Bizarre Prehistory

[DinoMaster]

As in all things of the human world, there are the famous and those who do not share the limelight. From films to books, social groups to food chains, things can be left behind in the dust of progress. Even when learning about our past, things steal the spotlight from others. Every child can name a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a Stegosaurus, but so much more hides in the expansive halls and the shelves of the storage rooms. Signs lay of things that would be extraordinary to the usual person, left forgotten to the usual person.

Scenes quickly flash by, giving glimpses into the past. A large bow legged animal bellows towards an open set of fangs and sabre teeth, followed by a stampeding herd of running hippos and bounding lemurs. A mammal rears up to feed on a tree, followed by two odd reptiles clashing on a beach. It ends with a giant mouth clamping down on a struggling dinosaur and crashing back into the water.

Let us go back in time to those places that aren’t often visited, to the places that seem familiar and alien to us, to times that would forever shape the foundations of the future, and become the world we know now. It’s time to go take a look back, into the bizarre world of prehistory.

[DinoMaster]

Madagascar, 60,000 years ago

We begin our first step back in time to a place that in modern day time seems to be something out of a story on its own. Off the eastern coast of Africa lies the island of Madagascar, over 226,000 square miles of land covered in a unique blend of jungles, swamps, and wooded savannas. Most of the flora and fauna are unique to this island completely, with very little interaction of species of the mainland since its isolation. One of the more expansive environments of this Madagascar is the parkland savanna that dots the western side of the island. Created by a rain shadow from the limestone mountains, the area contains shallow creeks and rivers that permeate the land, broken only by swamps and the jungle of the south.

Beneath the shade of one of the many baobabs, something stirs. Standing up from the small bed of branches that it had been resting under, the mammal gave a small chuff. At the neighborhood of 200 killograms, this is a female Archaeoindris. The largest lemur species to have existed, they reach upwards the size of a silverback male gorilla. Her fur is a dark brown, with a fuzzy black facial mask and white rings around the wrist. Scratching her ear, she quietly observed the nearby area for intruding predators.

A small squeak came from behind the female, and a small ball of fur dashed out from beneath its mother. The small form barreled out into the grasses ahead, quickly tripping over his own feet and falling down into it. His mother made her way to him, gently picking him up and sticking him on her back despite the protests.

Unlike their more famous ring tailed relatives, Archaeoindris were not as social of creatures. It was more common to see them on their own, roaming the parklands and other environments to better feeding grounds. Easily able to travel over a mile a day, they hunted for fruit, nuts, branches, and other tasty treats to be eaten. If stumbled upon by another, social interaction is done for a brief period, before splitting off on their own ways.

This female has been alone with her pup for a few weeks now, quietly letting the little one grow and explore his world. Her protection would be limited, and there were still plenty of dangers that a young Archaeoindris could run into. So while she moved towards a better feeding place, the youngling clung on to her chest for protection.

It only took the pair a short time for them to reach the nearest place to drink. A small bend in one of the seasonal rivers was the place, a lower spot in the bank situated towards larger creatures coming down to drink. The mother Archaeoindris slowly lumbered down to the edge of the water, letting the pup explore. It took no time to bounce to its own spot, stopping not too far from his mother and playfully splashing at the water with his hand.

The noises of the splashing water, and the resulting vibrations caused by it, caught the attention of something in the water. The small part exposed quietly sunk into the water, and the creature moved towards the playing cub. It wasn’t long before it sat beneath the water, waiting for the right time to launch.

The creature’s appearance however, was seen by a simple glance towards the pup. She gave a shriek, and with a speed of a creature half her size bounded towards her pup, scooped it up, and bounded out of the way. Her end was greeted by a push of water as the predator lunged out from the water and bit onto thin air.
Yellow eyes quickly found where the prey had gone to, and the crocodile gave a bellow. Voay Robustus was one of the more iconic predators of Madagascar, with a set of horns crowning the back of the skull that reminisced of predators from a different era. Discovered in 1872, Voay subfossils were thought to be of the current genus Crocodylus until 2007.

