by Greig Beck
But he knew he could do it. He figured the great land bridges between the continents would still be accessible, and the waters shallow all the way up the east coast.
Andy wanted to sail up along that shoreline and see what America was like. He felt a thrill of excitement run through him that made his scalp tingle.
“I have no bucket list left,” he said to the breeze. It had taken him three long months to reach the coast, using his knowledge of the great beasts, following the tips Ben had dropped, and traveling mostly by night. He even copied Ben by burying himself in mud when he needed to. But when he arrived, he knew he had found his heaven.
The young paleontologist turned in the direction of the plateau and contemplated the future, that was strangely, now his past. The paradox of the time displacement made him wonder whether the portal opened at the same time, every time, or did it move around, by years or even days.
He smiled; for all he knew, he and Ben were here at the same time. It hurt his head thinking about it, and he wished his sister were here so he could ask her about it.
But then again, he was glad she wasn’t here. He just hoped she wasn’t missing him too much. Andy sighed and turned back to the prehistoric ocean.
“Don’t come looking for me anyone; I’m already home.”
THE END
Read on for a free sample of The Flipside: A Prehistoric Thriller
AUTHORS NOTES & THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
Many readers ask me about the background of my novels—is the science real or fiction? Where do I get the situations, equipment, characters or their expertise from, and just how much of any element has a basis in fact?
In the case of the hidden plateau in the Amazon jungle, the novel, The Lost World, was my blueprint. However, all of the creatures I talk about in my story actually existed—see my notes below on some of the new creatures featured in this book.
As for the sightings of these monsters from our primordial past existing today, well, there are myths and legends of just that occurring all over the world. But none has so much credence as the ones emanating from our deep oceans or deep jungles—like the Amazon.
GIANT PREHISTORIC OCTOPUS
In his lagoon, Ben was attacked by an oversized octopus. It was exciting, but was that likely? Well, the problem with soft-bodied creatures from our past was that they don’t fossilize very well, but they could well have existed.
There are massive cephalopods still living today. The giant Pacific octopus is a powerful creature and the largest specimen found (to date) was 30 feet across and weighed over 600 pounds. There is also the colossal squid living in the sunless depths that can attain a length of 46 feet and weigh in at nearly 1,700 pounds. Big, but were there even bigger cephalopods in our prehistoric past? Maybe. Probably.
In a presentation made at a meeting of the Geological Society of America, evidence was presented for a monstrous-sized creature that may have even been the basis for the legendary Kraken. It was a theory derived from some strange ‘scoring’ scars found on the bones of nine 45-foot ichthyosaurs from the Triassic Period.
How these huge ichthyosaurs died had always been a mystery. In the 1950s, it was hypothesized that the ichthyosaurs had fallen victim to a toxic plankton bloom as water temperatures changed. But recent work on the rocks surrounding the fossils seem to suggest that many of the creatures died in deep water…very deep water. Strange, because these prehistoric fish inhabited shallower water.
However, when the fossil evidence was examined, and the vertebrae of some ichthyosaurs were organized, there was revealed some tell-tale patterning—scars on the bones that resembled gigantic sucker marks like those from a giant cephalopod’s tentacle.
A new theory was presented that suggested the ichthyosaurs had been snared by a massive cephalopod and then dragged back to its underwater lair.
These creatures would have been smart and aggressive, and would have lured their prey with many self-learned baiting tricks—not unlike my octopus that tried to lure Ben into deeper water with gifts of seashells!
THE GIANT BOBBIT WORM
In another scene from my story, I had Juan attacked by giant worms burrowing up from the soil to feast on his flesh. Sand worms (blood worms) on our shoreline do this to fish and animal carcasses today—I’ve seen them!
The present-day bloodworms are long, but usually no thicker than pasta ribbons. However, they weren’t always so small. Jaw fossils recently found in the Devonian sedimentary layers in Canada show that giant carnivorous worms did once exist on Earth.
