Nodal Convergence (Cretaceous Station Book 1)

by Terrence Zavecz

The teeth were sharp incisors like those of a predator with masticating molars in the back. ‘This is an omnivore. The diet is both meat and plants. Oh, but the hands!’

  Sara pickup up its arm. The hand had three digits, one of them obverse like a human thumb. The fingers are claw tipped but padded. They were obviously made to pick up objects.

  Sara glanced at David as they approached. ‘I believe these are Troondons. They are supposed to be very intelligent, maybe one of the smartest dinosaurs.’

  David bent down to examine the body. ‘Their feathers are different. A lot denser than the Hypes. They sure don’t look like the dinosaur photos I’ve seen.’

  ‘Have you ever seen a bird without it’s feathers? Most of the sketches you saw were artist renditions. We knew they had feathers but didn’t think they were this far developed.’

  ‘Well, we are being watched.’ Dan broke into the conversation. ‘Behind those bushes. Looks like they learn pretty fast. They’re just watching us. Let’s pull back and see what they do.’

  Dan motioned over to the guards. Don’t turn on the AutoSentinels but keep a watch. Shoot if they rush us.

  Two of the dinos left the group and came forward slowly. They charged for a few feet and then stopped.

  ‘Fire a few shots at their feet, don’t hit them.’ Dan called.

  The guards fired and dust kicked up in from the dinos spraying them with sand and small rocks. They jumped to the side and just looked at the ground.

  Dan took a few steps forward and whistled. The dino’s raised their heads. He was in clear site of the two. Dan raised his Pulsar to his shoulder making sure they could see what he was doing and aimed at the nearest dino.

  ‘Don’t!!!’ Sara yelled.

  A branch of the bush next to the head of the dino split from the tree and flew. The dino reflexively ducked it’s head from the branch and the solid rush of air from the slug. Another yodel followed by a whistle came from the trees behind them. The two dino’s pulled back and stood watching from the group.

  ‘What should we do with the bodies out there?’ One of the guards called.

  ‘Well, they might be good eating. Sara says they are bird ancestors. Why don’t you go out and bring one back in? We’ll cover you. Afterwards let’s get those AutoSentinels back up.’

  The guard moved out toward the nearest dino with his Pulsar at the ready. As he picked up the carcass the dino’s started hollering and whistling.

  ‘Well, looks like they don’t want you taking the carcass. Why don’t you pull back in here.’

  The dino’s calmed down and went back to their vigil. They watched the humans carefully. Sometimes they stopped to munch on a tree or some ferns. Mostly, they waited.

  Dan called over, ‘All right, let it go. I want four guards out here watching them. Don’t go outside the berm. Set up the AutoSentinels to fire at anything closer than the dead ones. If they come forward, let them be. Don’t kill unless you must. I want to see what they do.’

  The dinos kept watch through the evening and into dusk. Standing, watching and waiting.

  * * * * *

  Tom Bracken had spent twelve years as a Special Forces sergeant. He was a language expert and trained in surveillance electronics. Keeping an eye on these dinos was easy. Dinos, hell. They were birds as far as he was concerned even if they couldn’t fly very far. For one thing, they were easy to spot in any InfraRed or IR sensitive device. Their helmet displays provided more than the full color display normally seen since it was also low level enhanced. The dinos didn’t even try to hide themselves. They probably thought that the dark night would hide their movement. They were actually quite handsome looking birds.

  A movement to his left, out about 40 yards caught his eye. Two of the birds were moving into his position and they were trying to be very quiet. They didn’t seem to care about being seen, probably thought they were hidden by the dark. OK, I’ll let them get a little closer.

  ‘Intruders on the left. Firing warning shots.’ He warned the others using his transmitter.

  Two shots went out to fling up the ground in front of the dino’s . One bird pulled back and yelled at the second. The second took a few more steps. Tom calmly fired again, three shots at low setting just across their path.

  The game went on throughout the night. The dino’s would pull back and then try another corner. The false light of early day that appears just before dawn showed the group of dino’s standing in front of the berm in their original position. One of the dino’s whistled and yodeled and slowly, deliberately came forward directly to the front of the camp. The guards did nothing to stop him. He stopped at the nearest dead dino and nudged it’s body. He then stood upright and stared again at the berm in front of him.

