Paleofiction thread

[dinosauria101]

Second plot:
A Megaraptor is disrupted by a volcanic eruption and must run like mad to escape with its life. It eventually ends up (insert glitch here) in Pleistocene China in the Zhoukoudian (not during the existence of Homo erectus, but rather during the existence of animals such as Pachycrocuta, Megaloceros, etc.). Its first meal would be stolen from a clan of Pachycrocuta, and from then on the 2 develop/discover a rivalry.

[creature386]

Sooo, since you made so many contributions for this thread, dinosauria, I should not lag behind and present my draft for the prologue.

Prologue:
The scorching Sun burned at its zenith, mocking the foolish Plateosaurus gracilis for not having eaten yet this day. Just like the days before. Pale stripes drew across the plant eater’s green back in the same places where proud golden ones used to rest. The Plateosaurus rose on its tail and hindlimbs. As if a hook pulled up its scalp, the sauropod stretched its arm-long neck to reach for the Ginkgo tree’s last leaves. Its leaf-shaped teeth touched the paper-dry foliage, but before the herbivore could enjoy its favorite food one last time, the fan-shaped leaves crumbled. The dinosaur licked the shreds off its lips. Never would it allow so much expended breath to go to waste. The Plateosaurus slumped again, halting just before its forelimbs hit the ground. Had evolution permitted it to press its palms into the sand, it would have taken the opportunity to relieve its body. But right now, food was more important than joint pain. The dinosaur could not ignore the putrid smell of a Peteinosaurus’ corpse. The corpse’s bat-like chestnut wings had already been perforated by maggots. The herbivore had never tried meat before. However, in dire times, even the Devil eats flies, as an old saying goes. The Peteinosaurus was so rotten, so decayed, not even the sauropod’s blunt teeth faced any resistance. Little did the Plateosaurus know that someone else had picked up the meat’s smell, too. Someone whose stealthy, dirt-colored armor lulled the resident desert animals into safety until it was too late.
Meet Teratosaurus suevicus. Spanning six meters from the snout to the tail tip, this apex predator resembled a four-legged T. rex. Only that it was no dinosaur. As it’s bone-plate armor implied, it was closer related to crocodiles. Like its cousins, it lurked in a river bed. The only difference was that this river had been dried out. With its legs below the body rather than at the sides, Teratosaurus was forced to walk crouching if it wished to avoid detection. Despite its insufficient depth, the dried-out river was closest thing to cover this planar, featureless landscape had to offer. Fortunately, it was where the Gingko trees remained. And those who had come for them.
For all its efforts to hide from sight, the Teratosaurus could not conceal those pesky seismic waves its feet produced. Much like modern day elephants, Plateosaurus could hear the footsteps of all those stalkers and tell their location. There was no time to lose. It dashed off into the wasteland. It had no goal in mind, no fortress to hide; only two bird-like lungs and a vague hope that this monster had been even more exhausted. The predator’s wheezing breath became louder and louder. A breeze from its mouth had already tasted the Plateosaurus’ back. A matter of heartbeats later, its flight came to an end. The predator had seized the prey’s ankle with its theropod-like jaws. The dinosaur’s neck buckled in response to the pain. It howled like a cow slaughtered without a bolt shot. Once the rauisuchian started shaking its jaws, it only became worse. Its maw clenched around the leaf-eater’s tibia like a fist. A fist with the mass of a car whose palm housed rows of serrated stake-knifes. The unholy triad of exhaustion, hunger and injury allied to knock the dying animal off its feet. In a touch of cruel pity, the Teratosaurus went for a quick neck bite.
The hungry hypercarnivore tore out a chunk of meat out of its victim’s stomach. There was no need to perform a death roll like its long-snouted relatives. Much like the flesh-grazers among dinosaurs, it was sufficient to just bite and shake a bit. In fact, the similarities between Teratosaurus’ skull and that of the theropods were so striking, the former used to be categorized as one of the latter.
An Efraasia minor witnessed the scenery from afar. The maiming of a creature so similar to its own brethren was not worthy of its attention.
This was a daily sight in Germany 214 million years ago.