Websteroprion armstrongi is a new species of giant bristle worm described based on partial jaw fossils. Despite being soft-bodied, and therefore rarely fossilizing well, bristle worms have a decent record due to their numbers. They have been around since the earliest of evolutionary ages (Paleozoic, 541–251 million years ago).
Only the hard pincer-like jaws of the bristle worm remained to be fossilized, but the jaws themselves measured just under half an inch (12–15mm), and though this doesn’t sound all that awe-inspiring, in the subterranean world of worms, these guys were giants, considering that most fossil polychaete jaws only come to about 0.1–0.2mm.
By using this ancient jaw size and doing an extrapolation, specialists estimate that Websteroprion armstrongi could have been seven feet in length and nearly as thick as a soda can. In addition, the jaw fragments indicate that the animal was an adult but not fully grown, so the worms could have attained even greater sizes.
Gigantism was a trait common in prehistoric reptiles, dinosaurs, and, later, the mammals. It also manifested in mollusks, crustaceans, and cephalopods. Now we also know that even the creatures burrowing beneath the ancient soil were giants and presented danger to the unwary.
PULMONOSCORPIUS – THE MONSTER SCORPION
The largest scorpion living today is the Heterometrus swammerdami, coming in nose to tail at an impressive nine inches. But during the Carboniferous Period—some call the age of insects—there was a monster that was an armor-plated hunter that seemed straight out of science-fiction.
The Pulmonoscorpius was over three feet in length, armed with powerful and sharp claws, and also had a venomous sting. We can’t determine from fossil records just how powerfully toxic the venom was, but considering the scorpion’s size, the amount it could inject would be certainly overwhelming. Also, in all scorpions living today (1,750 species), their venom is a mixture of compounds that are neurotoxins, enzyme inhibitors, or corrosive chemicals designed to stun and then speed up the liquefaction of flesh.
The giant Pulmonoscorpius scorpion was a predator and roamed the swampy forests of the Carboniferous. Its prey would have been anything it could catch, but more than likely, the giant scorpion lived on giant bugs like cockroaches the size of dogs, Meganeura dragonflies as big as a model airplane, and even the huge Arthropleura centipede that was nine feet in length.
PTEROSAURS – RULERS OF THE PREHISTORIC SKIES
The skies in a prehistoric world didn’t stay empty for long. Flying creatures evolved called pterosaurs that were prehistoric archosaurian reptiles closely related to dinosaurs, but not dinosaurs. They flit from tree to tree, skimmed lakes, or soared majestically on updrafts.
Many of the pterosaur species were small, but the largest of their kind had wingspans of more than 43 feet and weighed in at around 600 pounds. To give an idea of size comparison, the modern bird with the largest wingspan today is the wandering albatross, which has a tip-to-tip wingspan spread of 11 feet (and in fact, the average-sized single-propeller plane wingspan averages about 36 feet).
It has often been debated about why they grew so large. Factors such as the warmer climate of the Mesozoic Era, or maybe higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere, have been suggested. But the fact is, they had millions of years to command an environmental niche, and with no competitors, they simply became dominant, and only needed to compete with each other, so only flying distance, size, and strength mattered.
The pterosaurs filled
many types of environments, ranging from ocean, to swamp, and to forest. And they were global. The smallest known pterosaur was Nemicolopterus with a wingspan of only 10 inches. Below is a top-three list of the largest pterosaurs known.
Arambourgiania philadelphiae—23 to 43 feet (7–13 m)
Hatzegopteryx thambema—33 to 36 feet (10–11 m)
Quetzalcoatlus northropi—33 to 36 feet (10–11 m)
GIGANOTOSAURUS – THE GIANT SOUTHERN LIZARD
The Giganotosaurus was a genus of massive shark-toothed dinosaurs that lived on the South American continent during the Late Cretaceous Period (100–97 million years ago).
