Chapter 26: University trip

"Darius, how would you classify the animals on our right?" A blue and white boat about thirty meters long was moving placidly on the river. Above it was a group of at least fifty people, most of whom clustered along the right side of the boat. The person who had asked the question was a woman in her thirties, still very handsome and with a youthful and energetic appearance. She had brown hair combed in a tuft and wore a very large white jumpsuit, suitable for repelling the sun's rays. The other passengers, except for the ship's crew, were dressed more casually, even if many of them seemed to be beginning to regret their stylistic choice because of the heat; none of them seemed to be over twenty. The guy named Darius was a rather short, very skinny in build dark-skinned guy. He was looking at the herd of dinosaurs ahead of them, placid herbivores with a large crest on their backs and a duck's beak. After a short wait he gave his answer. "I would say ouranosaurs, professor. A rare species of hadrosaurids" "Very good, Darius. Well yes, these are ouranosaurs. They are very fast and even if they don't possess particular defenses they still can emit high frequency sounds to confuse or scary predators. In summer they usually migrate to this area of the river, since it is more sheltered from predators and these dinosaurs are good at swimming..." The brown-haired woman continued talking for nearly ten minutes. Some of the people around her were taking notes, but most had their eyes fixed on the ouranosaurs. Even in a world where dinosaurs coexisted with humans for millennia, these massive creatures still managed to attract attention. It was impossible for nature-loving people to not be mesmerized by these gentle giants. The ouranosaurs didn't seem bothered by their presence; some of them raised their heads to look at them, but the others didn't deny them even a glance, continuing to graze the plants that grew near the river. "They look like big crested ducks" one of the people said. It was a tall and beatiful guy with particularly expensive clothes. "Well, they are adrosaurids. They are called 'duck-billed dinosaurs' for a good reason" Darius said. "Really? I didn't know that" "Maybe if you would have listened more while you were in class you would have known, Kenji" "You know that studying isn't for me" "But you should study anyway. It could save your life" another boy, quite lanky and with a slightly scared look, said. "You know, ouranosaurs are particularly aggressive if they are disturbed in their territory. It is therefore important to know all the possible ways of survival for..." "Oh, come on, Ben! We are on a boat. What can they do?" The guy named Ben seemed a little disappointed, but suddenly a girl jumped on him from behind and hugged him. "For once Kenji is right, Ben. Stop worrying and enjoy the trip!" "Sammy is right, Ben. You should have fun" their professor said. Ben didn't seem very convinced, but he managed a smile nonetheless. "Professor Campbell, are there really no predators here?" a pink-haired girl asked. Her name was Brooklynn and she had a video camera in her hand. She was a blogger with many followers and everyone in their group knew she hoped to find some carnivore in that trip, so she could show it to her fans. Some of the other students giggled. "Ehm" the brown-haired woman coughed to restore calm. "There are no land predators, since most carnivorous dinosaurs prefer to nest further west, away from human activities. However, the same cannot be said for aquatic predators. If we're lucky we might be able to see a deinosuchus" Brooklynn seemed pleased with the answer. The brown-haired woman breathed a sigh of relief: she was relieved to not have to face an argument. She was more than sure that Brooklynn would have been able to ask the crew to go further inland. Since earning her biology degree, Jamie Campbell had chosen to follow in the footsteps of her teacher, the famous and prestigious professor Mitch Morgan, and become a university professor herself. This for two important reasons: the first was that transmitting knowledge to the new generations was fundamental, consequently it was a moral duty of every biologist to participate in the education of young people. The second reason was that the university paid for numerous trips to the forest for the students and teachers who accompanied them, and if someone was lucky he or she could even get the money for a research expedition. Jamie came from the Confederate States of Vinland, and there most researchers preferred to send people to the continent of Maakanar to investigate on their behalf, choosing the warmth of the armchair in the sweltering heat of the jungle. However, Mitch Morgan had always conveyed to his students the need and the beauty of exploring in the field; the idea of organizing guided tours for the students had been his. Jamie had inherited her professor's passion and whenever there was a chance she volunteered to go to the forest. After all the one who paid for everything was the university, so why not take advantage of it? Unfortunately she had discovered too late that being a professor also