Challenges of the Mating Season: A Prehistoric Wild Story

Kaiparowits Formation, Utah, 76 million years ago

The morning sun emerges, greeting a new day in life on earth. Its amber, rejuvenating light shines down on what will be Utah's Kaiparowits Plateau. The arid land as we know it in our modern day will have yet to form for tens of millions of years. Here in the Late Cretaceous, it's a wetter, more humid land bordering the Western Interior Seaway that splits North America in two.

It is a vast jungle wetland, shrouded by a canopy of magnolia trees, tulip trees, and giant pine trees. The latter tower above all the other tree types and are decorated in moonseed vines. These forested, muddy swamplands are interspersed with alluvial floodplains and large rivers. The waters and the lands near them are decorated with water lettuce, duckweed, and floating, flowering plants. Clouds of faded fog emanate from the surface of these streams. Much of the dry ground shielded by the trees is made up of brown, moist dirt draped with tree roots, loose leaves, ferns, and laurel shrubs.

This vast, humid area is also alive with the sounds of its many residents. The chirps, tweets, and trills of birds amongst the trees. Squeaks from the many rodent-like mammals that scuttle across the jungle floors. Buzzing from the various insects that populate the air and other unseen parts of the area. Croaks, ribbits, chirps, barks, and trills of the countless frogs that call the rivers and wetlands home. Even the stranger, more unfamiliar noises of the land's dinosaurian residents are heard as well.

All this kerfuffle isn't without reason. This is a single day in one of the most important times in an animal's life, the mating season. Here, the males of various species compete with each other to decide who gets to pass their genes onto the next generation. It's not necessarily "love" in the air, but rather a shared instinct for the fauna to continue the survival of their kind.

One such species lies in the deeper woods of this ancient land. Scattered amongst the tree roots, pecking at the dirt ground, is a flock of over 20 female Hagryphus. They belong to the oviraptorosaur family known for being bird-like in appearance. Their robust, hundred-pound bodies are supported by two slender legs and balanced by a long, stiff tail. Thin, graceful necks support large, robust heads with long snouts and wide-spaced eyes. Their jaws sport a beak-like mouth, with the only thing resembling teeth being two sharp protrusions coming from the roof of the mouth. Three skinny, bird-like fingers stick out from each of their hands, ending with flattened, recurved claws.

An extensive coat of feathers colors much of their body in light brown. These are mixed with white bands across their back, arm, and tail fan feathers in addition to all white on their chests and underbellies. Only their feet, fingers, and face show exposed skin that is light gray and scaly. Their sounds are primarily deep gobbles and clucks, vaguely similar to modern turkeys and chickens.

The lives of these 8-foot-long hens are primarily spent pecking at the ground and consuming a widely varied diet. Hagryphus are unique in that rather than being solely herbivorous or purely carnivorous, they are omnivorous, eating both plants and meat. Thus, their diet primarily consists of various ferns, seeds, bugs, and small mammals.

This flock of feeding females starts to have a guest. It steadily struts out of a thick batch of tall ferns. Three-toed feet softly step across the dead leaves and exposed trunk roots. The creature hops onto a fallen log, making only a soft thud. Now, standing atop the dead wood, its identity is much clearer. Only one animal would make their presence known to a group of female Hagryphus: a male.

This rooster stands roughly as tall as an average human, slightly higher than his female counterparts. Instead of light brown, the base of his feathers is a reddish shade of brown. A brighter red colors a triangular comb of feathers that rest atop his head. The most striking difference is the front of his neck, which is primarily black with horizontal white bands running down it.