  The dino let out another yodel and several more dino’s came forward. Using their hands they grasped and dragged the dead bodies back into the brush and out of site. They were nowhere to be seen by the time the first rays of light arrived.

  Sara stood up and walked over to Tom’s position. ‘Walk back to the hunter with me Tom. What do you think they were doing here?’

  Tom turned to her with a look of puzzlement in his eyes. ‘Why, they were collecting their dead of course.’

  ‘Birds don’t do that!’ Sara said a little loudly.

  ‘No,’ Tom replied,’ but soldiers do.’

  References

  1. Fundamentals of Physics 8ed,Halliday/Resnick/Walker,ISBN 978-0-470-04618-0 p 336 (Measuring Universal Constants)

  2. University of Washington Big G Measurement". Astrophysics Science Division. Goddard Space Flight Center. 2002-12-23. http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/Stephen.Merkowitz/G/Big_G.html. "Since Cavendish first measured Newton's Gravitational constant 200 years ago, "Big G" remains one of the most elusive constants in physics."

  3. T. Van Flandern, “The Speed of Gravity – What the Experiments Say”, Physics Letters A 250:1-11 (1998)

  4. “Blue skies, red-hot temps in Cretaceous”, GeoTimes Earth, Energy and Environmental News, April 2008 http://www.agiweb.org/geotimes/apr08/article.html?id=WebExtra041008.html

  5. Philippe Taquet, “DINOSAUR IMPRESSIONS” Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0 521 58372 1 hardback (feathers & skin)

  6. “Texas Cretaceous Dinosaurs”, http://www.texas-geology.com/Texas%20Cretaceous%20Hill%20Country%20and%20P%20Lakes.html#Hypsilophodont

  7. Tyrannosaurus Rex, quick reference: http://www.unearthingtrex.com/pages/rex_traits.html

  8. Dinosaurs in your area? Follow: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/dino-directory/region.dsml?perID=6&disp=gall&sort=genus&beginIndex=10®ionID=1&

  9. Landis, G.P., and Snee, L.W., 1991, 40Ar/39Ar Systematics and argon diffusion in Amber; implications for ancient earth atmospheres: in Kump, L.R., Kasting, J.F., Robinson, J.M., Atmospheric oxygen variation through geologic time. Global and Planetary Change. v. 5, p.63-67.

  There is a size progression between the extinction events. Immediately after the event, all of the new animals are small and, if any still exist, the larger animals of the past age seem to die off. Many have theorized about the cause and some continue to question even the validity of a correlation.

  Correlation or not, a major question does arise with the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous. Why were they so large and how could they survive being so large?

  Gas pockets encapsulated in Amber have confirmed the higher oxygen content of the era. This cannot explain the monstrous growth that occurred during this age. In fact, even the human body seems to operate better with the slightly higher oxygen levels. With the higher oxygen of the Cretaceious we would heal faster, think faster, see better and with greater clarity. Burn victims as well as those suffering from Nitrogen Narcosis are quickly put into a high oxygen, barometric chamber to aid healing.

  So, why did dinosaurs get so large? As we’ve seen in the quote at the start of this chapter, simple fluid mechanics tells us that the blood vessels and heart would not have been able to handle the higher pressures needed for suc
h large creatures. Long-necked creatures such as the Brachiosaurus present additional problems. Their necks are not built strongly enough to support a head in the upright position or even a position parallel to the earth under the stress of our current pull of gravity. Simple logic also says that if you have a long neck, you didn’t develop it to feed over a pond or into the bushes. A long neck is made to either reach the ground or to be able to extend up to the highest, most tender leaves of the trees.

  The concept of a change in the gravitational pull of the earth is not only NOT proven but it’s usually scoffed at in the community. For one thing, there’s no proper mechanism for gravitational change in the physics of today or in Einstein’s General Relativity.

  Perhaps the whimsical fancy of this story will one day be proven as true. Some recent models suggest that neither the speed of light nor the universal gravitational constant are in fact constants. We still await the proper experiments to prove it one way or the other.

