Rei’s Mesozoic Journey in VR

This is the story of Rei's adventure/journey through the Age of Dinosaurs from the Late Triassic period when the first dinosaur appeared to the Late Cretaceous period before the mass extinction in the alien mice's VR headsets.

Characters
Characters with their resemblances and inspirations:


 * 1) Rei (Io Mikura in Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Adventure manga)
 * 2) Squeaks (Zowie in Rolie Polie Olie)
 * 3) King Emirate (Player in Bakugan Battle Brawlers (Video Game))
 * 4) Queen Seira (Seira Mimori in Saint Tail, and Shizuko Amaike in Fortune Arterial)
 * 5) Princess Rella (Esther Blanchett in Trinity Blood)
 * 6) Alfred, Rei’s Butler (Ducktales’ Duckworth, DC’s Alfred, and Alfred in Gex series)
 * 7) Britney, Rei’s Maid (Nanny in 101 Dalmatians series, and Bentina Beakley in Ducktales)
 * 8) Alien mice, AM1 and AM2 (Looney Tunes’ Goofy Gophers, and Disney’s Chip and Dale)

Prologue
Our story begins with a rich teenage boy, named Rei, joined his crew on the great fossil rush. There, palaeontologists and other diggers were digging and searching for fossils. Rei, with the help of his butler, Alfred, dug through the cliff and found several small fossilized shells of ancient animals.

A female digger found an amber with a mosquito in it. Being scared of an insect in it, she threw it away and it hit Alfred. He picked up the rejected amber that hit him. Rei saw it and thanked Alfred for it while Alfred barely had anything to say.

After that, Rei and Alfred were on their way to the car, holding a crate of fossils they found. A staff put a brick in front of a store he’s working in. Near where he put that brick, a man and a woman, both wearing ski masks, carried a stuffed sack to the hood of their car. Something or someone’s struggling in that sack. Rei tripped on a brick, causing him to accidently throw the amber he’s holding directly at the ski masked man. That caused that man to push the ski masked woman with his eyes close in pain.

Rei noticed the sack struggling and curiosity opened it, revealing a beautiful girl in his age. She’s dressed in nun-like robes, and got her mouth taped and her hands, arms and legs were tied up. He untied and freed her. Both looked at each other and blushed. The ski masked woman yelled “You fool! Can’t you see we’re trying to get paid for kidnapping that brat?!” People nearby gasped when they heard the words she exposed. The cops noticed and managed to apprehend the kidnappers.

Rei was thanked by the cops for saving the princess, named Rella, from those kidnappers with his amber. The staff was about to be arrested too for leaving the brick that tripped Rei. Rei and Alfred told them to give that staff the chance because if it wasn’t for him leaving his brick, the kidnappers wouldn’t be arrested. Nearby, the princess’ two unconscious bodyguards gained conscious after being hit by the kidnappers earlier. They escort her away from the crime scene. Rei couldn’t help thinking of princess Rella a bit much, like he had fallen in love. Princess Rella fell in love too.

When Rei and Alfred came back home, they heard a scream of a maid named Britney. She’s afraid of a couple of mouse-like creatures in a tiny toy-sized spaceship, but a little girl wasn’t. She’s Rei’s younger sister, Squeaks. Inside the tiny spaceship, the mice introduced themselves as AM1 and AM2 and were alien mice from another world inhabited by their kind.

The alien mice were welcomed to stay while their spaceship were being fully charged the same way iPads were charged when losing battery power. By showing their gratitude, they remodeled two virtual reality headsets, or VR headsets for short, for Rei and Squeaks. Two siblings put on the VR headsets the mice remodeled and something happened with what they called ‘Science Magic’.

The voices in the VR headsets began the narration of the story and journey.

Traveling Further Through Time
Imagine you could travel back in time, to a time long before man. Back across 65 million years. As you travelled you would see huge changes in the vegetation and the climate. Even the surface of the earth itself would move, as mountain ranges are pushed up by colliding continents. Welcome to the Mesozoic Era, the Age of Reptiles and Conifers. It’s the time of mostly reptiles: crocodilians, lizards, snakes, worm lizards called amphisbaenians, turtles, tuataras, and their extinct relatives. This is a world ruled by extinct group of reptiles. A man named Richard Owen called them dinosaurs.

And there were two famous yet ferocious examples: A Tyrannosaurus rex being hungry for a Triceratops horridus who tried to fight back with its namesake, its three horns. Some dinosaurs, like Triceratops, were herbivores, ate plants, and were about to be eaten by others that were carnivores, like Tyrannosaurus rex (or T-rex for short), a tyrannical ruler of dinosaurs. Some, like T-rex, walked on their back limbs, or legs, as bipeds. Some, like Triceratops, walked on both front and back limbs as quadrupeds. Some, like T-rex, were Saurischians, or lizard-hipped. Some, like Triceratops, were Ornitschians, were or bird-hipped. Both predator and prey fought teeth to horns until death.

The Mesozoic Era was subdivided into three major periods. This is the Cretaceous period (145-66 million years ago) when T-rex and Triceratops lived. Now we’re going back to the second period, the Jurassic period (201.3-145 million years ago). There lived some of the gigantic herbivores like Diplodocus, one of the longest dinosaurs known from a complete skeleton. Stegosaurus were one of the armored-back herbivores. It had plates arranged in pairs in two rows along the back. It also had a thagomizer, the distinctive arrangement of four to ten spikes on the tails of Stegosaurus and its relative. These spikes are believed to have been a defensive measure against predators.

And now there’s where our journey through the time of dinosaurs began. The Triassic period (251.902-201.3 million years ago). This was the first time of the first dinosaurs, and this is where our stories began.

The Late Triassic Period
237–201.3 million years ago

In one supercontinent, Pangaea, the climate was hot and dry, with strong seasonality. Small, fast dinosaurs appeared for the first time. The first tiny nocturnal mammals developed. Ichthyosaurs (marine reptiles) swam in the seas. Ferns, Glossopteris, cycads, horsetails, and early gymnosperms (conifers) abounded during the Mesozoic.

Carnian

237-227 million years ago

Let’s begin in Argentina, when it’s not Argentina yet. Our first dinosaur… is Eoraptor. Eoraptor was one of the earliest-known dinosaurs. And there’s another earliest dinosaur chasing Eoraptor, Herrerasaurus. It’s a carnivore and have five digits (fingers/claws) on each ‘hand’. Herrerasaurus had a relative in past Brazil, Staurikosaurus. Dinosaurs weren’t the apex predator of the Triassic yet. There’s a crocodile-like reptile, Saurosuchus, that ruled the Triassic. It terrorized dinosaurs and other reptiles like Ischigualastia, a herbivorous reptile that was more closely related to mammals than reptiles. Panphagia was another earliest dinosaur. It’s an important find which may mark the transition of diet in early sauropodomorph dinosaurs.

In where Scotland will be lived more extinct genus of reptiles, and definitely no ‘Loch Ness Monster’. Hyperodapedon’s a herbivore that dig for plants in dry land using its hindlimbs and beaked premaxilla (at the very tip of the upper jaw). Triassic’s home for aetosaurs (eagle lizard), heavily armoured herbivorous reptiles. Stagonolepis’s one of the aetosaurs. This slow-moving browser would have used this heavy body armour to repel attacks from carnivores like Ornithosuchus. Ornithosuchus’ more closely related to crocodilians than to dinosaurs and was able to walk on hind legs. In Triassic USA, Desmatosuchus was also an aetosaur. It’s protected by two rows of spikes along the sides of its armored plated back. Its shoulder spikes were larger and longer.

The age of dinosaurs and reptiles also had amphibians, like frogs, toads, salamanders and newts. There were extinct amphibians like that flat-headed Metoposaurus in Triassic Germany. It could capture fish with its wide jaws lined with needle-like teeth.

Still in Germany, Henodus had a flattened shell and a box-shaped head. Its shell made it like a turtle which is not a turtle. It’s like phytosaurs bearing bearing a remarkable resemblance to crocodiles which they’re not crocodiles.

Phytosaurs, like Parasuchus from India, had nostrils placed near or above the level of the eyes, in contrast to crocodiles where the nostrils are near the end of the snout. This adaptation may have developed to allow them to breathe while the rest of the body was submerged.

During the Triassic period, the remaining shores were surrounded by the world-ocean known as Panthalassa. No dinosaurs lived underwater but other kinds of reptiles did. Being reptiles, they had lungs instead of gills that fish had. They surfaced to brethe. Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins. Of course the ichthyosaurs of this time were whale-size, like Shastasaurus.

Norian

227 to 208.5 million years ago

Shonisaurus was an ichthyosaur like Shastasaurus. Both those Triassic ichthyosaurs were the largest marine reptiles of all time and the largest of all the inhabitants of the Triassic period. Ichthyosaurs and other marine reptiles fed on marine life like fish, squid-like belemnites and ammonites. Ammonites were cephalopods like squid, cuttlefish, octopuses and nautiluses. Ammonites’ shells somewhat resemble tightly coiled horns of male sheep called rams. They resembled modern-day nautiluses and are oftern considered “living fossils.” So do horseshoe crabs and coelacanth fish. Coelacanth was known only from fossils until one was found alive in 1938.

In where will be USA, Placerias herd wallowed in the water, chewing at bankside vegetation. They’re closely related to Ischigualastia in Argentina and similar in appearance. Placerias used its beak to slice through thick branches and roots with two short tusks that could be used for defence and for intra-specific display.

There’s one of the largest carnivorous reptile during the Triassic period, Postosuchus, relative of Saurosuchus from South America. It’s a hunter of dinosaurs. And there’s Rutiodon, a phytosaur like Parasuchus from past India and was among the largest carnivorous animals of its environment. An extinct amphibian, Gerrothorax, had an unusually shaped skull with angular protrusions on the sides, and retained larval gills as an adult. Those gills made it looked like those type of amphibians: axolotls, mud-puppies and olms.

In Argentina lived Lessemsaurus, a type of large long-necked herbivorous dinosaur called sauropod but not so big. It’s one of some dinosaurs that swallowed small stones to aid digestion in the gizzard. Those stones were called gastrolith, or stomach stones. Next to it was and infant Mussaurus with an unseen adult. Suddenly, something scaring those sauropods. A couple of devilish theropod, Zupaysaurus. Each had two parallel crests running the length of its snout. And they’re after Riojasaurus that got separated from the herd while most herbivores should stay in herds for protection. Riojasaurus, the ancestor of giant sauropods, may be small, but had a powerful tail and speed on its side. Most early sauropodomorphs had three sacral vertebrae but Riojasaurus had four. There’s a similar battle between predator and prey in Brazil: Staurikosaurus and Unaysaurus. Unaysaurus was relatively small, and walked on two legs. Some early sauropodomorphs were bipedal (two-legged), and most and later ones were quadrupedals (four-legged).

