Dinosaur Hunter

by Steve White

  I was finishing off a sketch of the incident when Cassie announced she needed to pee. The usual SOP was to use one of the piddle packs given to us for just such an eventuality. They were clean and safe, but Cassie was shy and liked to pee outside away from my prying eyes but in what would have been the full glare of the drones and her own headcam – if she hadn’t covered that up.

  Because of that, the FOB handlers didn’t really figure out what was happening at first. There was no sound and the darkness was assumed to be Cassie covering the lens.

  How the drone missed the young Daspletosaurus remains a source of mystery and speculation. The drone operators hadn’t been remiss. They had not been dozing or slacking off. But recounting the incident, and checking the coverage, and talking to the crews, it just seems to have been bad luck. One of the drones was roaming the nest sight, checking, somewhat ironically, the edge for Theropods. The other was in orbit above us. The woods were dense and we found footprints that showed the Daspletosaur had stalked the colony’s border that night. It had been presumably sleeping in the dense woods above the hide at the summit of the slope, but in its lee; the ridge created by the rise created a blind shadow so the Theropod went unseen until it was too late.

  Maybe it was the food. Maybe it was the acrid tang of Cassie’s pee. Whatever it was that drew it to her, it caught her quite literally with her pants down. The shotgun was still on the ground where she’d left it.

  The official report would read that the Theropod surprised her from behind. It’s amazing how quietly even the biggest animals can move, especially in dense forest, barely cracking a twig. She probably never saw it coming. But in those long dark nights of the soul, I sometimes wonder if some instinct made her turn and she saw teeth-studded jaws bearing down on her. Maybe she threw up a hand in some desperate effort to ward off the attack. I even stood in a museum once and played it out with a cast of an Albertosaurus.

  I didn’t even realize how long she’d been gone, and if I had I’d have just assumed it was stomach trouble. Besides, I was busy drawing. The first I knew something was awry was the yelling on the comms, so loud I ripped the headset away.

  That her torso was being downed by the young Daspletosaur never crossed my mind and when I stepped out of the hide, I just froze. My hand was resting on the shotgun and stayed there, even when the Theropod eyed me indifferently. Its head, its face, is indelibly written into my mind. The rain dripping from the end of its scaly, boiled leather snout. Cassie’s legs hanging from its jaws. She’d lost a boot and her white sock was covered in blood. More blood cascading from the Daspletosaur’s lips. The bristles of adult plumage pushing through, so much smoother and sleeker. The tiny arms tucked against the chest, hidden by long vanes so that only the two horrific claws protruded.

  It never occurred to me to shoot it much less kill it. I just stupidly yelled ‘shoo.’

  Then, without a glance backwards it slipped back into the woods from whence it had come.

  When the Pink Team arrived, I was sitting in the hide with Cassie’s boot, which I’d found near where she’d been squatting. The crew chief packed my Bergen, including my sketchbook, but he took the boot from me. We tussled because it was all that was left of Cassie but it was technically MHC® property and would be part of their investigation.

  Back at the FOB I never left my room until I returned home. I just couldn’t bear the thought of the crewmen looking at me, thinking that I didn’t have the Right Stuff. No one ever said it was my fault, and I know it was six of one and half a dozen of the other, but at the end of the day the only real judgement came from the Daspletosaur, whose indifference to me showed that indeed a stock portfolio counted for shit out there.

  After a period of counselling, Nicci Holmes returned to a career at the Chicago stock exchange; she still hunts but restricts her activities to deer and wildfowl. She was recently quoted as saying, ‘Every time I sight down my weapon, I’m seeing the eye of that Daspletosaur.’