  The dinosaurs survive today from one branch known as Theropod. Theropods were the meat eaters of the group and contained such famous individuals as the Tyrannosaurus Rex. So the next time you walk by Budgies’ cage and he lunges at you, you don’t have to wonder why anymore. It is in his genes.

  Dinosaurs, particularly Theropods, contained air passages in their vertebra and breathed through a complex system of passages, pockets, and air sacs that acted like bellows - forcing air through the lungs in one direction. This one-way system constantly bathed the blood in fresh oxygen, whether the bird was breathing in or out. The honeycomb was a result of the air sacs invading the bone. The result was that, after 100 million years of evolution, the dinosaurs were extremely well designed. Unlike the old movies, we now feel confident that they moved quickly and very efficiently.

  The question of feathers or scales is gradually tipping toward an answer that suggests most of the dinosaurs sported at least a down or feather coat. They have even found Tyrannosaurus Rex skin imprints suggesting a feather covering. Personally, as I think about my wife’s African Gray I have little doubt that the dinosaurs were feathered. My wife’s bird has a nervous habit of pulling his feathers out every winter. Standing there, glaring out at all who pass by with a bare body and baleful yellow eyes I have no doubt that he is recently descended from the Theropods and can easily see the baleful glare of a miniature Tyrannosaurus in his eyes.

  A Troondon tooth is perhaps the first dinosaur fossil ever discovered. Today it’s still not clear as to what they looked like. Based on tooth wear and the variation in tooth types, we think they were omnivorous. Just like us.

  Current theory is that the Troondon, or Stenonychosaurus inequalis, was a very smart dinosaur. Speculation, based on brain size and ignoring the higher oxygen content of the era, has them as smart as an ostrich. It is pretty easy to assume that we are underestimating them in this just as we have underestimated their ability to survive and move efficiently in the past.

  Chapter 4: ReThink

  “Data on dinosaur brains have been reexamined in recent years to suggest something about the behavioral capacities of these animals. The basic thrust has been that dinosaurs were more birdlike than reptile-like. … It has been this evidence that led systematic biologists to conclude that dinosaurs were closer to birds than to reptiles, in effect, that birds are surviving specialized dinosaurs.”

  Jerison, “Dinosaur Brains”, Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 2009

  Elsevier Ltd, Editor L.R. Squire

  "The new research on tool-making Caledonian crows made me reconsider Dale Russell?s ‘Dinosauroid’ more seriously than I did before. I think many have dismissed his idea as being unrealistic and dubious at best. But since some birds, which are theropod dinosaurs, have the ability to fabricate tools and display the capacity for complex cognition, it is quite possible, in my opinion, that had dinosaurs survived, they very well may have evolved a tool using form."

  Simeon Koning, email letter to dinosaur@usc.edu published in Science Magazine (Feb. 20, 2007)

  A blanket of stars flows like a sparkling-drape across the soft blackness of the late evening sky. The thin crescent of a new moon rising from the ocean does little to diminish the colors of a million ethereal diamonds. Beneath the sparkling canopy, a sea of soft dark movement belies an ocean’s stillness. The ocean’s velvet tranquility ebbs and flows beneath a smooth, breathing sky-matched marine reflection of the pin-bright starry splendors above it to rise and then fall in broad, slow hypnotic undulations. Fixed firmament and rhythmic reflection of the galactic ecliptic extend to the far horizon to suffuse the illusive meeting of ocean and sky.

  The realm of Poseidon surpasses the photo-splendor of Zeus, punctuating the imaged aerial display with life-given flashes of fluorescence. Thousands of pastel colored rings of bioluminescence scatter across the marine surface. Rings of light, born of microscopic plankton who release their photons back to the universe decrying their disturbance by others.

  Occasionally the telltale bioluminescent phytoplankton scream the passage of larger predators with thousands of microscopic light displays that blend softly into the pattern of sky and sea. Here and there, they coalesce into soft pastel lines that reveal the path of the larger marine denizens seen close to shore only at night. The nearer lines resolve to form pastel comet-tails led by broad reptilian Plesiosaur bodies with long necks that play across the surface in search of the evening meal.

