Chapter 76: Surprise!

Sobek thought he had become familiar with that strange world by now, but one day he discovered that it could still hold great surprises for him. He had spent a whole week hunting along the lake shore and had now more than half of it explored. Unfortunately, however, he had managed to get very few preys. The problem was that he was interested in carnivores, which were much harder to find than herbivores. Unlike them, which almost always moved in packs and therefore were easy to spot even from a distance, the predators never moved in groups of more than three individuals, and when they reached the lake they tended to leave early. This was because the lakeshore was a bad place for hunting: unlike the forest that gave them cover, the lake and its surroundings were uncovered, preventing it from ambushing and thus capturing preys. As already said and verified, the idea of the carnivorous dinosaur hunting in open spaces roaring and devastating everything was simply false: any predator that could not sneak up on its prey and attack suddenly was doomed to die. Because of this, the largest predatory dinosaurs had appeared in places rich in forests that could hide them. Consequently, it was natural for predators to come to the lake just to drink and then leave immediately. The only exceptions were when they found animals already dead, as was probably the case of the albertosaurs. Other predators such as crocodiles and snakes were more common, but rarely came out of the water. Sobek had simply been lucky to stumble upon the proterosuchus group first and the battle between deinosuchus and albertosaurs later. As a result, Sobek barely managed to get 8 skill points in more than three week. A paltry amount considering the long time. However, Sobek was in hurry. Now that he was basically invulnerable, he didn't have to rush to maximize his other abilities, but now he knew that he didn't have much time to save the world. There weren't other hurricanes after the one of three weeks ago, but he couldn't take it easy. As he swam along the shore he had seen many territories, some fairly bare, others overflowing with herbivorous dinosaurs. He had made up his mind: once he circumnavigated the entire lake, if he didn't get enough prey by then, he would head to the area that seemed to him the richest in herbivores, since he would more easily find other predators. However, that day he was confronted with something he did not expect: swimming along the shore he noticed a group of humans in the distance! Sobek was thrilled. This didn't make sense! Humans did not live on this side of the continent. Their settlements were in the west, and even though he wasn't really inland now, they were still quite far from the nearest town! Maybe he had taken the wrong turn? No other ideas came to mind. Beyond the information he had gathered on the Internet, God itself had shown him where humans lived! "Wait a damn second..." A doubt made its way into Sobek's mind as he remembered the words of the deity: "The specimens of the species 'Homo sapiens sapiens' are concentrated here..." Homo sapiens sapiens. A crazy idea started to make its way into Sobek's mind. It seemed absurd, and yet... it would have fit perfectly with the rules of that strange world! Approaching them and using his extraordinary sight, he could see that they were slightly shorter than humans, that they appeared to have somewhat smaller skulls, and that they had thick red hair... finally, when he was close enough, the System sent him the notification. [Prey identified: Homo neanderthalensis, hominidae. Experience: 1,000 points] He had seen it right! Damn, why hadn't God told him? Indeed, even better, why hadn't he think about it himself!? The humans who had built civilization and ruled the Earth in the 21st century were just one of many species of humans! And since no species in that world had yet become extinct, then the other human species were still alive too! Sobek was excited but frightened at the same time. Just one human species was dangerous, now did he discover that there were others? However, he quickly suppressed the fear. Most of the hominids did not have sufficient cognitive abilities to reach the technological degree of Homo sapiens sapiens. And in fact, observing them closely, he noticed that the Neanderthals in front of him were collecting water in clay jugs and that they were wearing clothes that did not lead to the modern textile industry. They were also carrying the water away with a wooden cart tied to a coritosaurus. It was clear that their society must be on the pre-industrial level. They were probably to a similar degree to the early Mesopotamian peoples. This was fine with Sobek. The danger for him was represented by the modern weapons of the Homo sapiens sapiens and by the growing expansion and pollution of the humanity; but a society of people who didnt even know what the internal combustion engine is couldn't be of any danger to him or to the rest of the environment. Maybe that was why God 'forgot' to mention them: they posed no threat to the world. Looking at them, Sobek counted about twenty people, all armed with spears and bows. Those weapons couldn't have done anything to a carnotaur, let alone a supreme predator like him. He believed that their civilization was built inside some wooden wall, like the natives of Skull Island in the King Kong's movies. They probably avoided contact with dinosaurs. Seeing their weapons it was pretty obvious that they couldn't hunt even medium-sized herbivores. However, if Sobek remembered well the Neanderthal diet was mainly based on vegetables. As for the little supplement of meat they needed, it was likely that they bred prehistoric mammals or some docile dinosaurs such as the coritosaurs. The fact that they could not keep up with the predators was confirmed by the fact that they were rushing to collect the water in the shortest possible time, a sign that they were in a great hurry to get out of there. They were certainly afraid of meeting a large carnivorous dinosaur. In that case they would be done for: bows and arrows couldn't certain kill a tyrannosaurus. With this awareness in mind, Sobek's fear was replaced by curiosity. He wondered if the other humans knew of Neanderthals. Probably yes, after all, artificial satellites had already evolved. So what was their opinion about it? He thought it was time to go to the forest and pull a cell phone out of his inventory so he could find out the truth. However, as he was thinking about what to do, one of the Neanderthals let out a terrified scream and some trees of the forest started to move while a giant head appeared. [Prey identified: Meraxes gigas, carcharodontosauridae. Experience: 80,000 points] =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= AUTHOR'S THOUGHTS Hi! Time for some new explanation: 1) If any of you have any doubts that