chapter 15

Don't like the inaccuracies, George?" Rias wondered, a bit concerned. "Not really, it's not the fault of the creators of the show, despite what some people say about it. I still enjoy it to this day." George said, his mood a lot better as he gave the document some praise. Rias smiles.

"Next mammal is Meniscoessus, meaning small crescent tooth. It belonged to an extinct group of mammals called Multituberculates. These tiny mammals lived for 166 million years, the longest reign for any mammal lineage. Most were small and scurried under the feet of the dinosaurs but died out in around 44-33 million years ago, most likely due to competition from other mammals and climate change. Meniscoessus, at 7lbs, was rather large for its kind and behaved like a small rodent, feeding on plant matter and living in burrows." George explained. Raynare was able to write this down.

"Ok next are the Lizards." He gets out the next container that held the lizard models. He pulled out two:

The first looked like a simple lizard. 20 inches long 4 lbs

The second looked like a Gila monster but the size label of 11 feet made it akin to a monitor lizard.

Rias grabbed the monitor lizard while Raynare grabbed the smaller lizard. Both flew into the air, hovered over the display set, and then set the lizards down in the correct areas. George inspected their work. "You both get points. Raynare: 30. Rias: 18." George said.

"She won again?" Rias asked, annoyed of this losing streak she has..

"Don't blame me. But both of you are trying hard and you both go home with prizes so that no one leaves unhappy." He said, trying to calm her down. Rias groans,

"Fine." They sit down to take notes.

"Now the small lizard is called Chamops. Part of an extinct group of lizard related to iguanas, this relatively tiny lizard is ironically the largest lizard of the said extinct group found in the Hell Creek formation." George explained the short amount of facts about it. The girls took their notes.

"The next one however, is far more interesting: Palaeosaniwa. Named after another extinct lizard, this lizard was as big as a Komodo Dragon and probably just as venomous, feeding on eggs, young dinosaurs, and carrion. However, there's a debate over whether it was more closely related to the Komodo or the Gila Monster." George explained. Raynare looks,

"How closely?"

"That's the issue: scientists can't really agree as the topic is still under debate. I swear scientists are just like politicians sometimes: always bickering about who's wrong and who's right, but rather than about laws, it's about phylogenetic bracketing." George explained. Both girls turned their heads, confused on the therm. "Basically it's the concept of figuring out what animal is related to what group. Very complex process that involves looking over the remains of both living and extinct animals/comparing them, and also reading what other scientists of the past have done." He explained the process of classification in a simplified manner. She nods and wrote it down.

"Good news, there's only 24 species left, out of 81. So we are over halfway complete." George said. They smiled, while internally sighing in relief that they are nearly done. "Next are the Turtles." He gets out the Turtles container and put out the 4 turtles:

The first is a softshell turtle with a size of 5 feet.

The second is a land turtle, with a flat-top shell and a length of also 5 feet

The third is another water turtle, with a long tail.

The fourth is another softshell turtle but slightly smaller than the first.

Raynare got the two softshell turtles and Rias the the land turtle and the turtle with the longer tail. They placed them in the right spot and came back. George inspects their work. "Rias: 22. Raynare: 34." He said. Rias sighed, 'I'm starting to catch up to her.' They take their seats.

"Now first is Axestemys, literally meaning Axe Turtle. Don't ask me how it got that name. It just does. It is a softshell turtle, meaning that the carapace was leathery with no bony scutes and soft pliable skin on the sides. Much like it's descendants, it would eat small fish and water plants. Also, it wasn't completely harmless or slow as there are two videos that display this unique behavior." He showed them the videos, first the one of a turtle defending itself. Rias and and Raynare was surprised at how the turtle reacted.

"I always thought that turtles were slow and relatively peaceful, except of course the Snapping Turtle. But I've never seen a turtle extend its neck so that it's like a snake!" Rias said, shocked about it.

And this one was 200 lbs! So seeing a smaller one doing that may be just as shocking." Raynare added. "Not to mention how fast it was." "Speaking of speed. . ." He showed them the other video, this one showcasing it's speed. They laughed.

"That is so hilarious! I even like how one lady said, 'Who said turtles aren't fast'" Rias laughed.

"So not only are these softshell turtles unexpectedly deadly but also fast." Raynare added.

"Agreed. So this does make me wonder if any dinosaurs had to deal with it." George wondered. "Anyway since Gilmoremys is also a softshell turtle, we can assume it too was similar to Axestemys, albeit smaller." George added. They take notes, calming down from their fit of giggles with some grapes and grape juice.

Next is Basilemys, meaning King Turtle. Though not sure if it would be called king since it was only 5 feet long and 220lbs. . . *realizes the weight*. . . never mind then. It belonged to an extinct group of turtles that has a name I would definitely butcher if I tried to pronounce it." George explained. Raynare got confused,

"Can you at least spell it?" She asked. George pulled out a slip of paper that had the list of animals on it and looked,