  The occasional hunter braves the shallows to pass close to the cliff in hope of grasping an unwary Pterosaur or cliff-bird nesting. One brave passage extends his neck to stretch out and almost reach the top of the hundred-foot high wall where his eyes meet in surprise those of an unexpected, alien watcher on the cliff edge. Fear of the unexpected and unknown capture him and release a barked-cry from his lungs and he launches himself to the deep safety of the nearby waters.

  The watcher on the cliff jumps in brief shock withdrawing her eyes from the far display of the sea-reflected galactic ecliptic. An image of a galaxy that is a little younger and so much brighter than her eyes were used to observing. Her eyes withdraw to focus on the star-lit gaze of another night-companion whose own shock carries it quickly back into the folds of the evening.

  Molly Pasteur had been quietly standing above the south wall of the plateau’s cliff edge when the visitor came. Molly joined Blackwave as a communications specialist out of the Navy just four of her years ago. She joined because they told her that the work on Jupiter’s moon would be an adventure. Never in her wildest dreams did she see herself spending the evening gazing at an ocean of stars, surrounded by mild tropical breezes. A tall and attractive blond with a smiling disposition, Molly had loved adventure and the chance to travel provided by the Navy. Until tonight, she had thought that nothing could surpass the experience of spaceflight and the views of Jupiter and then this world. Her heart near leaped from her chest when the two eyes emerged from the darkness below to look into her soul.

  ‘Are you ok Molly?’ Alex Grissom called from the other side of the brush.

  ‘Yeah, I just had the noodles scared out of me though. I was standing here watching them feeding when a head appeared out of nowhere right below me. What you heard wasn’t me. It whooped when it saw me. I swear it was no more than ten feet away!’

  Molly and Alex conducted their vigil on into the night watching the known pathways that led to the shoreline below. The Troondons seemed to be concentrating their entry attempts at the plateau entrance. They could hear the occasional shots from Tom’s team driving them back or perhaps killing those who persisted in their attack.

  So far the cliff walls were quiet. Though loud, the harsh air reports of the rifle’s blast paled in comparison to those ancient slug-throwers of fifty or more years ago. The sounds of firing are alien to the night cries and breezes of the native flatlands. The natives of the high plains filled the humans first night on the plateau with song, melody and the occasional bellow of tuned horns. Although far from the intense tonal concentration of the
distant forest, the high plains of the mainland carried chirps, whistles, calls and answering melodies as though they were set in an aviary. An evening filled with song that would all be lost to the future except for the lonely call of the nightingale.

  The river valley to their south echoed with almost whale-like song although the strain is deeper, more tonal and more musical. Sara, the paleontologist, had said earlier in the evening that the valley should be home to herds of duck-billed hadrosaurids although the travelers had yet to see one of these. Sara had mentioned that she thought that the origin of the trumpeting evening sounds came from a hollow crest on the hadrosaurids head that acted as a sounding chamber.

  The night sounds lifted Molly’s imagination, already fueled by the magic of the starry sea, to new heights of wonder and a little fear. A few times during the night a distant cry like that of a giant eagle but deeper screamed across the landscape. Sara had not been here to speculate on who might be calling but Molly’s imagination could think of none but the one they all feared but wanted to see, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The cliffs however remained quiet and neither sound nor the night sight, enhanced by their helmets, could detect any threat to their quiet beauty.

  Softly, the rustle of sea-ferns accompanied with the soft pad-fall of a carefully placed foot sounded not from the watched cliff-edge but from the security behind them. Molly and Alex listened only half breathing. Every fiber in their bodies was alerted to the casual, easy progress of the footsteps approaching them without the courtesy of a familiar hail. The star-lit outline of two dinosaurs with soft rounded noses and large, expression filled eyes arose in the bushes just down the camp trail.

  ‘Hold it Molly!’ Alex signaled softly over the communicator. ‘It’s just a pair of Hypes feeding on the brush.’

  The Hypes turned their heads as Alex spoke and spotted Molly. They let out a cheerful warble that was beginning to sound like “Hello” and came running over for the expected handout. Unlike the older Hypes, they were youngsters who playfully approached looking as much for a loving hand-stroke from the humans as for a tidbit. Alex began rubbing the back of the head of one of the Hypes while Molly pulled away.