enjoyed taunting dinosaur parents. ‘Why don't you just give up your eggs and save injury to yourselves?’ She chirped. ‘How dare you! Get away! You little egg thief!’ Bladefoot charged. The second Ornithomimus broke away. Bladefoot then realised their sick plan. They were working together to distract them off the nest to get the eggs. But Olla had seen it coming, staying close to the eggs, attacking the Ornithomimus if they got too close to her.
Bladefoot defended the outer layer of the nesting site, charging the Bird-Mimics and snapping at them. Light Foot bolted away and if Bladefoot got too close to her she kicked out with her foot talons. Bladefoot leaped out of the way of her attack. Bird-Mimic claws could disembowel him. Meanwhile Olla did her best not to fall into the trap the other Ornithomimus had set for her. Driving off one Bird-Mimic, she constantly looked over her shoulder to see off any others approaching the nest. The noise and commotion attracted other Ornithomimus from the flock in the background. The situation got desperate for the Troodons. ‘I doubt I’ll be able to fend them all off.’ Bladefoot saw a few Bird-Mimics walking over. He screeched to the top of his lungs as a warning! ‘This nest is well defended! Go away!’ He cried out. Some of the Bird-Mimics got scared and sprinted back to the main flock while the persistent Light Foot loitered around. Olla circled the eggs, trying to bite the legs of any Bird-Mimics that got too close. She too avoided their kicking talons because being wounded was a death sentence in the Late Cretaceous!
Suddenly, the distant roar of a T.Rex scattered the Ornithomimus away from the nest. As the Bird-Mimics retreated, Bladefoot ran back towards the nest, being very quick to get to cover! Both Troodons crouched down, expecting to see either Thunder Blade or Stan walk past any minute now. Fortunately for them, nei
ther T.Rex turned up. Both Troodon parents breathed a sigh of relief. They saw that all the eggs had survived the encounter. ‘We did well. We make a great team.’ Bladefoot thanked his mate for all her help. ‘I couldn’t have done that without you.’ Olla recognised that Bladefoot did a good job at stopping the Ornithomimus. The eggs would live to incubate another day and for the time being, the next generation was guaranteed.
Two months later, the eggs were due to hatch. Bladefoot was once again with the nest that night while Olla was out hunting. So far, Bladefoot was very disappointed. None of the eggs seemed to be healthy at all. The acidification of his environment had affected the eggshells so not all had formed properly, and the majority of the ones that were fine had been eaten by that thieving Light Foot. ‘Damn it.’ Bladefoot sighed in frustration, still angry at himself for leaving the nest for a moment. He looked around for Olla, hoping she would return and comfort him. ‘I wish she was here right now.’ He felt a pang of loneliness. This was supposed to be the night where his plans would bear fruit.
Then, he saw movement amongst two eggs. ‘Hold on, what’s this?’ Bladefoot became hopeful. Despite all his losses and set backs, two eggs were hatching! Suddenly he felt all his parental instincts switch on in his brain. All he cared for now were his two offspring, as well as Olla. Bladefoot saw two snouts breaking their way out of the shells. He felt excited about being a father for the first time. ‘I’m happy.’ Bladefoot hadn’t felt this good in ages. The Troodon chicks wrestled their way free as Olla came back to the nest. ‘Olla, look, two eggs have hatched.’ Bladefoot signalled to her. Olla came over and saw the two chicks sprawl out on their spindly legs. There was one male and one female. ‘What shall we name them?’ Bladefoot asked. ‘You chose the name of the male.’ Olla answered. ‘Rick.’ Bladefoot christened his son. ‘The female shall be called Serena.’ Olla named their daughter. Both Rick and Serena were perfectly healthy. No handicaps or signs of weakness. For all their hardships lay accomplishment. Rick and Serena started begging for food from their parents, already imprinting on them.