While ambush was a commonly used hunting trick, they could also be speedy on land as well. The Voay went after the small Archaeoindris family, dashing forward in a desperate attempt to earn a meal. It was in vain, as the mother had already scrambled up onto the higher lip of the bank and off into the parkland. Giving a low hiss, it quietly slunk back into the waters of the river and out of sight. Another time would do better for food, and it was nothing but patient.

After dashing through the brush and grass fields for a good distance, the mother slowed to a stop. Plopping down into a seating position, she carefully let go of the squirming cub. As the adrenaline rush subsided, she noticed that they were not alone. A series of black and white tails were the heralds of a troop of ring tailed lemurs. The pup wandered over to the troop, wonder and excitement in his eyes. He had never seen such a group before, and wanted to inspect.

Luckily for him, the troop was equally interested. A few bounced towards the pup, chittering excitedly. While the pup and the ring tailed lemurs played, the mother sat guard. She watched as the bushes shook, and one of the descendants of Madagascar’s most recent arrivals stepped out from the bush.

Malagasy hippopotamus were descendants of ocean crossing stock from mainland Africa, and had adapted to the different environment differently. Little evidence remains on how they reached the continent, with the main theory being ocean swimming when water levels were lower and islands existed between the mainland and Madagascar.
Each had split off from the other species, adapting to differing niches. The largest was a coastal species, the second inhabiting a more traditional riparian habitat. The one that had appeared in the clearing was the third, with adaptations for running and quicker movements on land. They preferred the more open habitats of the island, vanishing inland to the more forested places to give birth.

The single hippo that had emerged was soon followed by another, and a small herd tumbled out from the undergrowth. The mother Archaeoindris gave a snort, shaking her head and returning her view to her child. He seemed safe for now, but those were always relative terms. The herd of hippos had spread out, the smaller ones sticking close to their mothers for the most part.

A single one had gone off on exploration, unaware that it had strayed farther from the herd than it had planned on doing. It didn’t notice the eyes that eyed it from the brush, until their owner pounced outwards. It missed the calf by an inch, sending the youngling squealing off towards it’s parents. Giving a growl, the predator pursued after it.
In an instant, every herbivore in the glade split off. They knew that when Madagascar’s largest mammalian predator appeared, it was time to get out of dodge. At over five feet long, the giant fossa, a relative of the current day cousin, is one of Madagascar’s largest predatory species. While preferring ambush techniques like a leopard, it could carry itself for a short distance with a quick burst of speed.

While the running hippos quickly scattered towards the more open areas nearby, the mother Archaeoindris was quick to dash towards her young, scooping him up in her arms. Once her child was safely nestled there, she turned to watch the predator. It had followed the herd for a little while, before stopping and looking back at them. Inhaling quickly, the mother gave a loud warning cry that seemed to reverberate throughout the nearby area. The fossa gave a snort, before pursuing back after the hippos. While it did hunt the big lemurs of the island, it knew full well the risk of running into an angry and protective Archaeoindris.

The mother and son moved on, quickly clambering into the trees and hopped from tree to tree. They eventually found a crook by sunset that would work, and the two nestled inside it. The mother fed from nearby branches while her youngling looked outwards. While the lower lying vegetation didn’t present too much at first, a head suddenly reared itself out from it on a long neck. Brown and white striped feathers ran down the neck, with a bright orange beak at the end. It gave a squawk, and four more necks lifted up from the underlying foliage. They began to feed off of the budding fruit and branches, occasionally glancing towards the resting duo.

