Chapter 27: The largest spinosaurus ever found

Sobek's awakening hadn't been the best. At some point his sharpest hearing began to perceive a loud shouting. Because of this, he had gone from restless sleep to half-sleep, and from half-sleep to full awakening. And first of all, as soon as he opened his eyes, he found himself in front of the undoubted silhouette of a boat. Immediately he had panicked, thinking that they were other poachers, but he had quickly rejected that idea: no poacher would have ever used such a flashy and easily traceable boat. It was clear that whoever was on that boat wasn't doing anything morally questionable. "Rest assured and lower your voice! If we talk too loud we could irritate it!" a brown-haired woman on the edge of the ship said. "Spinosaurs don't have very strong hearing and smell, but they are still quite sensitive to noise. Do you see those holes in the back of the head? They are its ears. The sounds enter from them and reach the eardrum, which amplifies the frequency and..." Okay, there are two cases: either they were tourists or they were scientists. That woman seemed in all aspects a guide, so the second hypotesis was likely the right one. "Well, I couldn't ask for anything better" Sobek thought. "I might as well be seen by them: from the way they look at me I'm sure that they are very interested in me" With deliberately slow movements, he got up on his paws and headed for the water. He saw that a lot of people were just taking pictures of him, so he wanted to make sure they got the right shot. Once in the river he began to swim next to the ship, but kept an eye on its bridge: he certainly did not want to be shot with a narcotic. Even though he knew they probably wouldn't have hurted him, he didn't like the idea of being at the mercy of those guys. After all, humans were still humans, and therefore they were unpredictable. Jamie watched the spinosaurus move beneath them. She had initially feared the worst, but the animal's behavior didn't seem aggressive: it just seemed to be curious. "It's not a hunting behavior" she told to the students. "It's studying us. It's trying to understand what we are and whether or not we are a threat to it. Don't speak out loud and don't make any sudden movements, or it might think we want to attack" "It gives me chills. It doesn't look scared" Kenji muttered while he looked at the spinosaurus. He could see the animal's eyes fixed on them. "Spinosaurs live far east, in a part of the forest where humans hardly ever go. It probably has never seen people in its life, it has no reason to fear them" Jamie explained. The situation remained at a standstill for several minutes, however the spinosaurus never showed any aggressive intent; it just swam beside the boat and watched them. It raised its head a couple of times, but other than that it never tried to attack them. Jamie's fear quickly began to subside. The woman's searching spirit had begun to re-emerge, and even though that was a potentially dangerous situation, she also saw an opportunity in it. "Quick, go get the measuring instruments. Since it swims parallel to us, we can use the ship to measure it! And take pictures of that animal from every angle!" The students readily obeyed. Even though the presence of the huge reptile made their blood chill in their veins, they couldn't contain the excitement. That was their true idea of a 'nature trip': studying dinosaurs up close! The spinosaurus swam at the same speed as the boat, so it was easy to roll out the yardstick and measure it. Even if they couldn't call that measurement absolutely accurate, they could still have a general estimate of its size. The results made Jamie shudder. "Brooklyn wasn't wrong. That spinosaurus is at least 18 meters long!" she said observing the tape measure and the animal that swam near them. It was definitely the largest spinosaurus ever found! It had beaten all the previous records! "What gender do you think it is?" Ben asked. "Given its size, it's probably a female" Darius replied. In dinosaurs, just like in reptiles and birds, females were generally larger than males. But Jamie surprised them by shaking her head: "It's a male. Look at the sail: it is blood red. Such pigment is typical only in male spinosaurs; females have a duller color" The sail of the spinosaurus showed a sexual dimorphism, that means it changed according to the gender: in males it was much more colorful since it was used to attract the partner. The color of the spinosaurs' sail could then be used to determine their gender, and it showed that the one swimming next to them was undoubtedly a male. "Wow... if a male can be that big, then maybe there is a female of 20 meters or more!" Brooklynn exclaimed while she continued to filming. "I doubt it. Probably this specimen was just lucky to have lived very long. Given its size it must be at least thirty-five, maybe even forty years old" Jamie contradicted her. Dinosaurs continued to grow throughout their lives: they went through an 'explosive' period in their youth, but they continued to grow in size even as adults, even if much more slowly. The reason that animals in zoos were generally larger than those in the wild was that it was difficult for an animal to reach old age without human care: they had to continually confront predators, food shortages, illnesses and serious injuries, with the result that most of them died young. Dying of old age in nature was a luxury that very few animals managed to obtain. Jamie believed that that spinosaurus was one of those lucky ones and that it had somehow managed to survive to a venerable age, reaching its extraordinary size. It was therefore unlikely to find another specimen that had lived long enough to reach or even exceed that size. In her mind, Jamie even took into consideration that the spinosaurus had separated from its pack because it was too old and therefore unable to keep up with them. However, that hypothesis was soon discarded: if this had been the case the spinosaurus would never have been able to fish or defend itself from predators, consequently they would have found a corpse, not an animal that, judging by the fact that it could keep up with the boat, was still in its full force. Suddenly the spinosaurus raised its head and began to lightly tap the hull of the ship. For a moment everyone thought the worst, but then seeing that it did not attack they calmed down. "It's just checking what the boat is made of" Jamie explained. "It is comprensible. It has never seen a ship before" The professor certainly couldn't imagine that Sobek was just trying to make himself as natural as possible and therefore was imitating a pelican. After all Sobek remembered that birds were a kind of dinosaurs, so he could rely on them to look like a normal spinosaurus. However, after nearly an hour of continuously traveling alongside the boat, he decided he had showed himself enough. By now the humans had taken enough photos and videos of him: he could be satisfied. With a flick of his tail, he swam in front of the ship and then dived, activating [Ambush] once underwater to disappear and [Swim speed] to quickly get out of there. "I guess it's tired of us. It realized we weren't something of its interest" Jamie grumbled as she saw the spinosaurus disappear underwater. She was a little disappointed, but after all she knew it couldn't end otherwise: once the spinosaurus determined that they were neither a threat nor an attractive prey, it would have had no reason to stay close to the boat. "Well, cheer! Maybe we'll see it again in a while" Instead, although they remained on the river for more than half a day, they never saw the spinosaurus again. In the end they were forced to turn around: soon the sun would have begun to set and they had to turn back before that time. Although everyone was a little disappointed, they recovered quickly. The students were still delighted: not only had they seen a very rare animal, but they had also participated in an extraordinary scientific discovery! They were the ones who discovered the largest spinosaurus ever found! The teens didn't hesitate to send the photos and videos they had taken to their friends and relatives and to post many of them on the Internet. As Sobek had already ascertained, just like on Earth, social networks such as Instagram and Facebook also existed on Eden. Also, the student named Brooklynn was a quite famous blogger, so many people saw her video. Many of their followers ignored the spinosaurus, much more interested in the girl, but among them there were also many ones who were passionate about biology, who instead were fascinated by the animal. Jamie, in turn, immediately sent all the data and photos they had collected to the university, asking for the discovery to be published as soon as possible. The university didn't hesitate a second and by evening they had an entire article already ready. This was the power of technology: Sobek's fame had grown exponentially in a single day. His fame points shot up to 27,000 in a flash! Sobek himself was surprised by that extraordinary result. "Uh? Already?" he thought, seeing the fame points increase so quickly. At this rate he would have reached a million in not even a week! Which could only cheer him up. The time spent with those people had been a good investment: he would have soon been ready for his first evolution!