by Eric Braun
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Could You Survive the Cretaceous Period? Cretaceous Period Introduction
Chapter 1: One Tough Test
Chapter 2: Welcome to the Jungle
Chapter 3: All the Beautiful Flowers
Chapter 4: Seafood Special
Chapter 5: The Cretaceous Period
Cretaceous Period Timeline
Could You Survive the Jurassic Period? Jurassic Period Introduction
Chapter 1: Lost in Time
Chapter 2: The Prehistoric Forest
Chapter 3: The Open Plains
Chapter 4: Into the Wetlands
Chapter 5: The Jurassic Period
Jurassic Period Timeline
Could You Survive the Ice Age? Ice Age Introduction
Chapter 1: The Museum of Natural History
Chapter 2: North America
Chapter 3: Europe
Chapter 4: Australia
Chapter 5: The Ice Ages
Timeline of Earth's Ice Ages
Other Paths to Explore
Read More
Internet Sites
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Copyright
Back Cover
Cover
Title Page
Table of Contents
Start of Content
Backmatter
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
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back cover
COULD YOU SURVIVE THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD?
Introduction
Chapter 1: One Tough Test
Chapter 2: Welcome to the Jungle
Chapter 3: All the Beautiful Flowers
Chapter 4: Seafood Special
Chapter 5: The Cretaceous Period
Timeline
INTRODUCTION
YOU are an ordinary kid going about your everyday life. Suddenly, you find yourself in a strange place and a strange time. It’s a period from long ago. The world looks different than anything you’ve ever seen before. Terrifying beasts roam the land. Danger lurks at every turn. Where will you find shelter? How will you get food? Will you ever see your friends and family again? Most importantly of all, can you survive?
Chapter One sets the scene. Then you choose which path to take. Follow the links at the bottom of each page as you read the story. The decisions you make will change your outcome. After you finish one path, go back and read the others for new perspectives and more adventures. Use your device's back buttons or page navigation to jump back to your last choice.
YOU CHOOSE the path you take through the Cretaceous Period!
CHAPTER 1
ONE TOUGH TEST
YOU are taking a test on the Cretaceous Period in science class. The room is silent except for the scratching of pencils. Ms. Turrey is in the back of the room working on a prehistoric terrarium display. Suddenly, you hear some electric pops, and she lets out a startled gasp.
You’ve always liked Ms. Turrey because she really loves science—and it shows. She’s always talking about cool discoveries and cracking science jokes. And she does lots of experiments. Her class is never boring. That’s why you don’t think much about the noises at first. It’s just another one of Ms. Turrey’s fun experiments.
But then the room gets humid. A smell comes from the back like mud and leafy plants.
“Oh my,” Ms Turrey says.
You look back. The terrarium contains a model of a Cretaceous Period landscape, complete with plants, toy dinosaurs, and a pool of water representing a sea. For some reason, two big electric cords are attached to the sides of the terrarium. A small gray laptop sits on the table next to it. Its cable has slipped into the fake sea. A gooey liquid sizzles around the computer, eating at the desk. A thick mist wafts from the tank. You drop your pencil.
“Is everything okay?” you ask.
“Please,” Ms. Turrey says, “keep working. I’m just going to get the custodian.”
She speed walks out. You want to obey her, but your curiosity gets the better of you. You and your best friend, Harriet, go to the now-rumbling tank for a closer look. The mist wraps around you.
“Don’t touch anything!” Ms. Turrey calls from the hall. Other students are coming to look too.
Your head suddenly feels strange. Why are you so dizzy? Did the toy Triceratops just look at you? You reach inside the tank to pick it up, and the world spins. You fall back, and when you open your eyes, you’re lying on the ground—the muddy ground.
The desks are gone. The tank is gone. Even the walls are gone. Overhead, a pteranodon soars under the sun, dragging its great shadow over you. You don’t understand how, but one thing is obvious. You have just been transported to the Cretaceous Period.
To explore a jungle in the Early Cretaceous, press here.
To wander through a flowery field in the Late Cretaceous, press here.
To experience the coastline of the sea at the end of the Cretaceous, press here.
CHAPTER 2
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
You wake up on the floor of a forest in a tangle of ferns and other leafy plants. As you open your eyes, you feel a sting on your neck. You slap it, and your hand comes back smeared with blood. The smashed body of a black bug the size of a nickel falls to the dirt by your face. Its legs kick one last time, and it dies.
“What happened?” someone asks.
It’s Harriet. She’s lying near you in the leaves.
“Ew!” she says, swatting a bug off her hair.
“I can’t explain it,” you say. “I think we time traveled. It looks like we’re in the Cretaceous Period—the Early Cretaceous to be exact.”
“Like on the test,” she says.