  HELL CREEK FORMATION

  Period: Latest Cretaceous

  Age: Maastrichtian stage (67–65 mya)

  Present location: North America

  Reserve size: 1,800 square miles

  CONDITIONS

  Located in what is now the Midwest of the USA, Hell Creek sits on the western side of the Western Interior Sea, by now little more than an epeiric arm of its former self. The North American continent was more or less in its current position even if the landmass exhibited various differences in shape. A continued downward trend in global temperatures led to the formation of polar icecaps that led to a worldwide drop in sea levels. The WIS as seen in the Campanian has reduced by some 40 per cent so that the interior sea is now just a finger of shallow inland seas and narrows that run roughly north–south from a polar sea.

  This general cooling led to more pronounced winters to the north but Hell Creek remained relatively mild year round, with regular rainfall that kept the coastal regions lush and subtropical. Carbon dioxide levels continued to fall but were still double those of current levels (requiring the mandatory use of rebreathers).

  GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT

  The Rockies continue to develop and shape the weather to the east. Hell Creek is beyond the range’s rain shadow and receives rain pretty much year round. The weather stays balmy, rarely falling below 13°C (55°F) in the winter, and only below freezing under the most adverse of conditions. The topography is relatively level, the environment made up of what was the Interior Sea’s bed.

  Much of the reserve’s western landscape is forest broken up by rivers, some of which are huge, flowing eastward. The rivers feed various tributaries and streams that in some places become soda lakes, the result of salt deposits from the retreating seaway.

  The forests are dominated by angiosperms. Gallery forests of dawn redwood grow to hundreds of feet high; they are surrounded by dense stands of katsura, breadfruit, barberry, beech, plane trees, live oak and sycamore, palms and laurels; magnolias were also very common. Gymnosperms are also present, including Araucarians, conifers, cycads and podocarps. There are dense understoreys of many different species of fern and flowering shrubs and creeping vines. The forests thin in places to woodland and meadows of ferns and palmetto. The relatively benign climate means the trees do not shed their leaves or needles. However, after the season when daylight hours shorten and growth rates slow (‘winter’), a growth season does occur.

  Further east, the forests open up into flats of conifers, cypress domes and live oak, the trees scattered over fern and palmetto meadows. The rivers begin to branch more often and form deltas and peat swamps. These deltas give way to floodplains and coastal flats of sand and mud deposited by the rivers emptying into the shallow sea. Cypress domes are replaced by hundreds of small mangrove islands. These ‘everglades’ have a relatively modern appearance but they are far less widespread than in the Campanian, which could explain the disappearance of many of those Hadrosaurs and Ceratopsians that spent much of their time in the wetlands.

  The rich landscape supports large numbers of dinosaurs; with feed available virtually all year round, many herbivores form localized populations of small herds. Others, such as Edmontosaurus and the northern Triceratops, are migratory, heading north to take advantage of the short growing season within subarctic regions. They head to the plains and woodlands that edge the polar sea; many nest there and bring their young back south in time for the ‘spring’ growing season.

  LICENSED TARGETS

  You are licensed to hunt the following species in Hell Creek:

  TYRANNOSAURUS

  A female T-rex has fought and bitten off the arm of a prospective mate after his mating overtures were rejected. The fighting has left her with a number of injuries.

  Length: 40ft

  Weight: 7 tons

  While there are other carnivorous dinosaurs that claim to be bigger or longer, there can be none that are greater, and it is the thrill of hunting the ultimate dinosaur that makes Hell Creek the mo
st popular of MHC®’s destinations.

  We’ll never know in what direction Tyrannosaur evolution was heading and as such T-rex remains the ultimate expression of these impressive predators. Its body plan is not too different from earlier Tyrannosaurs: the long tail counterweighting the huge head – in this case massive and thickset. Features alluded to in early forms became fully expressed in T-rex; the snout has narrowed to allow increased binocular vision. The teeth in the snout have kept their D-shaped cross-section while those behind are banana-shaped with an oval cross-section and serrations on both edges. They are larger in the upper jaw and operate along a ‘knife and fork’ principle, the smaller lower teeth pinching the flesh of the Tyrannosaur’s prey up against the steak-knife upper teeth. The powerful S-curved neck can then draw the massive jaws backwards and the serrated teeth slice the flesh open like a huge scalpel blade.