A world, where the lush and temperate Central Europe used to rest at the heart of a vast supercontinent called Pangaea, far removed form life-bringing humid air. A world unrecognizable to any modern time traveler. Should they arrive here, they would pointlessly search for big mammals or their fellow humans. Instead, they would encounter creatures categorized as „reptile“ under their archaic Linnaean classification system. Contrary to their prejudice, not all of them would be crawling on the ground. Some would swim, others fly and others walk the Earth proudly elevated. On land, the most prominent in their ranks were the archosaurs or leader reptiles. They had always been divided into two lineages: One represented by crocodiles and Teratorsaurus, the other represented by birds, Peteinosaurus and Plateosaurus. The former was known under the name Pseudosuchia. Pseudosuchians brought forth herbivores and carnivores, semi-aquatic and terrestrial animals. Modern crocodiles are cold-blooded, but their ancient relatives might not have been. Crocodiles have a four-chambered heart which is more useful in warm-blooded animals. If the cold blood was an adaptation to the aquatic lifestyle, animals like Teratosaurus might have been warm-blooded. Regardless of their metabolism, the pseudosuchians were successful group of animals. However, in the Late Triassic, the dawn of their era was approaching. A new player in the game was emerging: the dinosaurs. They entered the stage in the Middle Triassic, about 235 million years ago. It was not until the surge in temperature known as the Carnian Pluvial Event that they really bloomed though. As unbelievable as that might be, dinosaurs had not always been the dominant taxon on Earth. For much of their early history, they shared niches with the pseudosuchians. With their higher morphospace, it could even be argued that the pseudosuchians dominated. Nobody knows what tilted the war between the avian and crocodilian branches of the archosaurian tree in the former’s favor. Perhaps it was the virtue of an erect posture granting early dinosaurs greater speed and maneuverability. Perhaps their greater endothermy proved to be a competitive advantage. Perhaps it was mere historical contingency. Whatever happened, we know for a fact that it were the dinosaurs, not the pseudosuchians who were destined to dominate much of the Mesozoic. It was them who were destined to become the largest land animals known to mankind.

The Teratosaurus knew nothing of that. With its lavish meal, it would end its life as a fat and happy winner. Its lineage, however, would not be so lucky.

[-]

I was not sure about the bite force of Teratosuchus (the line comparing its jaws to a car-sized fist suggests a bite force of 10 kN, e.g. the gravitational force of a car), so I took the bite force of a similar-sized crocodile (20 kN) and lowered it because what I read about them implies rauisuchian jaws were not as robust as those of crocodiles:
sites.ffclrp.usp.br/paleo/pdf/(044)%20Nesbitt%20et%20al%202013.pdf
The idea of Plateosaurus sounding like a cow was done mainly because the analogy was so dramatic. I have not put much thought in its sounds so far to be honest.
I’m not sure how to separate fact from fiction here without breaking immersion. The prologue is supposed to be dramatic, so maybe I can add a disclaimer at the beginning of the slower chapter one that stuff about the coloration and the sounds is made up. The actual story will ahem more scenery and exposition.

[dinosauria101]

And here would be a Part 1 of my draft for Number 2:
The Megaraptor had just eaten a good meal, and was now satisfied. It lay down for a rest to digest its food, and all seemed tranquil. Then, an immense volcanic eruption began, only a few kilometers to the west. Megaraptor had never been in danger of the volcano before, as it had been dormant for its entire life. However, that changed, and all the animals in the surrounding area had to run like mad to escape with their lives. Not an easy task for a 1.5 ton theropod with a full stomach! Fortunately for the Megaraptor however, the eruption was some distance away, which gave it a fair bit of leeway to escape. Not everything was in its favor however, and soon it ran into a large cloud of smog caused by forest fires ignited by lava bombs. The smoke burned its eyes and throat and greatly impeded its breathing, the combined effects of which caused the Megaraptor to pass out.
Some time later, it came to in a new location (Zhoukoudian in Pleistocene China). The air was cooler and less humid, there was a mysterious green plant growing straight up from the ground all around, and there were no palm or monkeypuzzle, but rather spiny trees and maidenhair-like (but different) specimens. The Megaraptor got up, dazed from the smog. It did not recognize its surroundings, and as such, decided to take a look around. It could not see anything even remotely similar to the animals it was familiar with. There were heavyset horned creatures (woolly rhinos) drinking from a nearby river, immense hairy creatures with curved spikes in their mouth (woolly mammoths) traversing on the plains, and long-legged creatures with ornate projections on their heads (Megaloceros) in the forest, just to name a few. The Megaraptor did not even know what to make of all the oddities this new location had! It decided to head off into a secluded area, just in case there was any danger (the Megaraptor would become the top predator, but did not know that at the time), and decided upon a cave.
It heard cackling in the cave, saw eye silhouettes, and felt the presence of something else. However, that something else (a clan of Pachycrocuta) felt the presence of the Megaraptor as well, and seeing as they could sense it was many times their size, they dragged their kill elsewhere in their lair, with better lighting but less accessibility so they'd be safer and could see around them better.
The Megaraptor also decided to head off elsewhere, and coincidentally ended up very close to the Pachycrocutas (but accessibility was not a problem for the Megaraptor because of its much larger size). It was a clan of 8, and they had happened upon a dead woolly rhinoceros juvenile. A perfect meal for the Megaraptor. It got close, growled, bared its teeth, and even took control of the carcass directly in order to assert its dominance.
The Pachycrocutas thought their numerical advantage could help them scare the Megaraptor off and as such they tried to fight back. However, the Megaraptor was equipped with the size, weaponry, and ferocity to keep possession of the carcass, and when the Pachycrocutas came close it grabbed one in its maw and mauled it to death on the ground.
The remaining 7 Pachycrocutas retreated, and the Megaraptor roared after them, having asserted its dominance.