There’s a South African sauropodomorph dinosaur, Melanorosaurus. Sturdy limbs suggest that it walked on four. In when Germany was yet to be Germany, there were Plateosaurus, more sauropodomorphs. Plateosaurus had large thumb claws and they may have been used to tear down tree branches. They’re also used for defences against Liliensternus, crested theropods. There’s Proganochelys, the oldest turtle in existence at the time. Unlike any turtles from modern time, its tail had spikes and terminated in a club. Also its head could not be retracted under the shell and its neck may have been protected by small spines. Saltoposuchus, whose body was built for running at fast speeds, was an ancestor of crocodilians.

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles and went extinct with the dinosaurs they lived alongside. Their wings were formed by a membrane of skin, muscle, and other tissues stretching from the ankles to a dramatically lengthened fourth finger. Here are the early pterosaurs flying over Italy before Italy was shaped like a boot. Eudimorphodon showed a strong differentiation of the teeth, hence its name. Preondactylus had single cusp teeth, meaning they had one point on each tooth. Peteinosaurus was one of the smallest and earliest pterosaurs. It had a long tail with a diamond-shaped flap at the end of its tail, and so do Eudimorphodon and Preondactylus. That flap may have helped it steer while maneuvering in the air.

In the Italian trees, Megalancosaurus was built like a chameleon and probably lived a similar arboreal lifestyle, feeding on insects and other small animals. Its relative, Drepanosaurus, is known to have a huge claw on the index finger of each hand along with the tail claw.

Rhaetian

208.5-201.3 million years ago

Psephoderma's carapace was divided into two pieces, one on the shoulders and back, and another on the ventral end. Its tail was quite long, up to about 80 cm, and had scutes all the way down it. And it’s related to Henodus and they both were not turtles they resembled.

In the time of dinosaurs, there were mammals too. Oligokyphus was originally considered to be an early mammal but it does not have the mammalian jaw attachments and it retains a vestigial joint between the quadrate bone and the squamosal bone in the skull. It resembled a weasel in appearance, with a long and slim body.

In Triassic England, there’s a “winged reptile” that’s neither dinosaur nor pterosaur. Kuehneosaurus used its elongated ribs to parachute from the trees. And there’s a small bipedal sauropodomorpha in England called Thecodonotosaurus. And there’s a small, slender crocodylomorph with very long legs called Terrestrisuchus, and it was quite unlike modern crocodilians.

Effigia resembled a dinosaur it was not. It’s more closely related to crocodilians it didn’t resembled. They were hiding with the Placerias herd from a pack of theropods with hollow vertebrae, Coelophysis, They’re thought to be cannibals, eating the young one of their own kind. Coelophysis may also have hunted in packs to tackle larger prey, similar to Velociraptor far away in the Cretaceous period.

After the Triassic period, a change in the world’s climate caused a mass extinction which is what happens when a lot of species, like aetosaurs and phytosaurs, died out in a pretty short amount of time. The dinosaurs, like Coelophysis, assumed the dominant roles in the next period: The Jurassic period. And that’s another story.

The Early Jurassic Period
201.3–174.1 million years ago

The climate was hot and dry, with strong seasonality at first, changing to warm and moist with no polar ice and vast flooded areas. More dinosaurs, including gigantic ones, roamed the earth, and pterosaurs flew. Archaeopteryx, the first primitive dinosaur-like bird developed.

Hettangian

201.3-199.3 million years ago

In USA of this time, Protosuchus is among the earliest animals that resemble crocodilians. Anchisaurus was a small relative of Plateosaurus back in the Triassic period.

During the Early Jurassic, shallow seas flooded much of the continent. In England when it’s mostly underwater were plesiosaurs, marine reptile like ichthyosaurs. Plesiosaurs, like Macroplata, have long flippers used for swimming. Some were long-necked and small-headed. Some, like pliosaurs, were short-necked and large-headed. And there’s a group of Ichthyosaurus. They’re type genus of ichthyosaurs. Eurhinosaurus are ichthyosaurs too and resembled billfish. Its upper jaw was twice as long as the lower jaw and covered with up and downwards-pointing teeth. Flying above is a pterosaur, Dimorphodon. See what’s in its speculative puffin-like ‘beak’. It had two distinct types of teeth in its jaws – which is comparatively rare among reptiles.

In Jurassic Southern Africa, Megazostrodon was a small, shrew-like animal that is widely accepted as being one of the first mammals. It probably ate insects and small lizards. Lesothosaurus was one of the earliest ornithischians and a fast runner. Most dinosaurs back in the Triassic period were saurischians. That mother of its nest, Massospondylus, had a slighter build than that of Plateosaurus, an otherwise similar dinosaur. The neck was proportionally longer than in Plateosaurus and most of their other relatives. And there’s a later species of Coelophysis that used to be called Syntarsus and Megapnosaurus.

Now we’re in where the Yunnan Province of China will be. There lived Lufengosaurus, relative of Messospondylus. Soon, it’ll be the first complete dinosaur skeleton mounted in China, and first time a dinosaur was depicted on a stamp.

Sinemurian

199.3-190.8 million years ago

Yunnanosaurus lived in the same place as Lufengosaurus. They’re both Early Jurassic sauropodomorphs of the Yunnan Province of China.

We’re back in Early Jurassic England. Scelidosaurus were one of the oldest known and most "primitive" of the armored dinosaurs. Those armored dinosaurs are thyreophorans. It was lightly armoured, protected by long horizontal rows of keeled oval scutes that stretched along the neck, back and tail.

Scelidosaurus watched the seas and in there were fish, like Dapedium whose skins were covered with thick, rhomboid, ganoid (enamel-like) scales. Long-necked plesiosaurs, called Plesiosaurus, swam there. Living in the deeper areas of the open ocean is Temnodontosaurus, the largest ichthyosaurs of the Jurassic. The Triassic period was when the largest ichthyosaurs lived.

Now let’s head back to southern Africa. That one’s the herbivore, so it’s harmless. Uh, on second thought, less harmless. That’s Heterodontosaurus. It had three types of teeth; in the upper jaw, small, incisor-like teeth were followed by long, canine-like tusks. A gap divided the tusks from the chisel-like cheek-teeth. And there’s a sauropoda called Vulcanodon. Another sauropoda was in India of this time. Barapasaurus is therefore one of the earliest known sauropods.

In Arizona, USA, was one of the earliest representatives of the armored dinosaurs and the basalmost form discovered to date, Scutellosaurus. And it’s hiding from its predators, two Dilophosaurus competing with each other. Dilophosaurus is known for its pair of plate-shaped crests on its skull.Its two crest could be used in display or combat to compete for mates.

Antarctica was where Cryolophosaurus was found. Its crest is thin and highly furrowed, giving it a Spanish comb-like appearance. It could also be used for attracting mates or intimidating others similar to the way Dilophosaurus do with their own crests. Glacialisaurus, relative of Massospondylus, were also found in Antarctica and were Cryolophosaurus’ ‘frozen’ food. Of course during the Jurassic, Antarctica didn’t used to be a frozen wasteland it always is back in the time of us humans. Vegetation and dinosaurs, being reptiles, couldn’t be there because it’s way too cold for those. And if you’re wondering whether/which dinosaurs were warm-blooded like their descendants, the birds, or cold-blooded like reptiles they are, it remained a mystery.

Pliensbachian

190.8-182.7 million years ago

Thailand of this time was home for sauropods called Isanosaurus. It was originally dated to approximately 210 million years ago during the Late Triassic, which would make it one of the oldest known sauropods.

Toarcian

182.7-174.1 million years ago

There’s where Germany will be. A pterosaur, Dorygnathus, snagged fish with its beak filled with spear-like teeth. Flying above it was Emausaurus, a thyreophoran like Scutellosaurus and Scelidosaurus. Stenopterygius are ichthyosaurs with slightly narrower flippers and a smaller skull than the better known Ichthyosaurus.

In the sea of England, Rhomaleosaurus, a pliosaur, was one of the earliest large marine reptile predator which hunted in the Mesozoic seas. Pliosaurs ate more kinds of meat than long-necked plesiosaurs that ate small fish and squids.

The Middle Jurassic Period
174.1–163.5 million years ago

In mid-Jurassic, Pangaea began to break apart, into Laurasia and Gondwana. Gondwana was a southern supercontinent containing Africa, India (country, not continent), South America, Australia and Antarctica. Laurasia was a northern supercontinent containing Europe (without Balkans), North America and Asia (without India).

Aalenian

174.1-170.3 million years ago

During the Jurassic period, Patagonia, Argentina was home for sauropods called Patagosaurus. They’re protecting their young in the herd from lightly built carnivores, Piatnitzkysaurus.

Bajocian

170.3-168.3 million years ago

In Jurassic Niger, there were sauropods, Spinophorosaurus. It is unusual for having spike osteoderms, probably from the tail, similar to the famed thagomizer of stegosaurs like Stegosaurus. The spikes on the tail may have been used for defence.

Bathonian

168.3-166.1 million years ago

Still in Niger of this time, Jobaria, another sauropoda, may have been able to rear up on its hind legs probably to reach higher. Rearing up could also be used for defences. See? These African hunters, called Afrovenator, were too scared because they thought Jobaria’s too big or was about to step on them. And of course, Afrovenator’s namesake was NOT afro hairstyle.

During the Middle Jurassic, England’s home for large meat-eating theropod, Megalosaurus, large meat-eating theropods and first to be named. And it was Gideon Mantell who named that dinosaur. In that herd were Cetiosaurus. Cetiosaurus’ fossil was misidentified as whale’s bone when it was discovered. Proceratosaurus was originally thought to be an ancestor of Ceratosaurus that’ll appear later, due to the similar small crest on its snout. Now, however, it is considered a coelurosaur, specifically one of the earliest relative of Tyrannosaurus.

We knew that most feathered dinosaurs were theropods. In Russia, there were Kulindadromeus, feathered dinosaurs that are ornitschians and not saurischians like theropods.

This is China when it’s yet to be the China we knew. See those black crow-sized four winged bird-like dinosaurs? They’re Anchiornis. Some pterosaurs had head crests. The head crest found in male Darwinopterus was supported by a thin bony extension of the skull, with a serrated top edge.

Callovian

166.1-163.5 million years ago

China of this time was home for the family of tree climbing and gliding dinosaurs, scansoriopterygids. The flying one is Yi Qi. Yi’s wings are a bit like a bat’s, but instead of only long fingers, it also had an odd elongated wrist bone to support its wing. The second one on that tree is Scansoriopteryx. It used to be called Epidendrosaurus. Its distinctive feature is its elongated third finger, which is the longest on the hand, nearly twice as long as the second finger. And there’s Epidexipteryx. It likely used those four long tail feathers for display and possibly to help with balance while creeping along tree branches.

