Angelique: The Life of an Allosaurus

Prologue

201 million years ago, the Triassic Period came to an end. Many animals went extinct and were wiped from the face of the Earth, never to be seen again. But one type of animal to survive was the dinosaur. They had just found their beginnings in the Late Triassic, and now it was their turn to reign supreme. The Jurassic Period lasted for 57 million years, and dinosaurs would continue to become more advanced. Throughout the Jurassic we would see many dinosaurs come and go, mid sized carnivores like Dilphosaurus, Proceratosaurus and Sinraptor, the first truly large theropod Megalosaurus, the spike tailed Kentrosaurus and Chungkingosaurus, and massive long necked sauropods like Mamenchisaurus, Cetiosaurus, and Apatosaurus. The most abundant and one of the largest predators of the time came at the end, however, Allosaurus. Allosaurus first appeared around 151 million years ago, in what is now North America, Europe and possibly Africa, in 5 known species. An even larger dinosaur of the same time, Saurophaganax, which may have rivalled even the Tyrannosaurus in length, is debated to be yet another species of Allosaurus, Allosaurus maximus, which would place it among the largest carnivores to walk the Earth. The most common and well known species, though, is Allosaurus fragilis. Averaging in size at around 8 to 10 meters, it is the most well known theropod. It is frequently found with injuries, healed or not, showcasing the hard life this dinosaur had. At the end of the Jurassic, 144 million years ago, Allosaurus became extinct. It is unknown exactly how the dinosaurs of the Jurassic met their end, but it is estimated to have to do with climate change. Either way, leading up to their extinction, the life of the Allosaurus must have increased massively in difficulty, the survival rate dropping. This story takes place 145 million years ago, nearing the extinction of these animals, in what is now the Morrison formation in Colorado. We will follow Angelique, an allosaur who is about to discover the hardships of life, the rarity of having a full belly, no day is guaranteed, and how hard the life of an Allosaurus really was.

Time: Late Jurassic, Tithonian, 145 million years ago. Morrison Formation, Colorado

 Note: Some appearances of animals in this time or place do contradict slightly with what we see in the fossil record. All animals here are from the Morrison formation during the Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic, but not all of them were found in Colorado as of typing this and not all of them were known to exist at 145 million years ago, but it is not completely unreasonable to suggest that the species did live this long. The goal is not complete scientific accuracy, but for a sparse cast of dinosaurs for a good story, while still being close enough to reality to be enjoyable. For example, Saurophaganax has been found only as recently as 150 million years ago, 5 million years before the story, and while it has been found in Morrison, it has only been observed in the Oklahoma area, while this story takes place in Colorado. I do not believe it is too much of a stretch to believe that, while it has not yet been observed in the fossil record, Saurophaganax may have survived to the point of this story and may have existed in the Colorado area. On the other end, Megalosaurus bucklandii went extinct 166 million years ago in the mid Jurassic, 21 million years before the story and lived in Europe, so it would be unreasonable to have one appear in the story. Once again, a historically accurate documentary is not the goal but a loosely/believably accurate adventure story is. 

In this story, the Allosaurus measure passed time in moons (nights) and seasons passed. 2 seasons make up one year. So an Allosaurus that is 30 seasons old is 15 years. After each chapter where considerable time has passed, an overview of the featured characters/dinosaurs will be given where we will see updated character descriptions, species, and size values to better track their growth over time.