  T-rex hind legs are powerfully built; they are not as graceful as the likes of Albertosaurus but they are more than capable of supporting T-rex’s heavier build whilst providing it with enough power for adults to out-pace the largest prey (and humans…). The forearms seem pathetically small but they are heavily muscled and sport large talons. They fulfil various functions; males use them to steady themselves during mating (along the lines of a Sauropod’s spur) while females use them to manipulate eggs in the nest and cover and uncover the clutch, regulating its temperature (she will also use her snout and even her jaws for the same purposes). This is all done through touch.

  This type of Tyrannosaur physiology applies to the adults. The young are very different; the fact is that the transition from juvenile to sexually mature adult is the most extreme of all the Tyrannosaurs. The mating season is generally at the end of ‘winter’ as the days lengthen and herald the new growing season. In Hell Creek, where the population is largely localized (see below), males have established territories that usually overlap with at least one female. The male roars to attract the female; he will then court her.

  This is a dangerous time for male Tyrannosaurs. Sexually dimorphic, the females are as much as a quarter larger than the males (who are generally recognizable by the more colourful plumage around their heads). If they do not find the male a suitable sexual partner, they are as likely to attack him as a competitor; males will also fight each other in territorial disputes, as well as competing for mates. Violence is only avoided if the roaring contest that precedes a fight sees one of the males back down. Females will also fight for similar reasons, including the right to mate with particular males.

  As such, a Tyrannosaurus is far more likely to incur injuries from intra-species fighting than from prey.

  Nesting occurs at the start of the growing season. Both parents attend to the eggs and hatchlings, the males keeping the female fed while she is brooding the 15–20 eggs. The babies grow quickly, fed by the parents until they are big enough to leave the nest. The young stay with their parents for some years – as many as five – not just to be fed (the juveniles are quite capable hunters almost from birth) but for protection. This is not just from adult Tyrannosaurs; these will take babies at any opportunity, but usually the young are too quick and small for fully grown giants; the main threat is from juvenile and sub-adult rexes (nicknamed by MHC® crews as princes and princesses).

  These are the young that survived the first five years and are then abandoned by the parents. This sudden independence usually coincides with a sudden and continuous growth spurt that takes them to sexually immature adults over the next ten years or so. These princes and princesses are very different physically to the adults; they develop long, gracile legs and long jaws in narrow heads, and are quite capable runners.

  They will often travel in bachelor packs of siblings although many live solitary existences; they fulfil the ecological role of mid-range predator that is often filled by completely unrelated types in other ecosystems. They are active, voracious hunters, preying largely on smaller dinosaurs, including hatchlings and juveniles, but mainly species that an adult would find hard to catch, such as the athletic Struthiomimids and Caenaganthids.

  Reaching sexual maturity at about 20 years old, the adults increase in mass and strength, and develop into ‘land sharks’ – true ambush predators who now specialize in larger prey such as adult Edmontosaurs and Triceratops. As the most common animal in Hell Creek, the latter is a favoured food item, if much more dangerous than the former. This, of course, explains the shift to ambush predation.

  These ambush tactics are not unlike those of the Campanian Tyrannosaurs; a charge from cover, possibly a short chase, and the delivering of a savage bite, usually to the flank or thighs. The wounded animal is then stalked and further bites inflicted if possible, until the prey is weak enough to be dispatched.

  Older rexes are also frequent scavengers. The generally densely covered landscapes they inhabit means that smell is important in detecting prey both living and dead, but for the kill, stereoscopic vision allows the accurate delivery of the incapacitating bite.

  There are both local and transient populations amongst Hell Creek’s T-rex community. The transient population is usually made up of the more active sub-adult grouping, who travel with the herds of large dinosaurs, preying on younger animals, but even risking attacks on adults too sick or exhausted to fight back. On the way back south, they have the new crop of young to hunt.

  TRICERATOPS

  A pair of male Triceratops prepares to charge one another in a duel over females.