Jeholopterus was a vampire bat of the Jurassic. Well, of course it’s not a bat. It’s a pterosaur. There’re mammals in the Jurassic. Castorocauda’s a genus of small, semi-aquatic relatives living in this time. It’s highly specialized, with adaptations like those of modern semi-aquatic mammals such as beavers, otters, and the platypus. Volaticotherium’s an extinct gliding, insect-eating mammal. It had a gliding membrane similar to a flying squirrel. Monolophosaurus was a theropod with the single crest on top of its skull while Dilophosaurus from the Early Jurassic had two crests.

By the seashore in Jurassic England, we see a sub-adult Eustreptospondylus. It was thought to be a good swimmer, strong enough to swim from island to island like Komodo dragons since it is known from a fossil from on an island. If it’s not a swimmer, then its body was probably washed out to sea soon after it died. Lexovisaurus, related to Stegosaurus, was protected by narrow flat plates on the back and round pointed spines that ran along the tail. Also it had a long spine on each shoulders.

Let’s go deep underwater for marine life. There’s an ichthyosaur, Ophthalmosaurus. It’s famous for having some of the largest (if not the largest) eyes compared to its body size of almost any creature. Each of its eyes reached about 22 centimeters in diameter. A mother Ophthalmosaurus’ giving birth, like most ichthyosaurs did like dolphins they resembled. And after that, the new born went to the surface for air. As that mother was about to rest, Liopleurodon, the seas’ apex predator during its time, caught it. Liopleurodon’s large skull was filled with sharp teeth and featured a powerful jaw.

Peloneustes’ a pliosaur like Liopleurodon, only smaller. And it had fewer and blunter teeth than its relatives, it is thought to have mainly fed on hard prey such as ammonites. Muraenosaurus, a plesiosaur, was given its name due to the eel-like appearance of the long neck and small head. Another kind of plesiosaurs are Cryptoclidus. Its name refers to its small, practically invisible collarbones buried in its front limb girdle.

This part of the sea is where France will be. Leedsichthys were the largest known bony fish. They filter plankton and eat them like whale sharks, the largest of all modern fish. These giants had no means of defending themselves from the attacks of predators like Liopleurodon, sharks and Metriorhynchus. Metriorhynchus was of a similar size to modern crocodiles it resembled. However, it had a streamlined body and a finned tail, making it a more efficient swimmer than modern crocodilian species. Sharks appeared on earth even before the dinosaurs. Those sharks were Hybodus. Hybodus was not very big, but had the classic streamlined shark shape, complete with two dorsal fins that would have helped it steer with precision.

The Late Jurassic Period
163.5–145 million years ago

Oxfordian

163.5-157.3 million years ago

We’re back on land where we’ll meet many famous types of dinosaurs. Metriacanthosaurus thus gets its name from its vertebrae, which are taller than typical carnosaurs (large group of predatory dinosaurs), like Allosaurus we’re about to see, but lower than other high-spined dinosaurs like Acrocanthosaurus we’ll see in the Cretaceous period.

Pterosaurs had a layer of hair-like filaments covering their bodies, later named pycnofibers, which covered their bodies and parts of their wings. There’s the hairy one with long tail, Sordes. It’s found in Kazakhstan alongside another pterosaur, Batrachognathus. It’s related to Jeholopterus and too had large eye-sockets supports the theory of living in darkness.

In Late Jurassic China, there’s Huayangosaurus. It’s much smaller than its famous cousin, Stegosaurus, but the plates were more spike-like than in Stegosaurus. There’s Gasosaurus, a theropod and of course it’s not ‘gassy’. Huayangosaurus, as a stegosaur, fought back by swinging its thagomizer, the spiked tail. And there’re sauropods, Shunosaurus. Each had a tail ended in a club with two successive spikes on top, similar to most Thyreophorans like those Huayangosaurus. With that, Shunosaurus fend off the attackers like that large theropod, Yangchuanosaurus.

Elsewhere in China, there’s a larger species of Yangchuanosaurus. There was a bony ridge on its nose and multiple hornlets and ridges. It’s stalking a Chinese stegosaur, Gigantspinosaurus, over there. It’s armed with one gigantic spine on each shoulder, Plates on its back were small.

There’s Sinraptor, a ‘raptor’ that’s not related to Velociraptor and its relatives, the dromaeosaurs. Sinraptor didn’t even had a large recurved claw on the second toe. It’s distantly related to Allosaurus we yet to see. See that crested theropod? That’s Guanlong. It’s said to be an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex. Of course unlike T-rex and other later tyrannosaurs, Guanlong had three long fingers on its hands. There’s Yinlong. Despite a virtually frill-less and totally hornless skull, Yinlong’s a ceratopsian like Triceratops in the Cretaceous, and is the oldest and most primitive ceratopsian known. Imagine Guanlong as T-rex, and Yinlong as Triceratops. Looks like both T-rex and Triceratops will soon have similar memories of their reincarnations which were Guanlong and Yinlong.

Kimmeridgian

157.3-152.1 million years ago

The forest is on fire. Animals’ fleeing from there. In that stampeding herd are sauropods, Omeisaurus. They lived in dense forests which that forests’ burning. Their relatives, Mamenchisaurus, were with them. They’re known for their remarkably long necks which made up half the total body length. Tuojiangosaurus’ with the sauropods too. Similar to Stegosaurus in build, Tuojiangosaurus's back plates were much more triangular and pointed.

This is where the Morrison Formation of USA will be and home for many kinds of Jurassic dinosaurs, including even bigger ones.

One of the Jurassic ornithopods, Camptosaurus. It’s a relatively heavily built form, with robust hindlimbs and broad feet, still having four toes. Those smaller ornithopods are Dryosaurus. Each had a horny beak and cheek teeth. Ornitholestes attacked Dryosaurus. Check out those arms. When Ornitholestes bent its elbows, this would cause the forearms to move inward, towards its midline. It may have used that ability to grasp prey with both hands simultaneously. Another one’s stalking Docodon, the mammaliaform is known from a large number of teeth and jaws of differing growth stages. Ornitholestes wouldn’t try to reach Docodon because it was afraid of Gargoyleosaurus’ armoured body. It is one of the earliest ankylosaurs known from reasonably complete fossil remains.

There’s Mymoorapelta, another Late Jurassic ankylosaur along with Gargoyleosaurus. And there’s Stokesosaurus, an early relative of T-rex. Morrison was homed for many giant Jurassic sauropods, like Diplodocus. Another one of those is Barosaurus. It was proportioned to its close relative, Diplodocus. It had a longer neck and shorter tail, but was about the same length overall. Look. It could rear up to defend itself. It was longer than Apatosaurus but was less robust.

And there are Apatosaurus, dinosaurs that used to be called Brontosaurus, the thunder lizard. That ‘Brontosaurus’ was actually Apatosaurus that was displayed with the wrong head for many years. That wrong head belonged to…Camarasaurus over there. Camarasaurus presented a distinctive cranial profile of a blunt snout and an arched skull that was remarkably square. There’s Stegosaurus herd over there. The plates on their backs may have helped to control the body temperature of theirs. The brain of Stegosaurus was modern walnut-size.

That mother Stegosaurus’ using its thagomizer to defend itself and its young from a pack of horned theropods, Ceratosaurus. Ceratosaurus has knobs in front of its eyes and a distinctive horn on its snout and osteoderms, or bone armor that grows inside the skin. Its deep, “crocodile-like” tail are possibly adapted for swimming. Stegosaurus’ tails are more defensive. Another Stegosaurus was attacked by another Stegosaurus-eater, Allosaurus. Look. It could open its jaws extremely wide. That could make Allosaurus the king of the Jurassic like T-rex as the king of the Cretaceous. And for T-rex, female’s bigger than male. That make her queen of dinosaurs.

That large, heavily built savage feasting on its Stegosaurus carcass, Torvosaurus, was among the largest carnivores of the Jurassic. In where there’ll be Portugal, Torvosaurus’ bigger. It’s attacking Miragaia, a stegosaur with the longest neck known. Another Miragaia was trying to save it. Back in Morrison, Torvosaurus was scared away by the largest dinosaur in the Jurassic, Supersaurus. It’s a super dinosaur.

Here are the herd of Apatosaurus and Diplodocus being stalked by a pack of Allosaurus. Some big sauropods, like Diplodocus, possessed tremendously long tails, which they may have been able to crack like a whip as a signal or to deter or injure predators. These Allosaurus are no large enough to prey on fully grown, healthy giant sauropods; however, they would have been able to prey on the young and ailing ones.

Look. Saurophaganax, one of the largest carnivores of its time, is almost bigger than T-rex. It was thought to be a species of regular Allosaurus. Those regular ones looked at that giant as some sort of banchō (gang leader). Could Saurophaganax be big enough to handle a giant sauropod like Diplodocus alone? Well, even IT alone wouldn’t dare to lay a claw on something THAT tall. See the curved crest on its head? That’ Brachiosaurus and its herd. Its front limbs are bigger than its hind limbs, like apes when they moved on all four. Saurophaganax’s about to attack, causing Brachiosaurus to rear up, making it look even taller. That way it could feed higher in taller trees. That predator’s about to go for its exposed chest but got tail-wagged by Diplodocus. It protected its protector. Saurophaganax retreated.

There’re others like Brachiosaurus in where Africa will be. Here we are in Tanzania before lions, elephants and other savannah animals we knew yet to exist. Grass still yet to exist. There’s Kentrosaurus, an African stegosaur. They had more spikes than Stegosaurus, making them more defended that way. They’re defending themselves from Elaphrosaurus, medium-sized but lightly built theropods. It has a long trunk (not elephant trunk), shallow chest and short limbs. Over there are sauropods called Dicraeosaurus. They’re named for the spines on the back of the neck. And there are the ‘Brachiosaurus in Africa’, Giraffatitan. Their namesake, the giraffes, will soon be the tallest living terrestrial animal after the dinosaurs’ extinction.

In Argentina of this time, Brachytrachelopan has, proportionately, the shortest neck of any known sauropod.

In the seas of England, Dakosaurus gets its name from its large, serrated teeth and it’s Metriorhynchus’ relative. Something bigger scared Dakosaurus away. It’s Pliosaurus, a pliosaur like Liopleurodon, only bigger. Pliosaurus’ larger species, nicknamed "Predator X" before its formal description, gained extensive media coverage, which claimed that it was "most fearsome animal ever to swim in the oceans.” A stegosaur on the cliff coast is Dacentrurus. It has two rows of small plates on its back and spikes on its tail for fending off its enemies.

In Germany of this time, there was an island. What you see in that island were not even baby Brachiosaurus. That’s how big Europasaurus could get. It has been identified as an example of insular dwarfism resulting from the isolation of a sauropod population on an island within the Lower Saxony basin. Insular dwarfism means this: Some dinosaurs like Europasaurus may have stayed relatively small because of the limited food sources on the island where it lived. Smaller habitats = smaller animals. In other part of Germany of this time, Sciurumimus was named for the tail feathers growing in a manner reminiscent of the fur on a squirrel’s tail.

