“I know you’ll keep the old place in tip-top shape, and you should know that I’m forever grateful. So grateful in fact, that I’ll be scheduling a trip home to say hello and pack a few new supplies for another trip! There are Microsaurs all over the planet that need our attention!
“Anyhoo. Best of luck with the new arrivals, and I’ll see you soon!
“Oh, and remember. Adventure awaits!”
FACTS ABOUT OVIRAPTORS
• The name oviraptor really does mean “egg thief.” The very first oviraptor fossils were discovered in China in 1924, by a paleontologist named Henry Fairfield Osborn. Osborn named the dinosaurs himself—which is one of the great things about discovering a dinosaur, by the way—but even he wasn’t sure that the name was quite right.
• When Osborn discovered the oviraptor skeleton, lying beside it were some fossilized eggs. He could tell by the size of the eggs that they did not belong to the oviraptors, so he theorized that the oviraptors had stolen the eggs so they could eat them. But as we learn in this book from Danny, a theory is just a guess, an idea filled with wonder, until it is proven. For decades scientists have studied the fossil records of the oviraptors, and they are still busy coming up with more fascinating theories about them every day.
• While the tiny-raptors in this book have grinning mouths that Lin describes as toothy, we know by the fossil records of actual oviraptors that they didn’t have teeth at all. However, in place of teeth, the oviraptors had spikes that hung from the roof of their mouths. Creepy!
• Although a complete oviraptor skull has yet to be found, we have a pretty good idea of what it looked like because paleontologists are excellent puzzle solvers, and they have found the fossils of dinosaurs closely related to the oviraptors to compare against.
• It’s fun to imagine what an oviraptor actually looked like, but if you want a pretty good living example, check out a bird from New Guinea called a cassowary. They are big, flightless birds with scaly, clawed, three-toed feet and a bony crest on their heads. Some people today even call them living dinosaurs, and they aren’t far off. Fossil records show us that birds are the most likely descendants of dinosaurs, and while most drawings you see today of dinosaurs look more like lizards than chickens, we know for sure that a great deal of them were actually covered in feathers—you know, like a cassowary.
• Did oviraptors really growl and click? Well, we know they didn’t sing like birds of today. Birds create their songs with an organ called a syrinx, which allows them to whistle, tweet, and sing, but oviraptors did not have this song-making device. They lived in dense rain forest and had to communicate across long distances, so paleontologists think they made low-pitched growls and clicks, because those sounds travel better over long distances. Once again, take a listen to a cassowary if you’re interested in hearing a living example. They might be the closest thing we’ll ever hear to an oviraptor.
• Oviraptors were probably really good parents. We know this because the most complete fossil record of the oviraptors found so far included a female oviraptor covering a nest of eggs. The fossil record tells us a lot about how she lived and how she died. A great sandstorm buried her alive, but even with the dangerous weather rushing all around her, this mother stayed with her nest no matter what.
• Oviraptors came in all sizes. Some were as small as the common chicken we have today, but the Gigantoraptor was way too big to fit in a chicken coop. While most oviraptors were less than five feet long, this massive creature could grow to twenty-six feet in length and weigh more than a ton!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Here we are, at the end of the book, and I still haven’t thanked those who helped me get here. Well, it’s like they say. The last is the best of all the gang. So, here it is. A small and incomplete list of those who breathed life into the pages of this book.
Jodi, my partner in all things good.
Annie, who still thinks I’m funny even though she’s a teenager.
Malorie, who will soon be faced with the hardest question a creative can have in life: which talent to feed. Thanks for inspiring me to choose mine.
Davis, who has been smarter than his old dad since he was nine years old, and not afraid to show it.
Tanner, who understands the value of hard work, which usually means he’s too busy creating his art to help me with mine. A dad couldn’t ask for more.
Gemma Cooper, who challenges and champions my crazy ideas.
Holly West, who kindly suggests a better path without bruising my fragile artist’s ego.
Liz Dresner, who somehow pulls order out of thin air and adds design to my jumbled scratches.
The team at Feiwel & Friends for their continued support and encouragement.
And if you are still reading, well then, for crying out loud, I must acknowledge you, dear reader! The Page Turners. Without you, words go unread. Illustrations go unseen. And most important, wild stories go untold.
Thank you for reading this FEIWEL AND FRIENDS book.
The friends who made
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dustin Hansen, author of Game On! and the Microsaurs series, was raised in rural Utah. After studying art at Snow College, he began working in the video game industry, where he has been following his passions of art and writing for more than twenty years. Dustin can often be found hiking with his family in the same canyons he grew up in, with a sketchbook in his pocket and a well-stocked backpack over his shoulders. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1: The Bolt!
Chapter 2: Spring Cleaning—Literally
Chapter 3: Back in the Microterium
Chapter 4: Down to Size
Chapter 5: Inside the Box
Chapter 6: The Hammer of Doom
Chapter 7: Honk-Honk Returns!
Chapter 8: Saddle Up
Chapter 9: Gearing Up and Heading Out
Chapter 10: Tracking Down Trouble
Chapter 11: Cornered
Chapter 12: Beneath the Microterium
Chapter 13: What’s for Lunch?
Chapter 14: A Bit of Luck
Chapter 15: Back to the Track
A Video Note from Professor Penrod
Facts about Oviraptors
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Dustin Hansen
A Feiwel and Friends Book
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
mackids.com
All rights reserved.
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 ext. 5442 or by e-mail at [email protected].
First hardcover edition 2017
eBook edition 2017
eISBN 978125
0090270
Microsaurs--Tiny-Raptor Pack Attack Page 7