global warming can trigger entire hurricanes... well, you should know that this is exactly what is currently happening in our world. The increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity causes the temperature on the surface of the oceans to rise, in turn accelerating evaporation; this causes monsoons, hurricanes, cyclones and other violent phenomena to be generated in areas of the planet where they cannot normally occur. While these phenomena normally occur only in tropical regions close to the coast, the increase in global temperature means that they occur unexpectedly in subtropical and temperate regions as well. A study of 2020 carried out by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration) has shown that in the last 40 years tropical cyclones have increased dramatically; these storms can reach speeds in excess of 185 km/h and are set to increase further as climate change increases. The same is true for acid rain: as the emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere increase, they multiply and cause extensive damage in various parts of the world, killing plants and animals and damaging entire ecosystems. And the problems in the future could even get worse, if things don't change soon. 2) Now that we have concluded the sad part and that we still remember how much we humans suck, let's go back to talking about paleontology and references. Metriacanthosaurus (whose name means 'moderately spiny lizard') is a theropod that lived in the Middle Jurassic, about 160 million years ago, in what is now England. It could reach a length of about 6-7 meters and weigh one ton; the anatomy of the animal as a whole was identical to that of the other great theropods of the Jurassic, therefore equipped with a large head armed with long serrated teeth, long and muscular hind legs, shorter but clawed front legs and a long sturdy tail to counterbalance the weight of the body when moving. What earned it its name are its elongated neural spines, which led scientists to assume that the animal had some sort of sail or crest; actually, it has recently been discovered that the spines are no longer at all longer than other theropods, and their size is within the average of that of similar dinosaurs, thus demonstrating that it had no structure on its back. A reference to its name is in the film 'Jurassic Park': in the scene where Dennis Nedry steals the vials containing the dinosaur embryos, you can read the name of the metriacanthosaurus. 3) Dimorphodon (whose name means 'teeth of two shapes') is a pterosaur that lived about 195-190 million years ago in what is now England and possibly Mexico. It was a small to medium-sized pterosaur, with a voluminous skull and rather small wingspan. According to estimates, it could reach about 1 meter in length and a wingspan of 1.45 meters. Although not very famous, he appears in the Disney film 'Fantasia' and, above all, in the film 'Jurassic World' and in the series 'Camp Cretaceous' (although having more reptilian and inaccurate characteristics). 4) The way the spinosaurus devours the dimorphodon by leaping out of the lake is a reference to an episode in 'Prehistoric Park', in which a deinosuchus leaps out of the sea to devour a nyctosaurus. 5) Onchopristis is a cartilaginous fish that lived about 110-80 million years ago and its fossil remains have been found in Africa, Europe, Asia, North America and New Zealand; it had a body similar to that of the sawfish and was probably the main food for spinosaurus and other fish-eating dinosaurs. Hyneria instead lived in the Devonian, 360 million years ago, in Pennsylvania, and could reach 6-7 meters. The onchopristis appears in the documentary 'Planet Dinosaur', the hyneria in 'Walking with monsters'. 6) Hippopotamus gorgops is an extinct species of hippopotamus that lived in Africa between the Pliocene and the middle Pleistocene; was very similar to today's common hippopotamus, from which it differed only in two respects: the dimensions (2.10 m at the withers and 4.30 in length, and the eyes, which were placed on two real skull protrusions, which made possible for this animal to stay completely submerged while observing what was happening on the surface of the water. 7) Eoraptor lived about 225 million years ago in Argentina and is considered one of the most primitive dinosaurs, perhaps even the common ancestor of all theropod predators that would later dominate the world in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Being so ancient it still retained archaic characteristics, for example having only a few serrated teeth (as opposed to later predators) and a different jaw joint. 8) Proterosuchus, also known as chasmatosaurus, was an archosauromorph that lived in Africa and Asia in the lower Triassic, which could reach a length of 2 m. It resembled a current crocodile and probably behaved like one of them. It appears in the documentary 'Walking with monsters'. 9) The battle between the deinosuchus and the albertosaurs is a reference to an episode of 'Prehistoric Park', in which these two animals clash for the possession of a carcass, even if they do not arrive at a real battle (the albertosaurs in the documentary choose more wisely to withdraw). 10) Deinosuchus (whose name means 'terrible crocodile') was a giant alligator that lived about 82-73 million years ago in what is now Texas. Although initially estimates of up to 15 meters in length were proposed, today we tend to consider valid smaller dimensions, ranging from 10.6 meters up to 12 meters, thus passing the scepter as the largest crocodile ever existed to its cousin sarcosuchus. Given its size, it could easily hunt and feed on dinosaurs, although more likely they consisted of an occasional part of its diet, which was instead made up of more fish and turtles. Although not a dinosaur, he is quite well known by the general public, appearing in documentaries such as 'Prehistoric Park', 'Walking with dinosaurs' and 'Planet Dinosaur', and also in one of the animated films of the 'The Land Before Time' franchise. 11) Albertosaurus lived about 70 million years ago in North America, which later created major problems in establishing the division between its species and gorgosaurus. It could reach 9 meters in length and a weight of 3.7 tons, although there are even larger estimates (reaching 10-11 meters in length). Being of the same family as the t-rex, it shared many physical characteristics with its giant cousin, so much so that some believe that it could even be its ancestor. Albertosaurus has also enjoyed some fame: it appears in the documentaries 'Prehistoric Park', 'Jurassic Fight Club' and 'March of the Dinosaurs', in the tv series 'Primeval: New World', in the anime 'Dinosaur King' and in one of the animated films of the 'The Land Before Time' franchise. 12) 'Predators of all predators' is a reference to the poem 'Ozymandias' of Percy Bisshe Shelley.