Tithonian

152.1-145.0 million years ago

In Late Jurassic Germany, there’s Archaeopteryx. It was thought to be one of the first bird to have existed. It’s a small, feathered dinosaur which has to climb trees and throw itself from the branches to take flight. Look. Compsognathus are very small dinosaurs and run very fast. They feed on small lizards and insects.

Even if Geosaurus’s name relates to Earth, it spent much, if not all, its life out at sea. It’s in the same family with Dakosaurus and Metriorhynchus. All three are fully aquatic crocodile relatives. Germany’s home for pterosaurs in this time.

Rhamphorhynchus’s jaws housed needle-like teeth, which were angled forward, with a curved, sharp, beak-like tip lacking teeth, indicating a diet mainly of fish. Rhamphorhynchus, being one of the long-tailed rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs, had a long tail, stiffened with ligaments, which ended in a characteristic diamond-shaped vane, less specialized than contemporary, short-tailed pterodactyloid pterosaurs, such as Pterodactylus. Pterodactylus was the first pterosaur species to be named and identified as a flying reptile. Like all pterosaurs, Pterodactylus had wings formed by a skin and muscle membrane stretching from its elongated fourth finger to its hind limbs.

Physically Scaphognathus was very similar to Rhamphorhynchus, albeit with notable cranial differences. And it’s probably a daytime flier, where Rhamphorhynchus was probably nocturnal. And here are some of the cutest of all pterosaurs, the big-eyed Anurognathus. It’s related to Batrachognathus and Jeholopterus. Anurognathus had a short head with pin-like teeth for catching insects and although it traditionally is ascribed to the long-tailed pterosaur group "Rhamphorhynchoidea", its tail was comparatively short, allowing it more maneuverability for hunting.

Germanodactylus is known for its head crest, which had a bony portion (a low ridge running up the midline of the skull) and a soft-tissue portion that more than doubled its height. The ones with longer bills are Gnathosaurus. This slender, long skull had up to 130 needle-like teeth arranged around the side of a spoon-shaped tip. It probably lead a lifestyle akin to that of modern spoonbills, wading with its jaws open and closing them upon touching small prey.

Chilesaurus, dinosaurs found in Chile, has been considered part of Theropoda, Sauropodomorpha, or ornithopoda. Most recent study suggests it is a basal Ornithischian.

The Early Cretaceous Period
145–100.5 million years ago

Continental drift continued at a fast pace, with accompanying volcanic activity. The continents almost had their modern-day look. Continental drift continued at a fast pace, with accompanying volcanic activity. The continents almost had their modern-day look. Dinosaurs flourish. Flowering plants (angiosperms) spread, displacing conifers and others. The oldest-known ants, snakes, and butterflies arose towards the end of the Mesozoic Era. A major extinction occurred at the end of the Mesozoic, 65 million years ago.

Berriasian

145.0-139.8 million years ago

Let’s see. Altispinax from England, a theropod with tall-spined vertebrae. Bajadasaurus from Argentina, a sauropod with forward-pointing spines. Euhelopus, a Chinese sauropod, has longer forelegs than hind legs. Unlike most sauropod specimens, it had a relatively complete skull found in the present day. Here’s Mongolia of this time.

This is the family of Psittacosaurus. As the generic name suggests, the short skull and beak superficially resemble those of modern parrots. And there’re bristles on the tail. Although Psittacosaurus’ one of the earliest ceratopsians, it had no bony neck frill and prominent facial horns which would develop in later ceratopsians like Triceratops.

Valanginian

139.8-132.9 million years ago

Here’s Australia when marsupials like koalas and kangaroos yet to exist. It’s home for Minmi, a small ankylosaur without a tail club.

In England, Hylaeosaurus was an armoured dinosaur. It carried at least three long spines on its shoulder. It might have been a basal nodosaurid, although a recent cladistic analysis recovers it as a basal ankylosaurid. Ankylosaurids have tail clubs, relatively small-to-no spines, and heads which are very broad and not very long, with triangular hornlets at the rear. Nodosaurids have no tail club, have medium-to-long spines, and bumpy or smooth heads which are long and not very broad.

Hauterivian

132.9-129.4 million years ago

Eotyrannus’ a European relative of Tyrannosaurus. The etymology of the generic name refers to the animal’s classification as an early tyrannosaur or "tyrant lizard", while the specific name honors the discoverer of the fossil.

Barremian

129.4-125.0 million years ago

Here’s the herd of Iguanodon in where Belgium will be. Iguanodon was the second type of dinosaur formally named based on fossil specimens, after Megalosaurus. Together with Megalosaurus and Hylaeosaurus, it was one of the three genera originally used to define Dinosauria. Distinctive features include large thumb spikes, which were possibly used for defense against predators, combined with long prehensile fifth fingers able to forage for food. Down there is one of the smallest crocodyliforms that ever lived, Bernissartia. Iguanodon almost ‘squish’ that croc. Bernissartia resembled modern species in many respects, and was probably semi-aquatic.

Back in Early Cretaceous England, another dinosaur had a weapon on each thumb. It’s Baryonyx, a member of the family Spinosauridae. It used its hands and claws to hook out fish from water courses. Like all spinosaurids, its mouth shape is very similar to that of a crocodile. There’s a plesiosaur deep down there, Leptocleidus. Unlike many pleisiosaurs, it lived in shallow lagoons and likely visited brackish and fresh water systems (such as the mouths of large rivers). Hypsilophodon are agile runners. Each had a pointed head equipped with a sharp beak used to bite off plant material. They’re running from Eotyrannus. Neovenator, one of Allosaurus’ Cretaceous relatives, is trying to attack Polacanthus. Luckily, Polacanthus’ protected by thick bony plates embedded in its skin, a shield of fused plates covering its pelvis and numerous large spikes on its back and shoulders.

Here's Spain. Here’s a flock of Pelecanimimus. The small crest in back of the head was probably made by keratin. Pelicanimimus had a gular pouch similar to the much larger pouches found in modern pelicans, from which it took its name. Unlike pelicans, they had teeth. And speaking of teeth, there’s a predator, Concavenator. Two extremely tall vertebrae in front of the hips formed a tall but narrow and pointed crest (possibly supporting a hump) on Concavenator’s back. It also had structures resembling quill knobs on its forearm, a feature known only in birds and other feathered theropods, such as Velociraptor.

Here in where there be Utah, Gastonia had large, spike-like plates jutting upwards on its back, long spikes on its shoulders, and blade-like plates jutting sideways on its scything tail like a chainsaw which, as scientists speculate, worked like scissors on anything caught between them. This would’ve provided protection against the claws and fangs of its vicious, terrifying enemy of its time and place - Utahraptor. It’s bigger than Velociraptor and us humans, and the largest-known member of the family Dromaeosauridae. A mother Utahraptor’s defending its chick from that passerby, Falcarius. Falcarius’ large clawed hands made it a sickle cutter.

Early Cretaceous Argentina was home for Amargasaurus. Each Amargasaurus sported two parallel rows of tall spines down its neck and back. Bajadasaurus is similar to its relative, Amargasaurus but with the spines facing the opposite direction.

In Cretaceous Thailand, Siamotyrannus was thought to be T-rex’ relative but turned out to be Allosaurus’ relative.

This is where it’ll be called the Fukui Prefecture of Japan. There we see ornithopods, Koshisaurus and Fukuisaurus. Fukuiraptor’s a predatory theropoda and NOT a raptor or dromaeosaur. Fukuivenator’s a smaller theropod there. And the sauropod’s Fukuititan.

During the Early Cretaceous, Yixian Formation, China, was home for most species of feathered theropods and early birds. Modern birds had no teeth but the ones living in dinosaur time have teeth. Male Confuciusornis had a single pair of long, streamer-like tail feathers, while the female does not The streamers would have been used to add drama to their displays in the breeding season. Caudipteryx, the bird-like dinosaur, had a fan of feathers at the end of its tail. It swallowed small stones perhaps to help digest food. Sinosauropteryx is the first dinosaur fossil ever found that showed evidence of having feathers (albeit primitive). It has a very long tail, the longest (relative to its size) of any theropod.

That dromaeosaurid, Sinornithosaurus, had been hypothesiszed to have venom due to some dentitional similarities to modern venomous snakes, like cobras and vipers. Beipiaosaurus was among the largest dinosaurs known from direct evidence to be feathered.

Yutyrannus, whose distant cousin was Tyrannosaurus, is the largest known feathered dinosaur ever discovered. Its feathers help it to keep warm in cold climate. Dilong is thought to be the ancestor to the Tyrannosauridae family. It had a covering of simple feathers.

Aptian

125.0-113.0 million years ago

In China is Repenomamus, among the largest mammals known in the Mesozoic era. It hunted small dinosaurs like those two small, young sleeping dinosaurs, Mei. Oh my. Look at those dinosaurs, Incisivosaurus. It’s named for its prominent, rodent-like front teeth, which show wear patterns commonly found in plant-eating dinosaurs. Repenomamus’ startled and scared away those ‘donkey-faced’ dinosaurs. And then the mammal went back to where Mei were, only to find out that they’re not there. Those Mei must have been woken up by the noise made by the mammal, and ran away. Looks like Repenomamus regret for being distracted.

Alxasaurus has forminable claws probably used for self-defence, and it’s one of the theropods that are herbivorous. Above were four-winged dinosaurs, Microraptor. Each has wings not only on its front limbs, but on its back limbs as well. It isn’t a very good flier, but it can glide pretty well, using its leg wings to help steer while in the air.

Dsungaripterus’ a pterosaur. Its skull bore a low bone crest that ran down from the base of the skull to halfway to the beak. Its most notable features are its long, narrow, upcurved jaws with a pointed tip. I t had no teeth in the front part of its jaws, which were probably used to remove prey from cracks in rocks or/and the sandy, muddy inland environments it inhabited. It had knobbly flat teeth more to the back of the jaw that were well suited for crushing the armor of shellfish or other hard objects. And there’s one of the last genera of stegosaurians known to have existed, since most others lived in the Late Jurassic. It’s called Wuerhosaurus.

Here's Oklahoma. Acrocanthosaurus was the largest theropod in its ecosystem. As the name suggests, it is best known for the high neural spines on many of its vertebrae, which most likely supported a ridge of muscle over the animal's neck, back, and hips. And behold Sauroposeidon, the tallest known dinosaurs. They’re like Brachiosaurus, only taller.

Borealopelta in Canada is remarkable for being among the best preserved dinosaur fossils of its size ever found.