NOTE: I'll make several posts for each component of the story, as I am unable to put it all in 1 post for obvious reasons

[creature386]

It's kinda funny how we both included Gingko trees.
Anyway, nice job! I like the description of the landscape and how you contrast the new scenery with what Megaraptor is used to.

I would include some paragraphs when scenery changes and whenever the POV changes from the Megaraptor to the Pachycrocuta or vice versa.

[dinosauria101]

Thanks!
Will get to that right now!

[dinosauria101]

I think I've got enough for Part 2. Here goes.
The Megaraptor, having found their lair and having asserted dominance over the clan, now has what is essentially a source for free food. However, since Pachycrocuta was a scavenging species owing to its low and heavy build, the Megaraptor's luck would only marginally increase, as it could only eat when the Pachycrocutas found something that was already dead.
As such, it also took to hunting to satisfy its hunger. One such prey item was the woolly rhinoceros, which, even though it was about the same size as Megaraptor, was very dangerous to hunt due to its sharp horn and explosive nature. However, the woolly rhinoceros had a weakness: It used smell more than sight, and as such would not have known what to make of the situation when it caught the brand-new smell of the dinosaur, while the Megaraptor would have no such issue.
This factor came into play during the first hunt, a partial ambush. The Megaraptor was stalking a woolly rhinoceros herd, and chose an individual on the outskirts, blissfully unaware of its presence. It hadn't been paying attention to the other animals in the forest however, and the call of an alarmed Megaloceros begun to scatter the herd. It was now or never! The Megaraptor rushed out at its quarry, inflicting a bite and a slash upon the flank. The rhinoceros turned around to face its attacker and blindly charged at the smell, not knowing that it wasn't quite one of its usual predators. 
This allowed the Megaraptor to inflict more major bites and slashes, and that was sufficient enough to allow it to stand back and let the rhinoceros weaken before delivering the killing blow. However, in the future, other woolly rhinoceros began to figure out what the Megaraptor was, and they began to fight back. This led the Megaraptor to try sidestepping and agility, as well as using speed to outmaneuver its foes, which proved to be very successful as it was well equipped to do so, being part of the tyrannosauroid lineage (the most cursorial large theropods). Because of this, the Megaraptor proved to be very adept at hunting woolly rhinoceros. It was also able to catch and kill Megaloceros from time to time, and could even successfully hunt juvenile mammoths at night or with ambush. However, things weren't all peaches and cream.
Winter was coming, and so was the colder weather. This was potentially lethal to a large dinosaur used to a tropical climate, having never witnessed snow or cold before. Not knowing what to do, the Megaraptor noticed all the potential prey items moving off, so it decided to follow them in order to keep up with its food. The Megaraptor noticed that the further they went, the less cold it was, and decided to try its luck by heading further still! Soon, it reached the warmer bamboo forests to the south, where the ancestors of today's giant panda reside, and decided to prey upon them instead. Unfortunately, they were relatively few and far between, and at the end of the winter the Megaraptor was relatively emaciated, having eaten only 1/3 of what it would've usually eaten at other times of the year.
Fortunately, it was spring, and that meant it was safe to head back north to where there was larger prey.  

I'll add more when I have the time, this isn't it for Part 2!