Elephant Birds are some of the largest of Madagascar’s extinct fauna, most famous for their gigantic eggs. Ten feet tall, they are the largest animals living on the island and have no real natural predators to fear. In such, they do not react much at the sight of the gigantic lemurs, each letting the other be as the sun lowered in the sky.
Unfortunately for a large portion of the unique animals of the island, time is running out. Mankind will soon arrive on the island, and large portions of the unique species shall die. Clear evidence on the bones of the pygmy hippo subfossils show tools being used against them, and most of the species vanish soon after the arrival of humans. All that remains are a few preserved bones, eggs, and legends of the locals.

Tune in next time for an adventure to the Elhraz formation 115 million years ago, in a world where the norm for dinosaurs was turned on its head, predators were everywhere, and where the water wasn’t safe in the slightest.

[DinoMaster]

Triassic Europe, 245 Million Years Ago

The ocean has always been a source of plentiful life, as it was the origin of where it all began. As such, it has already held a myriad of life forms that have struggled and clashed for survival amongst the waves, from bizarre arthropods to massive killer fish. But now, something new and revolutionary has begun on a scale not seen before on the planet. Reptiles dominate the world above, filling in niches from an extinction level yet to be seen on the planet. They cover the globe in the forms of archosaurs and protomammals, covering the ground in a variety of shapes and forms. A few have even taken to the skies, flittering about and becoming some of the first vertebrates to truly achieve flight.

Some however, have seemingly regressed back to their more ancestral home. While the land proves to be the new stalking grounds for the makings of what will one day be the dominant family of ruling reptiles, the sea beckons with a variety of food sources just waiting to be exploited. And although they have just taken the waters of the coasts for the first time, the reptiles have already dispersed into a variety of ecological niches.
Not too far off what would one day be Germany, a head poked above the moving waters. Heart like in shape, the edges of the skull were covered in bony lumps and nodes. It gave a little gurgle, before vanishing back beneath the water. Shaking its body side to side, it wiggled through the water, careful not to bang the divided shells together too much.

This animal is a Cyamodus, one of the oddest reptiles in the entirety of the European oceans. While at first glance it may look like a turtle, they are in fact a species of reptile endemic to this era of time called the placodonts. The shell of Cyamodus is split into two pieces unlike its other shelled relatives, allowing for easier movement. This boost in speed can be useful for the creatures, as they are some of the smallest animals in their environment at four feet long.

The Cyamodus that had gone up for a breath of air quickly returned to its small bale, consisting of four full grown adults and three juveniles. The group swam amongst the rocks and algae, similar to that of seagrass. While most of their relatives are shell eaters, as well as the predeceasing species of this genus, they have begun to adapt and proliferate into the niche of feeding on the expansive algae beds that have begun to proliferate in the lagoons and coastal areas that they call home.

The group swam fairly care free, not paying attention to the waters that surrounded them. They were farther out from the shore, and the more open the waters the more likely risk of a predator lurking somewhere just beyond sight. These waters still held dangers of their own, from the sharks that would come in from the deep waters to the riptides that could tear an animal from the closeness of the shore to the home of the finned predators.
Two of the juveniles were busy in a form of play, one chasing the other and nipping at the other’s tail. Eventually one had enough, and swam out of sight of the other one. The second juvenile sped after it, squirming around corners and through beds of growing sea life in a game that drew them further and further away from the safety of adults.

A predator had caught the sight of the playing youngsters, planning on using this opportunity given. Giving a hiss, the blue and black striped predator took off through the waters. It shadowed the agile younglings, waiting for the right moment to strike. Yellow eyes with a slit pupil observed carefully as they slowed and put themselves in a secluded area that would be nearly perfect for hunting them.

The chasee of the playful game of catch had worn itself out, slowing down a good deal. The chaser watched with some mild interest as his playmate poked his head above the surface of the water to take a breath. It began to graze on the abundant algae that sat around before getting ready to go to breathe. A change in water pressure led it to quickly turn around in time to see a flash of black and blue dash forward towards the other, and then a cloud of blood erupt from where the blur grabbed the other one and took off with it. Giving a gurgling screech, the tiny animal took off back towards where it had seen adults last.