Leaellynasaura was an Australian polar dinosaur. At this period in time, where it lived would have been within the Antarctic Circle. Although this latitude is very cold today, it was significantly warmer during this time of period. Leaellynasaura has been reported as showing enlarged eyes and the suggestion of proportionally large optic lobes (midbrain), implying an adaptation to low-light conditions. One got caught by a giant amphibian in dinosaur time, Koolasuchus. As a large aquatic predator, it was similar in life-style to crocodilians. It had a wide, rounded head and tabular horns projecting from the backside of the skull. Being an amphibian, it was likely a hibernator, sleeping through the winter like most modern-day amphibians due to the cold climate.

Ichthyovenator in Laos was like its later relative, Spinosaurus, except its sail had a sinusoidal (wave-like) shape that curved downwards over the hips and divided into two separate sails.

Here we are in where Niger will be. Nigersaurus’ a sauropod named after this country. It had a wide muzzle filled with more than 500 teeth. Nigersaurus is the only known dinosaur and reptile to have had jaws wider than the skull and teeth that extended laterally across the front. That theropod’s long and shallow skull, similar to that of a crocodile, earns it its genus name, Suchomimus. It’s one of the spinosaurs along with Baryonyx.

Welcome to Brazil, where and when many pterosaurs, mostly pterodactyloid, flocked. Tupandactylus is notable for its large cranial crest, composed partly of bone and partly of soft tissue. The crest may have been used to signal and display for other Tupandactylus, much as toucans use their bright bills to signal to one another. Also, some pterodactyloids like these had no teeth.

Albian

113.0-100.5 million years ago

Tupandactylus was thought to be the same species as another Brazilian pterosaur, Tapejara. There’s more pterosaurs in Brazil. Anhanguera had rounded crests at front of its upper and lower jaws, which were filled with angled, conical but curved teeth of various sizes and orientations. Tropeognathus’ a larger relative of Anhanguera. Both were members of a group of pterosaurs known for their keel-tipped snouts. Tupuxuara had a back-swept crest arising from the snout. Cearadactylus, over there, had a low crest down the end of the snout.

Thalassodromeus had one of the largest skulls among pterosaurs, with one of the proportionally largest cranial crests of any vertebrate. The noises of the pterosaurs probably got that Irritator ‘irritated’. It possesses a sagittal crest on its forehead and is one of the smallest of the spinosaurids.

These are Pterodaustro, pterosaurs in Argentina. Each Pterodaustro had about a thousand bristle-like modified teeth in its lower jaws that might have been used to strain crustaceans,  plankton, algae, and other small creatures from the water. Those teeth are similar to the ones in the upper jaws of baleen whales like blue whales, the largest animals alive in when we humans lived. A sauropod called Agustinia was well known for its distinctive supposed armor plates (osteoderms), initially interpreted as a series of wide, vertical spikes and plates down the center of its back, somewhat like the unrelated Stegosaurus.

Back in Niger, there’s a herd of Ouranosaurus. One of the most recognizable features of Ouranosaurus was its large sail along its back. Some people think that the sail may have been a hump of fat, like a camel. And there’s Lurdusaurus herd. It had an unusually heavy built compared to Iguanodon and their other relatives. Their limbs were proportionally short. Nigersaurus get along but Suchomimus, being predators, would not.

Something ambushed the herd from the water. That is Sarcosuchus, one of the largest crocodile-like reptiles that ever lived. It was almost twice as long as the modern saltwater crocodile, the largest of all modern reptiles. At the end of its snout, Sarcosuchus presented an expansion, known as a bulla, which has been compared to the ghara seen in gharials. However, unlike the ghara, which is only found in male gharial, a type of crocodilian with very long narrow-snout.

In the sky of England, Ornithocheirus bore a distinctive convex "keeled" crest on its snout. It had relatively narrow jaw tips compared to Anhanguera, which had prominently-expanded rosettes of teeth. Also unlike related pterosaurs, the teeth of Ornithocheirus were mostly vertical, rather than set at an outward-pointing angle.

Archaeoceratops’ an early ceratopsian. Unlike many later ceratopsians it had no horns, possessing only a small bony frill projecting from the back of its head. Altirhinus, especially for a male, had a wide mouth and a distinctive tall arch on top of its snout, from which this dinosaur derives its name. It may have facilitated communication through vocalization or visual display.

Koreaceratops is a genus of basal ceratopsian dinosaur discovered in South Korea. Koreaceratops is notable for the tall neural spines on its caudal vertebrae, and for the structure of its astragalus. It may have been a swimmer.

Muttaburrasaurus’ an Australian relative of Iguanodon. The snout includes a strongly enlarged, hollow, upward-bulging nasal muzzle that might have been used to produce distinctive calls or for display purposes. The herd of Muttaburrasaurus’ on the move near the small cliff coast. One was accidently knocked down into the sea and fell prey for Kronosaurus. It’s a Cretaceous pliosaur related to the ones back in the Jurassic, and was among the largest pliosaurs.

Here in Montana of this time, Tenontosaurus had an unusually long, broad tail, which like its back was stiffened with a network of bony tendons. And it was attacked by a pack of Deinonychus, dromaeosaurs like bigger Utahraptor and smaller Velociraptor. See their feet? The enlarged second toe bore an unusually large, curved, sickle-shaped claw, which is thought to have been used in capturing prey and climbing trees. Some from that pack tried to get that nodosaurid, Sauropelta. Large, pointed spines lined the sides of the neck, increasing in size towards the shoulders, and then decreasing in size again along the side of the body until they stopped just before the hips.

Swimming in the sea are Cretaceous relatives of lancetfish and lizardfish. They’re Enchodus. Because of their large fangs, fossil hunters have given Enchodus the misleading nickname "the saber-toothed herring.”

The Late Cretaceous Period
100.5–66 million years ago

Cenomanian

100.5-93.9 million years ago

Australia’s home for one of the oldest Australian mammal discoveries, Steropodon. It’s a Mesozoic species of egg-laying mammal, like echidnas and platypus it’s similar to. And those are armour osteoderms-possessing Diamantinasaurus. Diamantinasaurus is one of the titanosaurs, a diverse group of Cretaceous sauropods. Titanosaurs are the last surviving group of sauropods. And there’re Australovenator, the most complete predatory dinosaur discovered in Australia.

That dinosaur in Mongolia is Segnosaurus. It’s slow and stocky because of its massive build. The claws of its hands are rather flat instead of very narrow. Erketu’s a sauropod with the longest neck relative to its body size. Its neck was estimated to be twice as long as its body, which may be a record for neck to body ratio. One of the Asian ankylosaurids, Talarurus, has the club end of the tail which bears resemblance to a wicker basket. built like a hippopotamus, with a barrel-shaped thorax, not with the characteristic ankylosaurid low and wide body type, and the forelimbs are strongly splayed.

Check it out in Niger. The wrinkled theropods, Rugops, were ‘growling’ at Kaprosuchus, the “BoarCroc” This croc has usually large caniniform teeth which resemble those of a boar. During the Late Cretaceous, North Africa didn’t use to be mostly desert all over. In Cretaceous Morocco, Rebbachisaurus is distinguished from other sauropods by its unusually tall, ridged back. Flying above are Alanqa, pterosaurs named after a mythical bird of Arabian culture. Deltadromeus had long, unusually slender hind limbs for its size, suggesting that it was a swift runner.

Now, to Egypt before pyramids were built. The titanosaur, Paralititan, was a truly enormous dinosaur by any reckoning. It’s the first dinosaur demonstrated to have inhabited a mangrove habitat. There’s a carnivorous dinosaur bigger than T-rex, Carcharodontosaurus. It’s characterized by its huge jaws and long, serrated teeth. Its name is inspired by the shark genus ‘Carcharodon’. See down there in the water? Prehistoric sawfish, Onchopristis, were favourite prey for Spinosaurus, the largest of all theropods. The distinctive neural spines of Spinosaurus, which were long extensions of the vertebrae (or backbones), grew to at least 1.65 meters long and were likely to have had skin connecting them, forming a sail-like structure. It’s one of the spinosaurids along with those four earlier ones (Baryonyx, Suchomimus, Irritator and Ichthyovenator), and it’s the largest of the spinosaurids.

There was a creature with a big sail like Spinosaurus and a carnivore like Spinosaurus. Dimetrodon. It lived way back in the Permian period, 298.9–251.902 million years ago, before the Triassic period and before the dinosaurs. Dimetrodon is often mistaken for a dinosaur or as a contemporary of dinosaurs in popular culture, but it became extinct some 40 million years before the first appearance of dinosaurs. Reptile-like in appearance and physiology, Dimetrodon is nevertheless more closely related to mammals than to modern reptiles, though it is not a direct ancestor of mammals. The sail of Dimetrodon may have been used to stabilize its spine or to heat and cool its body as a form of thermoregulation. Spinosaurus’s sail may have been used for thermoregulation too.

Here we are in Argentina when it’s roamed by titanosaurs named after this country, Argentinosaurus. They’re the largest and heaviest dinosaurs. These theropods, Mapusaurus, hunt in numbers to bring down their favourite. At least the older one’s weak enough for a pack of bigger predators. And the smaller, younger one’s easier too. Especially for just one predator like the larger predator ambushing by surprise. Mapusaurus pack killed the older Argentinosaurus whose young was killed by Giganotosaurus, a theropod bigger than T-rex. Mapusaurus hatchlings joined their parents for their big feast. There’re two raptors nearby, Buitreraptor. It has a slender, flat, extremely elongated snout with many small teeth that lack meat-tearing serrations or cutting edges and are grooved, strongly recurved and flattened.

Nodosaurus in Wyoming had bony dermal plates covering the top of its body, and it may have had spikes along its side as well. In the Cretaceous seas, long-necked plesiosaurus had longer necks, like Thalassomedon, “lord of the seas” and among the largest plesiosaurs.

Turonian

93.9-89.8 million years ago

During the Late Cretaceous, a large inland sea called the Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. The Western Interior Seaway was a shallow sea, filled with abundant marine life. Interior Seaway denizens included predatory marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs that grew up to 18 metres long.

Xiphactinus, is an extinct genus of large predatory marine bony fish. Other than Hybodus as sharks, there’re Cretaceous sharks that resembled modern ones. Those were Squalicorax, the raven/crow sharks. And that larger one’s Cretoxyrhina, one of the largest sharks of its time. Having a similar appearance and build to the modern great white shark, it was an apex predator in its ecosystem and preyed on a large variety of marine animals, including occasionally dinosaurs. Cretoxyrhina is more commonly referred to as the Ginsu shark, first popularized in reference to the Ginsu knife. And there’s Trinacromerum, a plesiosaur. Its long flippers enabled it to achieve high swimming speeds.

Now we’re back on land and in where New Mexico will be. Segnosaurus and most of its relatives, the therizinosaurids, were found in Asia. There’s an American therizinosaur, Nothronychus. And living with Nothronychus were Zuniceratops. Unlike most ceratopsids like Triceratops, Zuniceratops has no nose horn.