had its disadvantages, first of all the relationship with her students. In many cases it was easy to make a connection, but some guys were really hard to manage. Jamie always avoided arguments if she could, as in Brooklynn's case: she had learned in the worst way that it was best to start conflicts as little as possible. This was the third time she had accompanied students to Maakanar forest. Fortunately, this time too the situation seemed uneventful: the students had behaved well and no one had put unhealthy ideas in their heads. Jamie recalled that professor Morgan had told her that a student once got so excited at the sight of a suchomimus that he jumped off the boat; luckily the dinosaur had ignored him, too focused on eating a big fish, but the situation could have ended in tragedy this time. Jamie had treasured that tale and in fact had always prevented the students from approaching more than half a meter from the edge of the boat. "Professor, look! There is another ouranosaur behind that rock!" Jamie looked in the spot indicated by another of her students, a quite athletic girl named Yasmina. She had seen right: behind a rock more than two meters high a sail stood out very clearly. However... "It can't be an ouranosaur, the sail is too big. Besides, it is square" Jamie said immediately noticing too many oddities. "It must be something bigger" The ship kept moving, so they just had to wait. Very soon they were able to glimpse other parts of the creature's body, and quickly a massive crocodile head appeared in their field of view. "I can't believe it! It's a spinosaurus!". Brooklynn was literally jumping while she pointed her camera at the animal. She wasn't the only excited one: spinosaurs were rare, extremely rare, seeing one alive in its natural environment was an unmissable opportunity, and the students knew it well. "Professor, you said there were no predators here!" "Because there shouldn't be any. It probably separated from its pack and got lost" Jamie replied, observing the creature. It wasn't unusual, after all, that an animal went too far from its pack or was caught in a storm while it hunted, and then it failed to find its way back. Surely that spinosaurus' herd was far to the east, but that specimen had gone up the river up to that point. But as the boat continued to advance Jamie began to notice many other oddities: the nose was too long, the sail too large. When the creature's entire body was finally revealed, Jamie choked on saliva: that spinosaurus was too big! The largest spinosaurus ever found in nature reached 15.8 meters in length. Some in captivity reached bigger dimensions: the biggest ever registered reached 17.3 meters in length. Still, Jamie could tell at a glance that this spinosaurus far surpassed the previous record! It was longer than half of their boat! She didn't want to let the imagination fly too much, but perhaps they had just discovered the largest spinosaurus ever found! Her students were also shocked. The first to recover was Brooklynn: "It's extraordinary! Look at it! It must be at least 18 meters long!" "It's impossible! Spinosaurs in nature cannot reach such a huge size!" Darius protested. "And then how do you explain what we are seeing?" the girl named Yasmina replied while she taking several photos with her cell phone, imitated by many others. "Professor, we must absolutely be sure! Let's stop the boat, go there and measure it!" Jamie immediatly shook her head: "Yasmina, don't talk nonsense. This isn't a research expedition. You know very well I can't get you off the boat" Jamie wasn't unprepared. She knew well that getting off the boat meant exposing herself and all her students to an enormous risk. While there were generally no predators in the area, there was no guarantee that one of them was not passing by at the wrong time. Furthermore, approaching a spinosaurus was not at all safe. The boat was not very high: it floated above the river for about four meters. It was designed to prevent crocodiles from attacking it. But such a large spinosaurus if annoyed could very well jump out of the water and cling to the edge of the ship. The spinosaurs were carnivores weighing more than seven tons, the boat would have risked overturning. Yasmina was furious. "Professor! We could be faced with a sensational discovery! If you want you can get off the ship alone, I'm willing to stay on the ship, but measuring that animal is a duty for us scientists!" "She is right! We must absolutely measure it!" Darius supported her. "Don't take advantage of this opportunity it's a crime against biology!" Jamie bit her tongue. She too was thrilled to get off the boat and study the spinosaurus, but she had to think about her students and their safety first. The spinosaurus had to be sedated in order to get close to it, but with reptiles the narcotics worked slowly: if the spinosaurus were furious for the blow received they would have been in serious trouble. But suddenly, Sammy's voice rang throughout all the ship. "Watch out! It woke up!" Everyone turned to the creature. The spinosaurus had opened its eyes and raised its head slightly, and was staring at them with a searching gaze.