Chapter 59: Shocking the scientific community!

Mitch was speechless and he couldn't take his eyes off the footage. He had become completely unable to think. His mind had literally exploded, so much so that he wouldn't have been surprised if the bang had been heard outside his skull. This was beyond any of his expectations! A new species of dinosaur It was already an extraordinary thing, especially since it was such a strange creature with almost no connection to other known animal families; but a dinosaur that even possesses a similar empathy? It sounded like a bedtime story! Yet the evidence was in front of him. The experts who had been invited hadn't reviewed the video yet, but Mitch knew it could only be true: Jersey would not have risked his face like this in front of the whole world. That video could not have been retouched, nor could it have been a set-up: and if it was all true, then the scientific world was faced with something completely unexpected and at times even absurd! This completely subverted any previous knowledge scientists had about dinosaurs! The animals often showed empathy, but they generally didn't go beyond their own species. There had been very rare cases, but they were almost all of herbivores: carnivores generally ate the lost cubs of other species they found. And even in the case of herbivores these were cases so uncommon that they could be counted on the fingers of one hand: after all, raising a cub of another species meant not only an extra mouth to feed, but also running the risk that one day that same cub grew up and became a dangerous predator. In nature, charity was never relied upon: worrying about a creature of another species was a weakness that evolution didn't allow to maintain. Instead that... 'spinosaurus' had started looking after a human girl without even trying to eat her once! The following scenes shocked the scientists even more. When the torvosaurs appeared, the 'spinosaurus' had positioned itself over the girl and lowered its claws to protect her. The simple fact that instead of running away he used his body as a shield against such predators was unthinkable. And then, completly heedless of the danger, it launched an attack just to get them away from her! A dinosaur had endangered its own survival, the thing that every living creature defended at all costs, to protect a creature of another species with which it had no blood ties. It was as if a wolf had chosen to fight a tiger to defend a baby sheep. Considering that the 'spinosaurus' and the little girl had never met before and therefore there was not even a strong emotional bond between them, like that between a dog and its owner, this could only mean that the 'spinosaur' had decided to protect her only out of his own personal moral code, something that until then had been considered an almost exclusive prerogative of human beings, with the exception of animals such as elephants and dolphins. For the scientists, it was like the world had literally turned upside down! When Mitch had seen the torvosaurs bring the 'spinosaurus' to its knees he had feared the worst, but luckily the animal survived. He mentally thanked Jersey for helping it, or the scientific community might have missed the opportunity to study one of the strangest animals that humanity had ever discovered. It would have been a tremendous loss to the knowledge of humankind. The final scene showed the 'spinosaurus' roaring at the humans, as if yelling at them to go away, and then it walked away with the bodies of the two torvosaurs, disappearing in the forest in a few minutes. Than the video finally ended. When the lights came back on, there was silence for some seconds, then all the scientists in the room rose from their chairs. Whoever was out of the room probably thought there was an explosion, because such was the chaos that was created. Many of the experts there almost screamed to get noticed and scrambled onto their colleagues just to be the first ones to ask a question. Mitch had remained motionless in his place. His brilliant mind was blowing and he wouldn't have been surprised if his brain had been fried. He stared at Max, who too seemed unable to process what he had just seen. "A lemon, huh?" he could only say. His father didn't even have the strength to answer him. With great effort, Jersey managed to restore order. He patiently asked the scientists to keep a civil tone and invited the experts to examine the footage. All the scientists fell silent and eagerly awaited their verdict. These were experts from all over the world and many of them were reputed to be incorruptible. There was no way Jersey had convinced even just one of them to cover him, let alone all of them. So, when they confirmed the veracity of the video, there could only be an explanation: it was all true! And just like the video, the existence of the strangest and most extraordinary dinosaur that the scientific world had ever encountered was also true! The reporters were literally setting fire to their notebooks. That would have been a front page news. A giant predatory dinosaur who saves a little girl and puts its life at risk for her? The news would surely have gone all around the world! It was too sensational to be ignored! Something mythical, almost mythological! Jersey then answered every question from the scientists and also revealed what Jocelyne had told to him about her stay in the forest. When they learned how the 'spinosaurus' had taken care of her, how it had defended her from other predators and how it had even tried to teach her to hunt, the scientists became even more shocked! That wasn't just looking after a little girl. That was a level of empathy never recorded in any living species, not even in elephants or dolphins! That 'spinosaurus' seemed almost human! Mitch clenched his fists. He hadn't had the strength to ask for anything for all the time, but the answers given to the other scientists had solved each of his doubts. Now he had only one thought on his mind. "I say that my next expedition will undergo a change of plans" he murmured almost without realizing that he was speaking out loud. "Consider me aggregate" Max whispered beside him. In that moment Mitch didn't understand what his father had just said; when he would have comprehended it, it would have been too late to refuse. ********** In the following days, the news spread all around the world, shocking the entire scientific community. In just a few hours all the biologists and zoologists of the entire planet were informed of the extraordinary discovery; even those who lived isolated almost like hermits, devoted only to their studies, had been overtaken by the novelty. The newspapers hardly talked about anything else. On the first pages it was possible to read the most varied, imaginative and fanciful titles. "Sensational! A giant dinosaur saved a little girl in the jungle!" "Are dinosaurs just predators? No! This one shows unparalleled empathy!" "Is kidnapping girls normal? This dinosaur screams NO!" "How many of you have ever hugged a dinosaur? And how many of you still had heads after you finished?" "Alone against a group of ferocious, this dinosaur is braver than some humans!" "Heaven sends an angel in the form of a dinosaur to save an innocent..." Mitch threw the last newspaper away. Some titles were really fancy. Seriously, did reporters really have such little imagination? From his point of view, they could do much better. Although, if he wanted to be honest, even he couldn't deny that there seemed to be something supernatural about that event. He certainly didn't think it was God or any other deity the one who sent the dinosaur to save the girl, but that situation was very, very strange indeed. If he had not been a man devoted to science and hard evidence, he might have wondered whether there was not some unknown power at work. He had completely changed the purpose of his expedition: now they would be heading to the last spot where the 'spinosaurus' had been sighted. He had decided they would have called it with that name until he would have been able to figured out what species it was, or at least which dinosaur family it belonged to. In the previous days he had been bombarded with e-mails and phone calls from reporters asking him for his opinion about the 'spinosaurus', but having no idea what kind of dinosaur it was, he didn't answer. However, do nothing would have been an affront to science! He basically had an expedition ready, it was imperative to go immediatly to search the 'spinosaurus'! None of those who went with him had complained. Jamie herself, who had obviously been pleased to be able to guide him, seemed very much in agreement with his decision, even if a little disappointed. After all, the photo of a large spinosaurus was a small discovery compared to a completely new and so strange species! They had to find that 'spinosaurus'. It was essential to at least take samples and analyze its DNA to understand more about that animal.