Buitreraptor had a relative in the same country of the same time which is Late Cretaceous Argentina. It’s Unenlagia. It was considered to be a link between birds and more basal theropods. And it’s hiding from the claws of Megaraptor. And there’s Megaraptor. It was initially thought to have been a giant dromaeosaur or raptor like Velociraptor, known primarily from a single claw that resembled the raptor’ sickle-shaped foot claw. It’s tempting to lay a claw on that gigantic sauropod Futalognkosaurus. It’s the chief of the giant lizards.

Coniacian

89.8-86.3 million years ago

By the sea where there’ll be part of USA was where Ichthyornis. It is thought that Ichthyornis was the Cretaceous ecological equivalent of modern seabirds such as gulls. It was the first known prehistoric bird relative preserved with teeth. There’re sea turtles in the Cretaceous, like Protostega, the second-largest sea turtle that ever lived.

Santonian

86.3-83.6 million years ago

Those are Pteranodon, pterosaurs and not dinosaurs. The most distinctive characteristic of Pteranodon is its cranial crest. It may have been used as mating displays, or it might have acted as a rudder, or perhaps both. Males bore larger crests than females. Nyctosaurus had a gigantic crest, far larger than its entire body. It was a thin, bony antler-like structure up to 55 centimeters tall with a backward-pointing spar in the middle. Down there are Hesperornis, flightless aquatic birds that lives during the Late Cretaceous period. Like many other Mesozoic birds such as Ichthyornis, Hesperornis had teeth as well as a beak. Also, it had virtually no wings, and swam with its powerful hind legs. The teeth of Hesperornis were present along nearly the entire lower jaw and the back of the upper jaw. The front portion of the upper jaw and tip of the lower jaw lacked teeth and were probably covered in a beak.

Here’re more fish to see. Those fish that looked like billfish are Protosphyraena. Check out its distinctive rostrum (beak) and long saw-edged pectoral fin. Bananogmius had a thin body reminiscent of the modern angelfish, dozens of small teeth, and an extremely high dorsal fin. Platecarpus here belongs to the mosasaur family. Mosasaurs are very large extinct marine lizards of the Late Cretaceous with limbs modified into paddles that are related to the recent monitor lizards.

About the size of a chicken, Patagopteryx of Patagonia, Argentina, is the earliest known unequivocal example of secondary flightlessness: its skeleton shows clear indications that its ancestors were flying birds. Alvarezsaurus, like other lightweight theropods, had a long tail, and its leg structure suggests that it was a fast runner.

One of many kinds of ammonites, Parapuzosia, possesses a moderately involute shell with flat or lightly round sides. They’re typically large ammonites. Those nodosaurids, Hungarosaurus, were named after their home country, Hungary, not because they’re HUNGRY of course. Tiny ceratopsians, Ajkaceratops, lived in Hungary too.

Goyocephale in Mongolia is noted for having a flat skull as opposed to a more ornate dome which is characteristic of its relative, Pachycephalosaurus. Like Heterodontosaurus from the Jurassic, Goyocephale has both premaxillary and dentary “fangs” or “tusks,” and they are serrated. Futabasaurus’ a plesiosaur discovered in Japan. That proved that part of Japan where its fossil was found used to be underwater, part of the sea, during this time period. Nipponosaurus was found in Sakhalin Island in Russia, part of Japan at the time of naming.

Campanian

83.6-72.1 million years ago

Welcome to where Alberta, Canada will be the Alberta, Canada we used to know. Let’s start with Stenonychosaurus. It’s similar to the dromaeosaurs, but with smaller slashing claws. Its teeth, however, are different from most other theropods. It also has one of the largest known brains of any dinosaur, relative to its body mass (comparable to modern birds). There’s one of the ankylosaurs, Euoplocephalus. It’s largely covered by bony armor plates, among them rows of large high-ridged oval scutes. The neck was protected by two bone rings. It could also actively defend itself against predators like Gorgosaurus using a heavy club-like tail end. Hesperonychus there is a dromaeosaur and Microraptor’s relative.

Alberta’s home for many kinds of hadrosaurids (duck-billed dinosaurs). There’s the herd of Parasaurolophus, known for its large, elaborate cranial crest. The crest was hollow, with distinct tubes leading from each nostril to the end of the crest before reversing direction and heading back down the crest and into the skull. It is now believed that it may have had several functions: visual display for identifying species and sex, sound amplification for communication, and thermoregulation. There’re other hadrosaurids beside Parasaurolophus, like Corythosaurus. The tall crests resemble the crests of the cassowary and a Corinthian helmet. And Lambeosaurus is known for its distinctive hollow cranial crest, which in the best-known species resembled a hatchet. In the second species of Lambeosaurus, the "handle" was greatly reduced, and the "blade" expanded,[28] forming a tall, exaggerated pompadour-like crest. Those hadrosaurids are being preyed on by Gorgosaurus, the tyrannosaurids. The was circular rather than oval or keyhole-shaped as in other tyrannosaurid genera.

Gryposaurus is most easily distinguished from other duckbills by its narrow arching nasal hump, sometimes described as similar to a “Roman nose.” There’s Brachylophosaurus family. It is notable for its bony crest, which forms a horizontally flat, paddle like plate over the top of the rear skull. This dinosaur also had been found as mummy fossil.

These are Dromaeosaurus, dromaeosaurids like Deinonychus and Utahraptor. They all had a sharply curved “sickle claw” on each foot. Saurornitholestes there is another dromaeosauridae. Panoplosaurus  was heavily armoured, even by the standards of other nodosaurs, probably with traverse bands of studded plates covering its back and tail, although the tail likely lacked the club found in ankylosaurids like Euoplocephalus. Stegoceas are small relatives of Pachycephalosaurus. The dome has mainly been interpreted as a weapon used in intra-specific combat, a sexual display structure, or a means for species recognition.

Alberta had many ceratopsids, or horned dinosaurs, like Centrosaurus. Unlike some like Triceratops, each Centrosaurus bores asingle large horn over its noseand a pair of small horns project from the eyebrow. Two more hornlets hook down from the top of the frill. And check out those spikes on their neck-frills. They’re Styracosaurus. Each had four to six long parietal spikes extending from its neck frill, a smaller jugal horn on each of its cheeks, and a single horn protruding from its nose. Chasmosaurus has large openings in its frill. The corner of the frill featured two larger osteoderms on the parietal bone.

Albertosaurus, smaller relatives of Tyrannosaurus, were named after Alberta where it was found and are stalking that herd of hadrosaurids, Edmontosaurus. Each has a wide,duck-like beak and grinds the plant with its teeth. You see, for hadrosaurids, or duck-billed dinosaurs, their jaws were evolved for grinding plants, with multiple rows of teeth replacing each other as the teeth wore down. Arrhinoceratops’ brow horns were moderately long, but its nose horn was shorter and blunter than most ceratopids. Anchiceratops’ skull frill was elongated and rectangular, its edges adorned by coarse triangular projections.

Struthiomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaurs. Ornithomimids were long-legged, bipedal, ostrich-like dinosaurs with toothless beaks. Its legs (hind limbs) were long, powerful and seemingly well-suited to rapid running, much like an ostrich. The supposed speed of Struthiomimus was, in fact, its main defense from predators like that tyrannosaur, Daspletosaurus. Look at Daspletosaurus’ puny forelimbs. It, T-rex and other tyrannosaurids in the Late Cretaceous do have puny two-fingered forelimbs. (‘chuckle’) That lizard is Palaeosaniwa. It’s among the largest terrestrial lizards known from the Mesozoic era. It is similar to modern varanid lizards (particularly the Komodo dragon) in having bladelike teeth with minute serrations. Albertaceratops’ named after Alberta, and so did Albertosaurus. Over Albertaceratops’ nose is a bony ridge, and on its frill were two large outwardly-projecting hooks.

The herd of Pachyrhinosaurus are there. Instead of horns like most ceratopsids, their skulls bore massive, flattened bosses; a large boss over the nose and a smaller one over the eyes. A prominent pair of horns grew from the frill and extended upwards. Other two species of Pachyrhinosaurus, Alaskan and another Canadian, have different characteristics from the ones we met here.

We’re back in the sea of Late Cretaceous North America for more marine life. Tusoteuthis’ the Cretaceous giant squid. Despite its size, which was around 6 to 11 metres long with tentacles fully outstretched, Tusoteuthis was still preyed on by other animals.

Plesiosaurs called Elasmosaurus are one of the longest-necked animals to have lived, with the largest number of neck vertebrae known, seventy-two. There’s Archelon, the largest turtle to have been documented. It had a leathery carapace instead of the hard shell seen in sea turtles.

Gillicus are fish with numerous small teeth lining their jaws, and ate smaller fish by sucking them into their mouth. Gillicus would also filter feed and were also eaten by their own relative, Xiphactinus. Styxosaurus’ another plesiosaur. Its sharp teeth were conical and were adapted to puncture and hold rather than to cut; like other plesiosaurs, Styxosaurus swallowed its food whole. Dolichorhynchops had a short neck and long flippers which allowed it to glide through the water like a modern day penguin.

And here comes Tylosaurus. It’s among the largest of the mosasaurs, and also a dominant  predator of the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous. A distinguishing characteristic of Tylosaurus is its elongated, cylindrical premaxilla (snout) from which it takes its name. Unlike other mosasaurs, Tylosaurus did not have teeth all the way forward on its premaxilla, as the bony protuberance was free of teeth. Mosasaurs. like Tylosaurus, were so well adapted to this environment that they gave birth to live young, rather than returning to the shore to lay eggs as sea turtles do.

On land in Montana, a baby dinosaur hatched from an egg, attracting a small predator, Bambiraptor. Suddenly, the mother arrived to protect its eggs and hatchlings from that predator. Maiasaura lived in herds and it raised its young in nesting colonies. The nests in the colonies were packed closely together, like those of modern seabirds. The eggs were about the size of ostrich eggs. And that little one, Orodromeus, has a nest of eggs too.

Einiosaurus is typically portrayed with a low, strongly forward and downward curving nasal horn that resembles a bottle opener, though this may only occur in some adults. A pair of large spikes, the third epiparietals, projects backwards from the relatively small frill. Achelousaurus had a bony neck-frill at the rear of the skull, which sported a pair of long spikes, which curved towards the outside. It had rough bosses (roundish protuberances) above the eyes and on the snout.

Hadrosaurus, a duck-billed dinosaur, has become the official state dinosaur of New Jersey.

That Stenonychosaurus stalked a nest of eggs of a predator that’s about to ambush it. Oh, that was close. That croc gave it quite a shock. Deinosuchus is a giant crocodilian related to the alligator. Its overall appearance was fairly similar to its smaller relatives. Deinosuchus was probably capable of killing and eating large dinosaurs.

