Paleocreations

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	The Reaper in Paradise Deinosuchus riograndensis is a contender for the title of Earth's supreme predator. Its name means 'terror crocodile' and it is well deserved because Deinosuchus is a dinosaur eater! Lying motionless just below the surface, it waits for prey to approach then strikes with great speed and power. Its death roll is capable of killing and tearing apart even large dinosaurs. Before eating the pieces of meat, Deinosuchus wedges them under rocks and vegetation beneath the water to decay.
	Leedsichthys problematicus The bones of Leedsichthys were first described 115 years ago but, because the remains are complex and fragmentary, this giant has remained poorly understood. Estimates of its enormous size, up to 30 metres, recently put Leedsichthys in newspapers and journals all around the world. However, a more conservative length of 12 to 16 metres is more broadly accepted, which is still the largest bony fish know to have lived on Earth!
	Impending Doom 65million years ago, a rogue asteroid slashes the early evening sky on an inexorable collision course to Earth . Oblivious to their impending doom, two Tyrannosaurus rex cautiously approach the "Super rex." Discovered in Glasgow, Montana (1997), "Super rex" appears to have been an enormous tyrannosaur, perhaps 20metres in length!
	Cretaceous Jaws Late in the Cretaceous period a giant shark, Cretoxyrhina mantelli, seven metres long, feasts upon a juvenile mosasaur. Two other large sharks, Squalicorax kaupi, move in and await an opportunity to steal a bite from the sinking carcass. All three sharks must feed quickly before the smell of blood attracts other sharks, or worse, an adult mosasaurs
	The Great and the Dead Beneath the shade of a nearby conifer tree lays the dried remains of a half eaten sauropod. The ribs bend upward and inward as silhouettes across a clear, Late Jurassic sky. Suddenly, without warning a young male Allosaurus fragilis charges by, his jaws agape. A battle ensues and, within the hour, a second carcass lies beneath the ancient conifer.
	Electric Miocene From the dark underside of the cumulonimbus clouds above, lightning strikes twice. The brilliant white light illuminates a shallow lake and a tree speckled plain beyond. The grazing herds of titanotheres and entelodonts are startled and they stampede through the glowing mist. However, the toads and tree frogs take comfort in the moist air
	The Last Brachiosaur It has been forty days since the sun last fell to the sound of singing brachiosaurs. For weeks this giant sang alone hoping for a reply from another of her kind, but none came. Now, her will is broken and beneath the setting Cretaceous sun she awaits her fate. Following this night, never again will a Brachiosaurus shadow be cast upon the Earth.
	Devourer of Giants A herd of Anancus, mastodons, have drowned in a flash flood and now their dead and bloated bodies' drift with the current in a shallow ocean. Soon, their odour attracts Charcharocles megalodon. This giant shark grew to fifty tonnes in weight and is a contender for the title as the supreme predatory creature in Earth history (Early Pliocene).
	Above the Stream The stream in front of us is wide and a small family pack of Sinornithosaurs millenii use their powerful legs to leap across. From deadwood to deadwood, the agile and lightweight dinosaurs jump then glide toward safety. Within seconds they vanish into the dense under story foliage, comprised mainly of cycads and ferns (Early Cretaceous).
	A Killing Breach After hunting in deep waters, a Metriorhynchus comes to the surface to breathe. Just as the marine crocodile takes a gulp of air its tail is clamped in the jaws of a Liopleurodon! The pliosaur pulls the croc beneath the waves then begins a rapid ascent. In one spectacular breach the croc is lifted high into the air and then smashed against the water (Jurassic).
	Beach Babies Walking along a beach in South China is an adult male Therizinosaurus. He is covered with a layer of primitive, hair-like feathers and has talons more than one metre long! In the foreground, near a dead turtle, two tiny therizinosaur hatchlings break free from their sandy nest and inhale the fresh ocean air for the first time (Late Cretaceous).
	The Matriarch Triceratops horridus is the largest and most commonly discovered ceratopsian. There are many different species of ceratopsian dinosaur but Triceratops is easily recognised by the three facial horns and large, solid neck frill. Whether Triceratops used its headgear for defence or sexual display has been a topic of hot debate for many years (Late Cretaceous).
	Red Jurassic An Allosaurus fragilus has recently eaten from a decaying carcass and now she seeks shade in which to sleep. Attracted by the rank flesh and dried blood, insects swarm around her mouth. The allosaur crosses a broad fern prairie and enters a forest perimeter. The giant's quiet and sudden arrival catches a small Othnielia off guard (Late Jurassic).