Second Note: I haven't edited in all the events. I will do so eventually however, so whoever's reading this, check back from time to time and I'll say when I've added all of them.

[creature386]

The weather was cooling, the climate is mean weather over many years.

Anyway, it is good as a draft, though it feels a bit over-summarized.

I've forgot to comment the brackets here and in your first part though. Are they stuff where you are not sure how to work it into the story yet? Telling all the animal names and that it is set in the Pleistocene of China should be no problem if you are writing in omniscient (I suppose you are). The "based on WWD episode 5" can be put in a footnote.

[dinosauria101]

Whoops, I often get weather and climate mixed up on these terms. I'll make sure which one is which.

Not sure what you mean by over-summarized. Am I repeating too much? Not including enough detail?

Yeah, I am writing in omniscient. The bracketed info can definitely be put in a footnote, I just had it there for everybody else to find out.

[creature386]

Yeah, over-summarized means not enough detail. Basically, if something is important to the story, it warrants its own scene. You describe how the Megaraptor adapts to the new surroundings, which is what this story is about, but it sounds a bit like backstory. If you say something like "[it] proved to be very adept at hunting woolly rhinoceros", you'd normally want a scene where it does so. A scene which you first set up, build tension if it will actually kill the rhino and then resolve.

Of course, it is perfectly fine to post a summary of your ideas later to get feedback and flesh them out later. That's what OldMan does with his stories, too. It was probably your plan anyway.

Planning the story ahead is better than my "discovery writing style" anyway.

[dinosauria101]

I suppose that'll have to do.
Yeah, a summary posted first and edited later on seems to be my best bet for this. I'll have to incorporate the scene with the Megaraptor hunting the woolly rhinoceros into the storyline somewhere, and I think I'll also include how it's learned to track and snatch kills carcasses from the Pachycrocutas and how it's learned how to hunt Megaloceros, as well as maybe adapt to cooler temperatures.

[creature386]

Well done.

I think you'll have to explain the whole torpor thing more. You used Leaellynasaura from WWD as an analogy, but I'm sure Megaraptor did not have the adaptations for the cold Leaellynasaura had.

[dinosauria101]

You know what, you're right.
I think I'd change that part to the Megaraptor simply heading even further south sooner. Then, heading back north in the spring.

[dinosauria101]

Part 3:
The Megaraptor, at first not sure where to go, thought to follow the weather once again. It headed off until it could feel a slight chill, and eventually, over an overpass and canyon, there were the migrating prey animals some distance away. It would have to remember to come here, as thermal locating was not always reliable. Eventually, it got on track and was headed north. During the summer, it would repeat its usual routine: Hunt Megaloceros, woolly rhinoceros, and juvenile mammoths, and steal scavenged carcasses from Pachycrocuta clans (not just the one it first ran upon). Each fall, it would guzzle down more than normal, then head south to the bamboo forest. And each spring, it would, once again, find its way to the overpass and migrate alongside prey species in order to get lucky and potentially prey on stragglers. 
Unfortunately, as was usually the case, things didn't always go according to plan. One year, winter was so cold that temperatures in the southern bamboo forest were comparable to those usually in the Zhoukoudian! This forced the Megaraptor to head even further south, into the tropical rainforest of far southern China. At first, this proved to be a rather easy way of life, the greater one-horned and Javan rhinoceroses present offering about the same amount of food as the woolly rhino, but having less weaponry and no experience made them easier targets. 
However, staying in the southern rainforest proved to have its drawbacks as well, namely the amount of edible prey. There wasn't nearly as much as there was at the Zhoukoudian, and so the Megaraptor decided to head back north a tad earlier than normal and head south a tad later than normal. This would have, in theory, worked out just fine - if not for the fact that one of the coldest ice ages on the planet was just about to begin! Fortunately, the Megaraptor did not have to experience it firsthand, but rather noticed temperatures in the rainforest were also dropping, so it decided to stay. A few years later, things had begun to warm up quite a bit, and so the Megaraptor was actually able to head north earlier. However, due to it heading north early, the terrain was very rough, and the Megaraptor sustained quite a few bumps, bruises, and wounds along the way.

NOTE: This is finished, stay in tune for the ending and peak of action!

[dinosauria101]

Just a heads-up:
I may edit any post here randomly, stay tuned for that

[dinosauria101]

creature386, I believe you mentioned something about color in your guidelines for this?
If so, do ya think these colors may work for my plot?