That Parasaurolophus is different from the ones in Canada and has a short, most curved crest. Chasing it is a tyrannosaurid Bistahieversor. differs from other tyrannosaurs in the possession of 64 teeth, an extra opening above the eye, and a keel along the lower jaw. And those are Pentaceratops. It had a short nose horn, two long brow horns, and long horns on the jugal bones. Its skull had a very long frill with triangular hornlets on the edge.

Utah in this time period was home for many ceratopsids like Utahceratops. It’s named after where it’s discovered, like Utahraptor was. It also had a whopping head and was adorned with a large horn over the nose and short and blunt eye horns projecting to the side. Living with Utahceratops was Kosmoceratops. Kosmoceratops has fifteen horns – one over the nose, one atop each eye, one at the tip of each cheek bone, and ten across the rear margin of the bony frill. Those ceratopsids had enemies like Teratophoneus. It has a relatively short, deep skull so it is sometimes referred as the short faced tyrannosaur.

Nasutoceratops has a short snout and unique rounded horns above its eyes that have been likened to those of modern cattle. The osteoderms on the frill edge do not have the form of spikes but are shaped like simple low crescents. Lythronax is thus the oldest known member of the family Tyrannosauridae, and it is thought to have been more basal than Tyrannosaurus. And it’s attacking Diabloceratops, the oldest-known ceratopsid at the time of its discovery. Diabloceratops has two large horns that rise form the top of its neck frill, that then curve slightly to the sides. These ‘Devil horns’ are the reason why Diabloceratops got its name.

Mexico of this time was home for Velafrons, a hadrosauridae with a bony crest on the forehead. Coahuilaceratops’ also there. It is  thought to possess among the largest horns of any dinosaur currently known, rivaling in absolute size those of larger ceratopsids like Triceratops.

In Argentina, Abelisaurus is known from only one partial skull. Its skull was relatively broad at the back. It’s chasing a herd of Gasparinisaura for waking it from its sleep. There’s Austroraptor, one of the largest dromaeosaurids known, with some like Utahraptor approaching or surpassing it in length. The skull is low and elongated. Its teeth are conical and non-serrated. Also, this raptor has relatively short arms for its body size.

Dreadnoughtus, the gigantic titanosaur, fears nothing, stating “I think it’s time the herbivores get their due for being the toughest creatures in an environment." There’s another Argentinian titanosaur, Puertasaurus. It would have shared its habitat with other dinosaurs, including another large sauropod, Dreadnoughtus, in addition to other reptiles and fish.

Oh no. It’s a couple of Carnotaurus, theropods with bull-like horns. It had thick horns above the eyes, a feature unseen in all other carnivorous dinosaurs, and a very deep skull sitting on a muscular neck. It also had shorter forelimbs than T-rex and long slender hindlimbs. Don’t forget about its skin lined with rows of bumps.

This is Hateg island, Romania, and it won’t be an island in the future. Most of these animals were smaller versions of mainland megafauna, which became smaller due to island dwarfism. One of the smallest-known adult sauropods, Magyarosaurus, lives in this swamp-like environments. There’s also Telmatosaurus. It’s a genus of basal hadrosaurid dinosaur and was a relatively small hadrosaur.

Struthiosaurus in Austria is one of the smallest known nodosaurid dinosaurs. Its name was chosen because of the birdlike morphology of the braincase.

Here’s Late Cretaceous Mongolia. Those are what those raptors, Velociraptor, really look like. They’re smaller and fluffier than the ones in movies and games. In real-life, however, Velociraptor’s roughly the size of a turkey. The raptors are preying on Protoceratops that was initially believed to be an ancestor of North American ceratopsians like Triceratops. Protoceratops was partially characterized by its distinctive neck frill at the back of its skull. The frill itself contained two large parietal fenestrae (holes in the frill), while its cheeks had large jugal bones. Its muscular jaws are capable of a powerful bite. Nearby, Zalambdalestes was a hopping animal with a long snout, long teeth, a small brain and large eyes. It was a eutherian mammal.

See that theropod, Oviraptor, sitting on its eggs? As its name suggests, Oviraptor was originally presumed to have eaten eggs, based on its association with a fossilized nest thought to belong to Protoceratops. But then it turned out that those eggs probably belonged to Oviraptor itself, and it was actually brooding its eggs when it died at the nest. Pinacosaurus’ body was flat and low-slung but not as heavily built as in some other ankylosaurids. Its head’s protected by bone tiles, hence its name. There’re baby Pinacosaurus down there.

Deltatheridium was a basal metatherian, which places it near to the start of the lineage that led to the marsupials, such as kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, and opossums. Unlike Deltatheridium as a basal metatherian, was an eutherian mammal, most likely not a placental due to the presence of an epipubic bone. Modern marsupials have epipupic bones. Eutherians, metatherians and monotremes (egg-laying mammals) are three extant subclasses of mammals.

Saichania was more robustly built than other members of the Ankylosauridae. The generic name referred to the pristine state of preservation of the type specimen. Its skull is knobbed above the eyes and nose, and its armor more spiked. There’s another ankylosaur. Tarchia’s the longest known Asian ankylosaur. It has a large, armored head with slightly larger than usual brain. Bagaceratops had a smaller frill (which lacked fenestrae), and only ten grinding teeth per jaw, and more triangular skull than its close relative, Protoceratops.

Udanoceratops has a parrot-like beak and a distinctively large lower jaw, which it used to break off the plants it consumed. The back of its skull has short frills. Avimimus were named for their bird-like characteristics.

Citipati is often confused with the similar Oviraptor. Its tall crest is superficially similar to that of a modern cassowary, an Australian flightless bird. Shuvuuia, relative of Alvarezsaurus from South America, is characterized by short but powerful forelimbs specialized for digging.

There’s a flock/herd of Gallimimus, the largest known ornithomimids. Gallimimus’ speed has been estimated at 29-34 miles per hour. That flock’s running away from something they’re scared of, and so did the herd of Saurolophus. Saurolophus is distinguished by a spike-like crest which projects up and back from the skull. They’re running from Tarbosaurus and its young. It’s T-rex’s Asian relative. It has the smallest forelimbs of all tyrannosaurids. The skull was tall, like that of Tyrannosaurus, but not as wide, especially towards the rear. The unexpanded rear of the skull meant that Tarbosaurus eyes did not face directly forwards, suggesting that it lacked the binocular vision of T-rex.

The skull of Nemegtosaurus, a titanosaur, resembles diplodocoids in being long and low, with pencil-shaped teeth. Prenocephale’s head was rounded and sloping. The dome had a row of small bony spikes and bumps. Prenocephale is similar in many ways to its close relative, Homalocephale, which may simply represent Prenocephale juveniles. Homalocephale sported a flat, wedge-shaped skull roof.

In the Late Cretaceous China, Bactrosaurus is one of the earliest hadrosauroids known from Asia, and also one of the best known. The large club-shaped neural spines projected from some of the vertebrae. There goes Archaeornithomimus, the Chinese ornithomimids, like they’re scared of that giant, Gigantoraptor. It’s trying to attract its mate. Gigantoraptor’s the largest relative of Oviraptor and Citipati currently known, and its many times larger than others of its relatives.

Did you know Tsintaosaurus? It was originally reconstructed with a unicorn-like crest on its skull. Then, a new reconstruction in 2013 came to the conclusion that the unicorn-like bone was just the rear part of a larger cranial crest that started from the tip of the snout. Zhejiangopterus are Late Cretaceous Chinese pterosaurs. Originally thought to be a member of the Nyctosauridae family, its lack of teeth and the low positioning of its eyes lead to the conclusion that it was in fact relatives of argest-known flying animals of all time.

Shantungosaurus, the hadrosaurid, is one of the largest known ornithischians. And there’s the first ceratopsid dinosaur discovered in China, and the only one known from Asia, Sinoceratops. It has a short, hooked horn on its nose (called a nasal horn), no horns above its eyes (brow horns), and a short neck frill with a series of forward-curving hornlets that gave the frill a crown-like appearance.

Mauisaurus, the plesiosaur, is one of the few fossils from the dinosaur ages to be discovered in New Zealand, thus having it on the official postage stamp in New Zealand. A nodosauridae, Antarctopelta, was the first dinosaur remains ever discovered on Antarctica, although it is the second dinosaur from the continent to be formally named. In prehistoric time, Antarctica didn’t use to be covered in ice and snow. That way, dinosaurs, being reptiles, could survive living there. And when Antarctica became the Antarctica we knew now, reptilian inhabitants either died or moved someplace else if possible.

Maastrichtian

72.1-66 million years ago

This is past Russia. The largest country in the world was where Olorotitan were found. Olorotitan is characterized by the large hatchet-like hollow crest adorning its skull, very distinct from the crests of all of its North American relatives.

We’re back in Mongolia of this time. The genus Alioramus is characterized by a row of five bony crests along the top of the snout, a greater number of teeth than any other genus of tyrannosaurid, and a lower skull than most other tyrannosaurids.

There’s Opisthocoelicaudia. It was once thought that the only known skull of Nemegtosaurus belonged to the headless skeleton of this dinosaur, but though the theory lost steam for a while, it has recently resurfaced, finding the two to be either the same or very close relatives.

Look at those gigantic hand claws. They’re Therizinosaurus. Each claws are one metre long. With claws like those, Therizinosaurus could scare even T-rex away. That’s for defences. And they’re plant-eating theropods. There’s Mononykus. It’s related to Alvarezsaurus and Shuvuuia and, like its relatives, had very strange, stubby forearms with one large, approximately 7.5-centimetre long claw (hence its name). The purpose of these highly specialized arms is still a mystery, but some scientists have suggested they were used to break open termite mounds (like modern anteaters), and therefore it is possible that they fed primarily on insects.

Have you heard of Deinocheirus? It got its name due to the size and strong claws of the forelimbs. No further remains were discovered for almost fifty years, and its nature remained a mystery. Two more complete specimens were described in 2014, which shed light on many aspects of the animal. And THAT’S what Deinocheirus looks like. Its vertebrae had tall neural spines that formed a "sail" along its back. Also, its wide bill and deep lower jaw are similar to those of hadrosaurs. Even though it’s related to Ornithomimids, it’s not built for running. And it’s a herbivorous theropoda like Therizinosaurus.

In China, Charonosaurus’ partial skull resembles that of Parasaurolophus and probably has a similar long, backward-projecting hollow crest.

During the Late Cretaceous, India and Madagascar remained attached to each other. And here is Madagascar, before the time lemurs, fossas and chameleons existed. Unlike most theropods, Masiakasaurus’ front teeth projected forward instead of straight down. This unique dentition suggests that they had a specialized diet, perhaps including fish and other small prey. In contrast to most other crocodilian relatives, which have long, low skulls, Simosuchus has a distinctively short snout. The snout resembles that of a pug, giving the genus its name. The number of vertebrae in the tail is less than that of most crocodilian relatives, giving Simosuchus a very short tail.

