Penning Dangers: Part 2

 

    Like sharks, dinosaurs are another subject that I’m heavily interested in. Just to stand in a museum and see their fossilized remains is just something that stimulates my mind. It’s one of those things that I’m never too busy stop on what I’m doing in order to pay attention to.

    I don’t think it’s as much as the beasts themselves that fascinate me. It’s their story. I mean look at it this way, these magnificent creatures were one of the first living organisms to have lived in the early beginnings of the Earth’s life for millions of years! It was only roughly about over 65 million years later after they had disappeared that mankind took their place. Even now, at the time of this entry, humans haven’t even existed nearly within the same vicinity of time that the dinosaurs had on this planet. It makes one wonder about how much we actually don’t know about this Earth and even more about the universe. Just think of it. If dinosaurs were humans; given the number of years in their existence, who knows what secrets may have been revealed and how much knowledge would’ve been achieved—not to mention advances in technology and possibly even medicine.

    But going back to their story, I guess, along possibly with many others, I couldn’t help to imagine what life was like on Earth during their reign. What color was the sky? What was the climate and temperature like? Were the lands and oceans similar as they are today? What were—the dinosaurs—like? To sum it up, what was life like before the existence of man? These are some of the questions I often ponder about when I look at these ancient animals; trying to compare our lives on Earth to theirs. I also ponder; even though violent at times, was life significantly better than today or relatively the same in some respects when it comes to nature? The next little exercise that I’m about to talk about attempts to cover some of those questions by giving the reader a single glimpse, and this is how it started.

    While browsing YouTube, I happened upon a video titled, 

The Last Day of the Cretaceous.

In the video, the creator compiled a bunch of shots and scenes from the TV series Prehistoric Planet along with an epic dramatic piece of music from the Planet Earth II TV series entitled, “Planet Earth II Suite,” written by Hans Zimmer. Just as the title says, the video tries to depict the final days of the Cretaceous period starting off by showing dinosaurs, along with ancient birds, reptiles, and sea creatures just living out their normal routinely daily lives on Earth while at the same time an asteroid makes it way through space until it finally reaches and impacts onto the Earth—thus ending the existence of these ancient species.

    After seeing this, it almost brought me to tears. To see those beautiful magnificent animals just living life as usual only to have it wiped out with no warning was just simply heartbreaking. It truly makes you value life and to not take it for granted. One moment your living then—WHOOSH! all of a sudden, you’re not. All in a flash, without you seeing it coming.

    I started to think about that last day of the Cretaceous more and more. I thought about the notion of “not seeing it coming.” I started to think about if the dinosaurs suffered; or was it quick? The only comfort I could take from watching this video was the incredible stunning CGI effects and visuals that brought these animals back to life. It was the closest thing to living the fantasy of actually watching a regular TV nature documentary; as if someone actually went back in time and filmed these creatures in their natural habitat. I can only hope that in the afterlife I will be able to live out that fantasy and be able to see, hear, walk along and even touch these creatures. Maybe even ride them. Until that time comes, I only have my imagination to work with.

    You won’t really read about any hands-on face-to-face encounters with these animals in this scene, but I do give little innuendos. What I wanted to really focus on in this exercise was what it would have been like for a human to witness a potential paradise along with creatures he’d never encountered as well as himself to be all of a sudden wiped out just after arriving there. It’s almost, I have to say, like dying just a few minutes after being born.

    I hope you enjoy this one. And I urge you to watch the YouTube video, The Last Day of the Cretaceous. If you have a heart, be ready to have it broken.

    Until then . . .

    I close my eyes for a second. When I open them again, no longer am I in my bed. The temperature around me is cool. I can feel a mild breeze of wind hitting me. Above, I can see thousands—no, millions of stars in the night sky. Never have I seen so many in my life! Not even on the clearest night while camping as a kid with my family at Yosemite.

           Strange sounds besides crashing waves hitting the shore are around me. Animal-like noises. Various chirps; coos; purrs; and sounds of insects are filling my ears as I get to my feet. I realize that I am on a beach. The oxygen going through my nose and into my lungs is incredible! I have never breathed in such clean air!

     I hear a splash and instantly look out at the moonlit ocean in front of me. In the distance, I don’t see anything that would’ve made that splash, however, I do see a huge creature flying just above the horizon. At first, I take it to be a large bird, but after looking closely, it resembles more of a giant bat.

     Suddenly, something else happens to me at this moment. I’m starting to feel fearful. Strangely, it’s not from the growling I can hear coming from the trees behind me. No, it’s from that loud BOOM! coming from above. I look up. Amongst all the stars I see a bright ball of light with a tail flying at supersonic speed. It appears to be descending towards the water faster and faster. When it finally hits, a gigantic flash follows it, turning the night into day and then—