  Length: 30ft

  Weight: 8–10 tons

  The most common of all Hell Creek dinosaurs is also one of the most famous, and if T-rex represents the ultimate in Tyrannosaur design, Triceratops is the epitome of horned dinosaur evolution. By the end of the Maastrichtian (and the Age of the Dinosaurs) the two species of Triceratops, T. horridus and T. prorsus, were filling all the ecological niches previously filled by a large number of types from the two Ceratopsian subfamilies. It is also the last known member of the Chasmosaurines (the only other known Ceratopsids to make it to the end of the Maastrichtian are the less common, more southerly Torosaurus and a species of Pachyrhinosaurus to the far north).

  In terms of physiology, it is not too different from earlier Ceratopsids; its build is broadly similar; it features the same ‘porcupine’ spines on its rump and thighs and the stiff, quill-like mane running the more forward length of the tail, although they are slightly more pronounced in Triceratops. Both species also have the same powerful beak and shearing teeth batteries, and the same trio of two very long brow horns (in large individuals, these can be over 3ft long) and a smaller nasal horn.

  Sexual dimorphism is limited to size and shield shape; the males are a little larger and have larger brow horns, while the frills of sexually mature females take an almost elongated heart shape (not dissimilar to Torosaurus, with which it can sometimes be confused in areas where their territories overlap, south of Hell Creek). The epoccipital hornlets outlining the fringe also tend to be larger in males.

  Both horns and shield have defined proactive functions. At the start of the ‘spring’ breeding season, the male stakes out a territory and calls for females, which he then impresses with flashy visual displays on his shield and also the mane. The female can also signal her intentions with her shield, dull colours showing a lack of interest while bright ones can be taken as a ‘come on’ to her suitor. Males also fight for the best-positioned territories; these battles can take the form of more passive shows of force using the colours of their frills and with vocalizations. However, should neither protagonist be willing to back down, fighting will take place; these battles can be quite prolonged and brutal; most adult males carry injuries to their face and shield, usually inflicted by their opponents’ brow horns but sometimes including bite wounds from an attacker’s beak. Some of these can be severe; puncture wounds, snapped horns left in the recipient of a charge, even lost eyes. Accordingly, the breeding season is something of a boom time for Tyrannosaurs; adult Triceratops, usually
difficult prey for even the fittest T-rex, are left exhausted by constant fighting. Others are weakened by injuries or blood loss. As such they make easy pickings for parent Tyrannosaurs with chicks to feed.

  That said, a T-rex is happy to engage adult Trikes under almost any condition. This means that females are at just as much risk from attack, which is why dimorphism is limited to colours and shield – females are often required to fight for their lives and in these combats, size matters just as much to the females as the males. Both genders are also very aggressive, and it really pays to avoid getting too close. Their sense of smell is excellent, but their vision is also fair; however, not to the extent that it can differentiate a human from a young Tyrannosaur.

  Trikes are also at risk as they do not run in herds; this is especially true of T. horridus, the more southerly of the two species. Living in a relatively benign climate, it is not really required to migrate as such and its populations are more localized. Its primary habitat is the lowland forests, woods and marshes, which are generally less conducive to socializing in large aggregations. However, they are common enough that random gatherings can inadvertently occur in areas where food is plentiful. These congregations can be fraught; females are generally intolerant of males outside of the breeding season and males can be overcome with machismo that leads to outbreaks of fighting.

  Living a largely solitary existence that makes it vulnerable to predation may also explain T. horridus’ belligerence. However, T. prorsus has a more northerly based habitat and is generally migratory. It heads north in large numbers at the end of the winter and breeds at the start of the spring growing season as the days lengthen.

  Trikes nest colonially, both parents providing food for the young only as long as it takes them to become precocial and leave the nest. In the case of T. horridus, the young generally scatter into dense forest until large enough to move out into open habitats, usually in small herds. In the case of T. prorsus, the infants then form a large aggregation that will travel with adults.