Jurassic Attraction (DNF)

Chapter 4: Personal Tour

Welcome to day two.
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George POV.

I took some notes about the dinosauromorph before continuing along. The holograph of the creature disappeared as I rounded the corner, eyes widening as I saw someone I recognised holding a small skull and giving a talk to a group of school kids.

With a small grin on my face I strolled over, watching as he talked to the group of students. “Palaeontologists don’t agree on how many species lived in the Triassic, some suggested numbers in the twenties or thirties, while others think there were as little as fifteen different species. All of which were a lot smaller than dinosaurs from later periods such as the T-rex.”

“We also don’t know what caused them to go extinct, whatever it was it was suspected to have destroyed all plants on Earth, based on studies and coal records dated back to the time.” For a few moments he allowed the class of kids as young as seven or eight to chatter amongst themselves at the strange thought of a world without plants.

“This is the skull of an Eoraptor, which comes from around modern day Argentina. As you can see from the skull they are quite small, about one-point-five feet tall. That is barely bigger than a chicken.” The class laughed at the idea of a dinosaur being the size of a chicken, which I admittedly chuckled at imagining myself.

The group of children seemed like they were completely enjoying the talk, and I found myself taking some more photos of the interaction so that I could make note about how staff were able to give interesting talks to people of all ages. As I snapped a couple photos I noticed Dream’s attention on me, he smiled for a moment before looking away as he heard a question.

“Are they like the veloperaptor?” A small girl asked, not being able to pronounce the name properly. It seemed that a lot of the class had been wondering the same thing as they all seemed interested in hearing the answer. Dream didn’t correct her on her pronunciation but he shook his head.

“These two species are not related.” He explained. “Velociraptors are from the late Cretaceous period and lived around modern day China and Mongolia. China, and Argentina have not been connected in any way since long before the dinosaurs. They also lived around eighty million years apart.” Once again the kids began chattering at this information.

“Are there any other questions?” He continued after a moment.
A small boy with a blue shirt and some glasses shot his hand up. Without waiting for Dream to call on him he asked “What did they eat?”

“Eoraptors were omnivores like we are.” Dream explained. “They would eat all sorts of small animals and insects living around them, and they’d eat plants as well.” He held up the small skull and gently opened its mouth. “You can tell by the teeth. The sharper ones at the front are for meat, and the firmer ones at the back are for plants.”

He complimented the question, similarly to how he did when the girl asked about the velociraptor earlier. “Are there any more questions?” He asked, looking around at the group again. I was honestly astounded by his knowledge. Perhaps these were basic facts that everyone knew but to me and this class of kids this was like another language.

They had many different questions. What colour are they? Could they swim? How old could they be? Did they live in groups? Most of the questions were answered with ease by the blond, which he continued to explain away while I and the teacher, along with several other tourists, stood back and watched.

After a while the teacher spoke up to the class. “That’s probably enough questions for one dinosaur.” She said, smiling at the students solemnly even when they let out some disappointed ‘aww’ sounds. “We need to have gone around this whole exhibit by the end of the hour kids, we can’t be asking ten minutes worth of questions for all of them.”

“Now,” she continued. “Make sure you are with your buddies, and say a nice big thank you to Mr Smith for taking the time to tell us about some dinosaurs.” There was a group chorus of ‘thank yous’ before the class followed the woman to the next exhibit. I hung back wanting to talk to the familiar blond however he was talking to a couple other visitors.

I listened as he answered all of the questions that random wanderers asked. When they were all gone I finally made my way over to him. “That was quite educational Mr Dream Smith,” I said, with him rolling his eyes at what I called him.
“Hey George, didn’t think I’d be seeing you this soon.” The blond replied.

“I could say the same. Didn’t you have some Convy’s to deal with?” I asked to which he chuckled while shaking his head.
“Compy’s,” he corrected me. “And they are dealt with. I dropped off my papers, gave some instructions, and then ran into that tour group.”

“So how come you are out here giving talks?” I questioned, glancing over the group of students that were now all looking at the hologram of a different dinosaur..
He sighed with a small smile. “Honestly, any chance to educate the young and get them interested in dinosaurs is worth it.”

It was a sweet statement that made me smile, then I grinned at him. “Since you are such an expert, do you think that you could give me a personal tour perhaps?”
He chuckled and rolled his eyes. “I said I like to educate the young.”

His words made me feign offence and I lightly hit him. “That was uncalled for, and now I’m going to make sure my article talks about the most evil person on the island, Dream Smith.”
“Well with that threat lingering over my head then I guess I have to give you the best tour.” He grinned, beginning to lead me to the next exhibit.

“Well, this is a Procompsognathus, which means before Compsognathus. Despite the name, there is no connection to Compy’s.” He explained, and those two long names were already enough to bore more. “It’s about three-point-three feet in length, just a little bit bigger than a compy is. They were originally from around Europe.”
“Just like me,” I grinned jokingly, causing him to smile.

There was a glass case which had a small skeleton, showing the size of the dinosaur. “This is the only specimen that has been found. It was kindly donated so we could extract the DNA and recreate the species.”
“Did you?” I asked, glancing over at him to which he nodded.

“That’s incredible.” My voice was breathy. “Will you be able to show me some?” Dream nodded.
“Tomorrow I will,” he assured me. “That is when you are going to start seeing the dinosaurs, right?” I nodded. “Anyway,” he continued walking along. “This is the next dinosaur we have from the Triassic. It’s called the Melanorosaurus.” He began explaining.

I had my phone out the entire time and was taking some more photos for my article, some of the dioramas, some of the holograms, and some of my kind personal tour guide.
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