The powerful theropod was up to 45 feet long, 12 feet in height, and weighed in at around 13 tons. It walked on two large and powerful hind legs, had a small brain, and enormously powerful jaws, with 10-inch, backward-curving serrated teeth in a six-foot-long skull. Like most of the giant carnivore theropods, its forelimbs were much smaller, ending in three-fingered, clawed hands.
Giganotosaurus was also thought to have been fast and agile, thanks to its thin, pointed tail, which may have provided balance and the ability to make quick turns while running. Another advantage the huge dinosaur possessed was that it was thought to have been homoeothermic (warm-blooded), with a metabolism between that of a mammal and a reptile, which would have enabled rapid growth.
And though the huge beast was powerful, it was also fast with a maximum running speed of 31 miles per hour. It would have been capable of closing its jaws quickly, capturing, and bringing down prey by delivering cutting or crushing bites.
The Giganotosaurus was an undisputed alpha-apex predator of its habitat, and would more than likely have fed on the plant-eating sauropods, as well as other carnivorous theropod dinosaurs.
MACHIMOSAURUS REX
In PRIMORDIA II, Ben’s time at the coast is ruined by the appearance of a giant sea-going crocodile. Though the sea-going variety never attained the size of some of the freshwater estuary types, they were still monstrously huge, powerful, and would have made a formidable predator.
The world’s biggest ocean-dwelling crocodile was twice the size of any crocodile living today. It was named Machimosaurus rex and would have weighed in at least 6,600 pounds and been up to 34 feet in length.
Crocodiles aren’t much fun for evolutionists as they remained nearly unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. For the Machimosaurus rex, it would have looked like a modern-day crocodile except for a slightly narrower snout, which was better designed for speed when going after prey in the open ocean.
The skull of this crocodile alone would have been nearly seven feet in length, and the ocean lagoons where it lived would have been filled with sharks, huge fish, and turtles—all favorite prey of the prehistoric sea hunter.
Many of the giant crocodiles died out during the mass extinction event that is believed to have happened between the Jurassic and Cretaceous Period about 150 million years ago. However, the Machimosaurus lived for tens of millions of years beyond this cataclysmic event, suggesting the mass extinction was not as widespread as some paleontologists first thought.
The Machimosaurus rex was an enormous beast, but he was still dwarfed by even bigger crocodiles that lived on land. Species, such as the world’s largest freshwater crocodile, the Sarcosuchus imperator, lived around 110 million years ago, grew to 42 feet, and would have tipped the scales at an astonishing 17,500 pounds (8,000kg), nearly triple the weight of the Machimosaurus.
I admit, I’m a little like Andy Martin in my story, where I would love to see these mighty creatures, if only for a moment. But the cryptozoologist’s spirit in me is encouraged whenever I read about some fantastic creature being discovered to have lived through its supposed extinction event. It is yet more evidence that points to some of the massive creatures of our prehistory confounding those who tell us they no longer exist.
One day, in a jungle, on a mountaintop, frozen land, or in the depths of a deep, dark ocean, we’ll meet one. Until that day, I’ll just have to go there and see them in my stories.
One
“Do not move.”
The tour group huddled close to each other, their terrified eyes staring into the black void of the chasm that had opened up in front of them, behind them, all around them. They were cut off; an island of land only fifty feet square, barely enough to hold the thirteen members of the tour that were left.
The rest, including the tour guides and security guards, were somewhere down inside the chasm.
A pair of the terrified eyes shifted and squinted against the glaring sun that was slowly sinking toward the horizon. The eyes spotted something across the chasm. Something familiar.
“What is that?” the owner of the eyes asked, tapping the shoulder of the woman next to him. “Do you see that? Is that someone?”
The woman that belonged to the shoulder that had been tapped roused herself from her traumatized stupor. “Huh?”
“There. See that?” the man asked, trying to shield his eyes from the sun that refused to relent even as it began to set. Not a cloud in the sky to relieve them from the heat and glare. “Look!”