See that frog? It’s the devil frog and the toad from hell, Beelzebufo. Its expansive mouth allowed it to eat relatively large prey, perhaps even juvenile dinosaurs like that hatchling of Majungasaurus. Majungasaurus’ like its relative, Carnotaurus, only with one horn and stocky hindlimbs. The single rounded horn on the roof of its skull was originally mistaken for the dome of a pachycephalosaur. Majungasaurus was the apex predator in its ecosystem, mainly preying on sauropods like Rapetosaurus, and is also one of the few dinosaurs for which there is direct evidence of cannibalism. That means Majungasaurus eat Majungasaurus. And about that titanosaur Rapetosaurus, its head resembles the head of a diplodocid, with a long, narrow snout and nostrils on the top of its skull.

Now let’s move to India, when it’s the “other part of Madagascar.” A prehistoric snake, Sanajeh, is going to eat that newly hatched sauropod. Luckily the parents, Isisaurus, has arrived. Isasaurus’ a titanosaur with a short, vertically directed neck and long forelimbs, making it considerably different from other sauropods. Rajasaurus had a low horn on its forehead that is primarily made of nasal bone more than frontal, unlike the horn on Majungasaurus. And it’s scaring its own relatives, Indosuchus, away from their kill. Indosuchus has a crested skull, flattened on the top.

Here in Hateg Island of Romania, Hatzegopteryx were among the biggest pterosaurs. They were likely apex predators of Hațeg Island, tackling proportionally larger prey (including dwarf titanosaurs and iguanodontians) than their other relative.

There’s France before the Eiffel Tower was there. Rhabdodon  is similar in build to a very robust "hypsilophodont" (non-iguanodont ornithopod), though all modern phylogenetic analyses find this to be an unnatural grouping, and Rhabdodon to be a basal member of Iguanodontia. Like most sauropods, Ampelosaurus would have had a long neck and tail but it also carried armor in the form of osteoderms. The four osteoderms found have three different morphologies, they are plate, bulb, and spine-shaped.

Here in the underwater part of Europe, that squid-like creatures with a nearly straight shell is Baculites, the “walking stick rock.” They fed on zooplankton. And there’s a mosasaur, Mosasaurus. Regardless, it was one of the largest mosasaurs of all time. Prognathodon, another mosasaur species, was adapted to crush through hard-shelled prey. Its teeth are gently facetted and labio-lingually compressed. Hainosaurus is one of the largest mosasaurs, though its size has been revised more than once.

Past California, here we come. A plesiosaur, Hydrotherosaurus, swam there. It has one of the longest necks relative to total length among its relatives like Elasmosaurus, with 60 vertebrae in total. Living with it is a mosasaur, Plotosaurus. Compared with its relatives, it had narrower flippers, large tail fins and a streamlined fusiform body shape. These features probably enabled it to be a faster swimmer than most other mosasaurs.

There’s a nesting ground in Argentina. Titanosaurs, for obvious reasons, did not sit on their eggs like birds did. They let heat released from decaying plants to keep their eggs warm. Those titanosaurs are Saltasaurus. Small among sauropods, though still heavy by the standards of modern creatures, Saltasaurus was characterized by a short neck and stubby limbs. It was the first genus of sauropod known to possess armour of bony plates embedded in its skin. Such small bony plates, called osteoderms, have since been found on other titanosaurids. Noasaurus’ teeth are recurved and have serrations at the front and rear edges.

We’re in Cretaceous Alberta, Canada again. Canadian Saurolophus are smaller than the ones in Mongolia. It is distinguished by a spike-like crest which projects up and back from the skull. Remember Parasaurolophus? It’s named after Saurolophus. Parasaurolophus had a longer crest. Hypacrosaurus had a tall, hollow rounded crest like Corythosaurus, although not as large and straight. And there’s a juvenile Hypacrosaurus. Accompanying Edmontosaurus is Edmontonia, a nodosaurid. Like Edmontosaurus, it’s named after Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta they both lived in. The large forward pointing shoulder spikes could have been used to run through attacking predators like Albertosaurus attacking it.

Leptoceratops is a genus of primitive ceratopsian dinosaurs from this time period of past Western North America. It could probably stand and run on their hind legs: analysis of forelimb function indicates that even though they could not pronate their hands, they could walk on four legs. There’s Pachyrhinosaurus herd and a Regaliceratops. Closely related to Triceratops, Regaliceratops was named for its plated frill, which its describers thought looked somewhat like a crown.

Look. The same Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops we met while traveling way back and they both died in battle. Triceratops lost both long brow horns and had a huge bite mark on its neck. T-rex had horn marks on its belly and a broken brow horn sank into its leg, and it broke the other brow horn earlier. Over there is a genus of small primitive mammal, Alphadon. Not much is known about its appearance, as it is only known from teeth.

There’s a theropod leaping on the other laying on the back in New Jersey. They’re Dryptosaurus, Tyrannosaurus’ relative with three fingers, each is tipped by an eight-inch, talon-like claw. Dryptosaurus was first named Laelaps that had already been given to a genus of mite.

Here’s Cretaceous Colorado. This is Ornithomimus, an ornithomimid like Struthiomimus and Gallimimus. It was a swift bipedal theropod which fossil evidence indicates was covered in feathers, equipped with a small toothless beak that may indicate an omnivorous diet. Suggested food includes insects, crustaceans, fruit, leaves, branches, eggs, and the meat of lizards and small mammals. Ornithomimus differ from other ornithomimids in having shorter torsos, long slender forearms, very slender, straight hand and foot claws and in having hand bones (metacarpals) and fingers of similar lengths.

Look. Those are Quetzalcoatlus, one of the largest-known flying animals of all time. It is a member of a family of advanced toothless pterosaurs with unusually long, stiffened necks, like Hatzegopteryx. And if there’re sauropods that lived in the same time period and country as T-rex, it’s Alamosaurus.

In South Dakota lived an American relative of Oviraptor, Anzu. Its discovery in the Hell Creek Formation led to it being jokingly nicknamed the "chicken from hell". There’s Ankylosaurus in Montana. It’s possibly the largest-known ankylosaurids. It was covered in armor plates, or osteoderms, with bony half-rings covering the neck, and had a large club on the end of its tail. Those are needed for protection against predators like T-rex.

This is Wyoming and here are Pachycephalosaurus, the largest known pachycephalosaurs (thick headed lizards). It’s often shown butting heads with its rivals, like bighorn sheep do today. But scientists believe that it could not have survive banging heads. Instead, they suggest that these dinosaurs may have whacked each other in the sides with their thick heads. Pachycephalosaurus did this to compete for territory or mates. Over there’s Thescelosaurus, the wondrous ornithopoda. And a mammal, Didelphodon, acquired its name because of its similar dentition to a modern day opossum.

Behold the herd of Triceratops. These three-horned faces are one of the most recognizable of all dinosaurs and the best-known ceratopsids. They were also one of the largest ceratopsids. There’re Torosaurus near the herd. It possessed one of the largest skulls of any known land animal. There’re large openings in its frill. A new study shows that Torosaurus and Triceratops may have been the same dinosaur, because their frills keep growing with age. That species of Edmontosaurus differed from the Canadian ones by having a longer, lower, less robust skull. And little do they know that in the forest they’re close to, something stalking them.

It’s Tyrannosaurus rex, king of the dinosaurs. Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, and other dinosaurs nearby flee in fear. T-rex’s chasing one prey, Edmontosaurus. Another T-rex caught it with its jaws of teeth and Edmontosaurus’ killed by the strongest bite force among all terrestrial animals. The king and queen of dinosaurs are joined by their princes for a feast. Each baby T. rex is covered in a coat of downy feathers.

Extinction
This would be a best trip through the age of dinosaurs with gigantic sauropods, predators bigger than T-rex, raptor packs, everything. But now comes the sad part. Extinction, due to a huge asteroid that striked the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago. This disaster may have ended all dinosaur life.

Huge rocks from space may have crashed into Earth, producing clouds of dust and smoke that changed weather patterns. Dinosaurs may not have been able to adjust. Evidence of this collision includes high levels of the mineral iridium in rocks from the time. Iridium is found in asteroids but rarely on Earth.

Huge lava fields in India are proof that many volcanoes erupted at the end of dinosaur time. This activity may have caused climate changes that the dinosaurs could not tolerate.

Winter were growing colder and summers hotter near the end of dinosaur time. For several million years before the final extinction, the numbers and varieties of dinosaurs in at least some places were decreasing.

While some types of animals disappeared, others somehow survived both the initial catastrophe and the years that followed, when plants struggled to grow and food was scarce. They included a variety of these animals. Sharks, frogs, crocodilians, turtles, snakes, mammals, insects, spiders and shellfish.

The Mesozoic Era had ended in a mass extinction that eliminated most of the dominant animals on land and in the oceans – the big dinosaurs, the winged pterosaurs, and most of the marine reptiles. As the world recovered from the catastrophe, the surviving animals started evolving new forms that took the place of animals that had disappeared. They included the first large mammals, which replaced the dinosaurs as the main land animals. Here during the Ice Age, we see a herd of mammoths. And Smilodon, a saber-toothed cat. The new era also saw the appearance of humans.

And then, our planet became what it is now and the species living today, and since ever, are born. And we now know one small group of dinosaurs did survive the extinction. And they are all around us today – the birds.

When an animal or plant dies, it usually rots away. However, if it is buried quickly by mud or sand, parts of it may survive. Over millions of years it will turn into a fossil. That happened to the extinct dinosaurs.

People have been finding dinosaur bones for thousands of years, but only in the past two hundred years have scientists identified dinosaurs. Mary Anning of “She sells sea shells on the sea shore” Fame. She found the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton. William Buckland discovered the first ever dinosaur, Megalosaurus. Gideon Mantell discovered the second ever dinosaur, Iguanodon. Richard Owen invented the term “Dinosaur” which means ‘terrible lizard’. Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh were bone warriors and palaeontologist extraordinaires. And Barnum Brown discovered the first Tyrannosaurus rex.

At present over 700 different species of dinosaurs have been identified and named. However, palaeontologists believe that there are many more new and different dinosaur species still to be discovered. And we have seen 273 species of dinosaurs, 92 prehistoric reptiles and Dimetrodon, and 31 other prehistoric animals throughout the three periods. And that’s the end of our trip to the time of dinosaurs.

Epilogue
Rei and Squeaks took off the VR headset. Alfred send Rei the message from King Emirate. He wanted to see Rei. Alfred drove Rei in a limbo to the palace of King Emirates. Between him on his throne are Queen Seira on her throne, and Princess Rella. She was rescued by Rei and daughter of Emirates and Seira. Because of Rei’s heroism, King Emirates and Queen Seira asked Rei to ask Princess Rella for her hand in marriage. And they both did married. Squeaks, Alfred, Britney and even the alien mice were invited to their wedding. And everyone lived happily ever after.