The predator had successfully grabbed the young animal’s head and been able to make a clean getaway with it. The young Cyamodus’s killer is an animal called a Lariosaurus. At two feet long, it looks somewhere in between a lizard and the later plesiosaurs. A narrow head full of pointed teeth sits on a long neck attaching to an oval body. The front limbs have modified from feet to flippers, while the hind legs remain with the more normal toes and a long thing tail. Lariosaurus and close relatives are part of a bizzare branch of creatures called nothosaurs, close to or the direct ancestors to animals like Elasmosaurus.

Holding the now dead Cyamodus in his mouth, the Lariosaurus thrashes the corpse, tearing the head off from the body and swallowing it down whole. Using the opening in the shell as a starting point, the predator stuck it’s snout into the carcass, tearing out bits of meat and bone and swallowing them whole. While Lariosaurus was originally thought to be mainly a fish eater, the discovery of two young Cyamodus inside their stomach regions shows that they were more opportunistic than that. They preyed more on the young ones than the adults, as their larger size and better armor were deterrents that kept them away from that.

As it fed on the carcass, the Lariosaurus failed to notice that it and the carcass had drifted towards deeper waters. It paid no attention the vibrations that could be felt as something surfaced to breathe and submerge down once more. While it was head deep inside the young Cyamodus, two animals began to circle the cloud of blood and bits of meat. When it pulled its head out to take a breath, it realized far too late that the hunter had become the hunted.

It gave a wail in pain as a set of toothy jaws snapped down on the lower body of the Lariosaurus violently, it being torn away from the meal that it had just secured. It began to thrash around, attempting to slap the attacker in the face with its free front flippers. Before it could do much more to try and free itself, a second set of jaws clamped down around the upper half of it, a few teeth puncturing the trachea, arteries and veins in places. The two sets of mouths quickly began to tug at it, turning the once predator into a chew toy. It twisted back and forth, the sounds of ribs snapping and spines cracking from the stress applied to the body. Organs were compressed and twisted, bending tissues in ways that they shouldn’t have. As it slowly drowned in the waters that had been home, it could feel the tugging and yanking from the heads. The last thing it felt was its spine tear in two, before it greeted oblivion.

The small animal’s killers quickly gulped down the halves of the Lariosaurus, snapping jaws to each other in communication. Finding each other in the cloud of blood, the two gently nuzzled each other and swam off towards the west. These two are Nothosaurus giganteus, some of the largest species of the Nothosaurus at just over twenty feet long. While other species had a penchant for eating fish and slow moving animals, they were amongst the biggest of predators that dwelled in this part of the coast. This stretch of the beach was their home, encompassing a medium sized cove full of fish, smaller reptiles, and the occasional landlubber that ventured too far out from the land. Few were ever able to challenge them in their reign as a duo, and they had enjoyed some time being successful in these intrepid waters. However, half of a small Lariosaurus was not going to be enough for either of them.

The mated pair swam along the reefs, combing for something that they would be sure to cure the growling stomachs. At first, all they encountered were small fish that were too quick for them and the hard shelled ammonites that were well protected. As they got closer to shore however, the particles of blood entered their noses. Like later crocodiles and alligators, Nothosaurus could smell blood in the water for meters away. Giving a series of clicks and rumbles, the two shot off from the deeper waters towards the shore. They swam with a grace that sat in between a sea lion and a crocodile, moving through the waters as if the resistance was nothing. They would occasionally surface, snapping in a breath before returning to the pursuit. The duo would also playfully bump into one another, egging one another to continue onwards.

As they reached closer to the target, small wisps of blood and bits of meat were visible in the drift. Both rose their heads out the water, spyhopping to try and see the source of what was creating the amount of blood and viscera that had been drifting towards the duo. Their eyes fell upon the sight of a gigantic carcass resting in the shallows, a fin sticking straight up into the air. They could recognize the bloated thing as a Shonisaurus carcass, perhaps one that had been stranded in the shallow waters from the storms from the previous night.