You’re still kneeling on the ground when it begins to rumble. You can feel it through your whole body. Standing up, you look out between the trees and see a herd of huge dinosaurs storming across the plains. Each one is longer than two semitrailers. When they lift their necks, they are taller than your city library—and it’s an eight-story building! You know from your science test these are some kind of sauropod. They’re not meat eaters, but their sheer size is terrifying. You imagine getting trampled beneath them. There are at least a dozen of them, and each one could use you as a toothpick.
They’re heading your way. They are scary, but also fascinating.
To run away, press here.
To hide and watch them, press here.
“Come on!” you yell.
Harriet follows as you run deeper into the jungle. You leap over a fallen tree. Bugs buzz through the air. A pack of small mammals that you recognize as multituberculates scrambles out of your way and into the brush. They look like rats, but they’re the size of house cats.
Finally, the rumbling fades behind you. It’s getting dark, and the breeze is chilly. You realize you had better start thinking about shelter. Where is a safe place to sleep? You worry about sleeping on the ground, where any dinosaur or animal could reach you. You look up at the tree in front of you. It is choked with moss, twisty vines, and fern leaves, making the upper branches almost impossible to see into.
“I think we should find a tree where we can spend the night,” you say.
“I’m hungry,” Harriet replies.
“Well I don’t think we’re going to find a cheeseburger tonight. We need to get somewhere safe until morning.”
You and Harriet find a tree with a good strong limb and a thick curtain of leaves to keep you hidden. You gather some leaves and vines to keep you as warm as possible, but still you shiver all through the night.
The next morning, Harriet stretches and looks around. She looks exhausted. You know you probably look the same.
“Now about that cheeseburger,” Harriet says.
You know she’s just kidding. But she is also right—you need food.
To try to catch a multituberculate, press here.
To eat plants, press here.
The dinosaurs would crush you like a bug. But they are so beautiful! You’ve never seen a living thing so large and yet so graceful. No human ever has! You decide to stay in the jungle and watch them.
You and Harriet hide behind a tree and watch. The sauropods lumber toward you. Your heart races, but you hold your position. Then the herd stops and starts eating. One of the incredible beasts prods its long neck in the canopy of trees just above you and pulls off a mouthful of leaves. Its biting and swallowing sounds like a washing machine cycle. Specks of saliva and broken branches fall onto your head. You watch in amazement.
Suddenly, the herd stops eating. They all sense you—you must be mysterious to them. Just as quickly as they came, they leave. The earth rumbles for a few minutes, and then they are gone.
“That was awesome!” Harriet whispers.
You agree. No matter what you get on your science test, this has been worth it. You are still thinking about the sauropods when you slap an itch on your arm. It’s another big black bug. The air buzzes with flying ins
ects, and you wave your hands to shoo them away.
“I hate these bugs!” Harriet says. “Let’s get out of the trees. It looks like there aren’t as many out in the sunshine.”
“I hate them too,” you say. “But what about dinosaurs? And other predators? We’d have nowhere to hide out there. We’re probably safer in the jungle.”
To stay in the jungle, press here.
To go out onto the plains, press here.
You think it would be a lot easier to grab some plants than it would be to catch a quick animal. But looking around, it’s hard to tell which plants are safe. You know that some plants are toxic to humans. In prehistoric times, maybe all of them are.
“Okay,” you say. “Let’s give it a shot.”
You find a long stick on the ground and sharpen it by scraping it against a rough boulder. Eventually you have a deadly spear. Harriet goes around a stand of shrubs where some of the multituberculates are hiding. She raises her arms and storms toward them.
“Raar!” she yells.
Several of the furry creatures run out of the bushes, right toward you. They flash their sharp little teeth at you, and you jump out of the way.
“Yikes!” you cry.
“Hey,” Harriet says. “You have to do better than that!”
“Sorry,” you say. “Let’s try it again.
Harriet finds another multituberculate and scares it toward you. This time you don’t falter. You stab at it with your spear, but you miss. You repeat the process countless more times—the little mammals are everywhere. Finally, you stick one.
“Thank goodness,” Harriet says. “I’m starving.”
Using your sharpened stick, you skin the creature and pull off the meat.
“Wait,” you say. “How can we make a fire? We don’t have any matches or anything.”
“Let’s just eat it,” Harriet says.
She’s staring at the meat and licking her lips. You’ve noticed that she’s started acting more and more primitive since you got here. Being trapped in the Cretaceous Period is turning her into some kind of cavewoman.
To eat it raw, press here.
To try to make a fire, press here.
You don’t want to deal with trying to catch and cook an animal. Gross! Besides, you know a little bit about what is safe to eat in the forest—assuming the prehistoric forest is similar to a modern forest.
“Look for some green balls,” you say. “Like tennis balls. They should have nuts inside.”
“What about these leaves?” Harriet says, pulling some small bunches from the dirt. “They look like parsley.”