A few of the survivors turned their heads in the direction the man was pointing. All struggled to see what he was talking about.
“I don’t see anything,” the woman whispered then closed her eyes and curled in on herself as she lay down in the dirt and grass that was the only comfort on their horrible little island.
“No, no, I see someone!” the man exclaimed. He stood and waved his arms over his head. “Hey! Hey! Over here! Help us!”
The man squinted harder and was sure there was someone standing on the opposite side of the chasm; a side that was at least a quarter mile, probably more, away from the island.
The figure raised its arms and waved back. There may have been shouting, but the man couldn’t hear over the wind that was whipping around the chasm.
“Get help!” the man shouted. “Go get help!”
The figure stopped waving its arms. The man smiled as it looked like the figure was backing away. Then the figure turned and ran. Fast.
“Oh no…” someone whined. “Oh, God no!”
The man reluctantly looked away from the retreating figure and glanced over his shoulder. All he saw were the other survivors standing up and grabbing at each other. Then complete panic.
“What?” the man asked, trying to stand his ground as everyone pushed back against him. “What is it?”
Then he saw what was coming. What he’d thought was a far-off dark cloud in the sky, possibly some relief finally from the unrelenting sun, was not a cloud. Not at all. Clouds don’t break into several individual clouds. Individual clouds with wings. Individual clouds with wings and teeth.
Wings and teeth and claws.
The man screamed as the pterosaurs—he had no idea what species they were and didn’t really care—got closer and closer. He wasn’t the only one screaming.
A hand reached out and grabbed his arm, knocking him off balance. His right foot slipped and he tried to keep from falling, but the ground was too unstable for him to maintain his footing. Even with the excellent tread of his brand new hiking boots, his feet slid on the loose dirt and shifting grass. The man’s arms pinwheeled, smacking against others that were similarly distressed about their sudden lack of stability.
Then the man was in open air, falling backward into the chasm. His scream grew, as did the screams of those that tumbled off the edge of the island with him. He watched in utter terror as the sky diminished, the chasm closing in around him the further he fell.
The man’s horror grew to a level that almost drove him insane as the horror of the day grew worse. So much worse.
One, two, three people were plucked from their freefalls by the massive claws of the pterosaurs that swooped down into the chasm to catch some easy prey. Men and women he knew, colleagues from the school he taught at, shrieked in pain and fear as their bodies were pierced by talons longer than his forearms.
He watched, physically unable to turn away as his body continued to plummet, as more people died. Those still up on the island were next, helpless to keep from being snagged by more of those claws and talons.
He thought of closing his eyes and simply praying for it all to end, but a shadow fell across the man and his eyes flicked to the source. A pterosaur was diving right for him, legs and claws extended, ready for the grab. The man’s vocal cords strained to breaking as he screamed harder and louder than he thought physically possible for any human being.
The claws reached him and the talons dug in, impaling his torso. The man coughed up half a gallon of blood. Then it was all over when his neck snapped back and his spine was severed as the flying dinosaur suddenly went from diving with wings tucked to climbing with wings outstretched.
The man had a brief second of realization that he couldn’t feel anything anymore. The lack of pain came with a strange sense of relief. But the relief was short-lived, just like the man. Spinal cord severed, the last image he saw was of leathery wings and the underside of a nightmare.
***
Olivia Herndon had trained most of her life to run.
In 2029, her senior year of high school, she took State in Cross Country, as well as both the 5,000m and 10,000m races. Her relay team lost only because Olivia had slipped in the last ten meters. Even with a severely damaged knee, which would require three surgeries to fix, she managed to come in second.
She ran track in college and continued to compete in local and national 5Ks and marathons, taking third in her age group in the Boston Marathon in 2036.
But that was sport; healthy competition between human beings.
The running Olivia was currently being forced to do was a full-on sprint away from incoming nightmares with wings. If there was any sport happening, then she was it as five pterosaurs split off from the main flock and competed to see which one could get to her fleeing form first.