The carcass had been found by something else that stood in the waters, face deep in the carcass. The tail and body shook, as the crocodilian head of a Ticinosuchus tore out a strip of muscle and gulped it down. It was a rausuchian, a member of a family closely related to crocodiles while looking more like a T. Rex. While more of a land dwelling beast, no predator would be a fool to pass up the free meal that had been lain out so close to shore. Rearing up, it put its hind legs up on the carcass and dove back into the meat laden buffet in front of it.

This however, was not something that the Nothosaurus were comfortable with. The food was still in the water, and as far as they seemed to care it was invasion on their territory. In a couple of hisses and snaps, a small plan was formed. Both dove back down beneath the waves, moving to where they were needed. The female made a beeline for the rauisuchian, while the male swam around until he was perpendicular to where the meat eater was located.

The land dweller had its full attention on the carcass until a splash of water and the bite on its tail. Whipping its
head around, it felt the tugging of the attacker, trying to pull it out of the carcass. The Ticinosuchus could feel being dragged out of the carcass, and had not desire of being drowned by something. It lifted itself off of the carcass, trying to turn to intimidate the attacker. As it began the roar, a large mass erupted from the water and slammed into the side of the land dweller. It gave a groan, being sent crashing into the water and sandy beds with a decent sized splash.

As saltwater burned its eyes, it lashed upwards with a roar, jaws snapping blindly at the air around it. It could hear the sounds of gurgling roars, and through the burning pain in its eyes see the forms of two Nothosaurus glaring towards him, snapping their jaws in anger and dominance. Shaking its head side to side, the land dwelling rauisuchian left the ocean, going into a running gait to further itself. It could have handled one of them, but two was pushing the limits. While their teeth couldn’t puncture the armor it had covering the entirety of its body, all they needed was a grip and deep enough water to drown it in.

The Nothosaurus duo hissed the entire time as the Ticinosuchus dashed off to the world beyond the water, and then turned towards the carcass. The male let his mate go and eat first, watching as she tore into the carcass and devoured almost half of her body weight in food. When she was done, he took his turn, dining on what flesh he could get that wasn’t too hard to tear off. When he had eaten his full, both of them took off to the water headed towards a small island in the middle of their bay.

After a fifteen minute swim, both the male and female clambered out onto the beach. While the male made himself cozy in the sand, he watched the female clamber up to a secluded part of the beach that was equal parts in the sun and shade. He knew what was going to happen, having watched in plenty of time before. The first time he had made the mistake of getting too close during the process, and had received a nasty bite from it.

Once in the preferred place, the female Nothosaurus began to dig. Feet kicked as she dug the hole in the sand, making sure it would be deep enough. Once in a happy enough spot with it, she positioned herself correctly over the hole, and began to lay eggs. The actual process took somewhere in about two hours, until eight long leathery eggs sat in the hole. She carefully nudged them into safe positions, and gently buried them in the sand.

Calling out to her mate, she watched sitting in the shade as he came towards the nest. When he arrived, he kept a wary distance until she approved. The male approached carefully, observing the nest with some interest before going over to his mate and giving her a nuzzle with his snout. A low rumble coming from the female, the two intertwined their tails and sat next to each other as the sun descended in the sky.

They would guard the nest for the next few months until the eggs hatched, watching over the young for a few weeks until able to fend for themselves. While the dominant predators of the waters for now, the future of the Nothosaurus was drawing to a close. Changes would soon drain these waters into land, and the myraid of life that inhabited the coast would have to adapt to more open waters, or perish from extinction. The Nothosaurus and their descendants the plesiosaurs would come to take over the oceans as some of the most beautiful and long lasting of the ancient sea reptiles, which would see others come and go from the oceans before being rendered extinct by a string of bad events.