	Ancient Ocean This is a warm tropical Early Jurassic ocean with a coarse muddy seabed. This is quite an inhospitable environment for benthic faunas and therefore free-swimming forms dominate the scene. Gliding upward and out from its mother's shadow, a curious baby ichthyosaur approaches an ammonite. The ammonite panics and releases a cloud of ink.
	Across the Delta This is a low-lying, hot, humid, tropical environment, thick with monkey-puzzle, ginkgo and conifer trees. A wide river runs through the scene and in the background, across wide mudflats, walk two large cetiosaurs. From the woodland under story walks a Proceratosaurus bradleyi, leaving its footprints in the wet mud (Middle Jurassic).
	Coral Sea These are shallow tropical waters with a seabed rich with life. Sunlight shines brightly on the waters surface and shafts of light penetrate to the sea floor. Tall crinoids catch particles of food with their branch-like tentacles, and a Cryptoclidus swoops into the scene over a dense coral reef that spreads out across the seabed. (Late Jurassic).
	Creswell Crags, 8,500 Years Ago At the mouth of a cave, called Mother Grundy's Parlour, sit two men. One is working flint for his arrow tips and the other, with a domesticated wolf at his feet, is mending a longbow. In the gorge below them, a beaver has dammed the stream creating a freshwater lake. It has been a warm day and the rest of the family are enjoying a swim.
	Creswell Crags, 12,000 Years Ago On the plateau, above the Creswell Gorge, are two people dressed in warm leather clothes. The man in the foreground is setting a snare trap across an arctic hare track-way. His companion is carrying two dead hares and a spear about three metres long with an ivory tip, which has been worked into a narrow cylinder with a pointed end.
	Creswell Crags, 28,000 Years Ago At the foot of the scree slopes outside Pin Hole cave are two Gravettian hunters. They both have flint tipped spears, red ochre face paint and shell decoration on their leather clothes. The girl also has ivory beads in her braided hair. Outside their temporary home are mammoth tusks, animal skins, reindeer antlers and hyena chewed bones.
	Creswell Crags, 50,000 Years Ago A Neanderthal family have made their home inside Robin Hood's Cave. Around the fire sit two youngsters, a female, and a male who has been hardening spears in the flames while he tell a story. At the cave entrance a reindeer is being butchered, while outside the cave another Neanderthal is fending off hyena with a firebrand.
	Beneath the Clubmoss Vast forests of lycopods, horsetails, ferns, cordaites, and extinct pteridosperms dominate this Carboniferous world. But the humid air is thick with the sound of animal life. Many millions of insects communicate with an orchestra of sounds while huge predatory dragonflies appear and disappear through the mist that blankets these low wetlands.
	Plesiosaur Flight Above the waters sparkling surface the weather is calm and warm. Shoals of fish pass by without sound and then scatter with violent speed as a magnificent plesiosaur glides into view. The plesiosaur is the ultimate ambush hunter within these shallow, Jurassic waters, and a swift animal with unrivalled beauty and grace when in full flight.
	Impact in Yucatan Midway through her migration a Quetzalcoatlus is finding it increasingly difficult to fly through the cooling night air. The temperature, however, is about to increase enormously. First there is a blinding flash of light. Then the annihilating wall of heat will evaporate our surroundings to the bedrock even before the roar of its approach reaches our ears (65million years ago).
	The Wreck A dinosaur died, and was washed downstream until it came to rest between the sandbars in the mouth of the river. As the giant carcase slowly decayed it released nutrients into the water, and for a brief time the small lagoon became a haven for life. Plesiosaurs and an ichthyosaur tear meat from the bones, and shoals of fish feed on the scraps. Before long a great storm will overwheln this little oasis, preserving a tiny window on the world of 100 million years ago.
	Allosaurus fragilis Allosaurus was one of the most powerful meat-eating dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic. Adults grew between 9 and 12 metres long and may have weighed over 3.5 tonnes. Large individuals had skulls more than a metre long, with over seventy teeth, and had a hinged jaw that allowed Allosaurus to gulp down huge chunks of flesh.
	Sauroposeidon proteles Sauroposeidon is a close relative of Brachiosaurus but, incredibly, it had an even longer neck! This giant could have raised its head 18m above the ground and is the tallest dinosaur so far discovered. The tail was relatively short but Sauroposeidon would still have been about 30m long and probably weighed over 50 tonnes.
	Tyrannosaurus rex Over the past few years several new species of huge theropod dinosaurs have been discovered. New giants, such as Giganotosaurus, have taken the title of "largest meat eating dinosaur" away from T.rex. However, Tyrannosaurus still possesses the most powerful jaws and the most robust teeth...T.rex is still "the daddy."
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