A young raptor called Pod...
...fights for his life in a land of giants.
His world is a prehistoric battlefield
ruled by size and strength,
until a monster from the sea turns this realm upside down.
A lone castaway awakens on a distant island
and begins his quest for survival.
But the journey leads instead to a primeval Neverland.
Here, life and death operate on a new and mysterious scale.
Pod is a prehistoric Gulliver stranded in a kingdom of the small.
DINO PLANET
LAS AVENTURAS DE POD
EUROPA MERIDIONAL HACE 80 MILLONES DE AÑOS
80 million years ago, most of Europe
sleeps beneath the vast and shallow sea.
A matrix of volcanic islands occupies the region
known today as southern Europe.
Dry land is hard to find, but there's plenty of beach front to go around.
Here, on the great islands, the residents are key players
in the closing act of dinosaur evolution.
A mixed bag of prehistoric vegans
and late-Creatceous carnivores
roam the fertile lowlands.
Beneath it all, a troubled earth and a growing sense of unease.
Within 24 hours, a single geophysical event will transform their world.
But for now, it's business as usual for two radically opposed species.
On the lowland, a three-pack of agile pint-sized carnivores, barely 8 feet long.
Towering above them, a skyline of Titanosaurs,
Europe's foremost vegetarians.
At 5 tons, adults weigh roughly the same as a jumbo elephant.
Consequent, they chew their green with a certain nonchalance.
But even Titanosaurs put lunch on hold
when meat-eaters loiter by the salad bar.
Armed with a killing claw on the second toe and high-torque legs,
this is Pyroraptor Olympius, Pod for short.
Pod's deal is not about size, it's about smarts.
His brain to body ratio
make him almost gifted by dinosaur standards.
At the low end of the I.Q. scale is the Iguanodon.
But Pod doesn't take them lightly.
These 3-ton grazers carry 30 times his body weight.
Iguanodons can change their default setting from lawnmower to tree trimmer,
using their large, spiky thumbclaws to harvest leaves.
The dinosaurs can't identify the source of the low-frequency rumble,
but they feel it 100%.
Instinctively, Pod's pack heads for high ground.
The tremors end as mysteriously as they began.
But noone's wired to stay afraid for too long,
including Pod.
He's turned his attention to a new incoming sensation.
Something positive, for a change.
Pod follows his nose upwind
to a dry riverbed about 60 yards from the rise.
While his position here is totally exposed to competitors,
the risk is outweighed by the prize...
What's left of a small Iguanodon, covered by a cloud of flies.
The carcass reeks, but it's all his.
As the dominant leader of his pack,
Pod will eat his fill before calling in his sisters.
Tarascosaurs are southern Europe's dominant predators.
Pod calls for backup.
Engaging the enemy is futile,
but raising the possibility might scare them off.
The Tarascosaurs aren't buying it.
Pod gets a wake-up call.
The Raptors have won a reprieve.
The crippled Tarascosaurus is no longer an asset to his mate.
Given the chance, she might even eat him for lunch.
When Pod and his sisters turn the tables, the standing Tarascosaurus retreats.
The pack consider their endgame,
but only one move presents itself...
...run for their lives!
The thunder of the stampede and the rumbling quakes of the earth
seem to come from everywhere.
Pod stops to see if his pack is safe from the Iguanodons.
The stampede is far from over,
so Pod urges his sisters to go with the flow.
Volcanic tremors escalate the level of distress.
The animals can't make the connection.
The strand of beach provides room to maneuver.
Another plus is the slowing effect of soft sand
on giant dumbbells.
Pod and his sisters have come to this beach many times
to scavenge for dead fish, but tonight is so different.
A distant and fiery ghost haunts the beach,
a threat that now claims the sea itself.
Far beneath the surface,
two opposing crusts of the earth have reached a breaking point.
The waters of the bay recede from the beach as one great sheet.
The sea now bilges like a dorsal back of a sea monster.
As a single towering beast, the water returns to the land.
A prehistoric tsunami breaks from the shores of southern Europe,
its arrival marked by a final cry of defiance.
A great wave locks the animals in a slow-motion vortex of water and debris.
Only a few will escape the sleeve that now swirls their lives.
One small predator evades death.
Pod awakens to an empty, confusing world.
He clings to life on a drifting tree trunk.
But he's not alone.
One of Pod's sisters has survived.
Joined by one of his kind, Pod is reassured that part of his pack still exists.
At 50 feet long,
the Plesiosaur flies through the water like a great bird of prey.
Clenched in its jaws is all that remains of Pod's clan.
The only link to the past broken forever.
Once a deadly predator,
Pod's become a creature of chance,
an accidental tourist in search of a map.
His second day adrift ends in total exhaustion
and a sleep as dark and deep as the sea.
As dawn breaks, Pod's lifeboat is carried north by a light prevailing wind.
But driven by the rising sun, the salt air and heat
preys on Pod's last reserves of strength until light falls again.
The only thing keeping Pod alive is the attention he's getting from scavengers
who just assume find him dead.
The Ichthyornis is a major pain,
but its presence here is also a positive sign.
Birds like these cannot survive entirely on the sea.
On day three, the morning breeze carries a familiar scent,
an aroma deeply imprinted in Pod's memory bank:
the sweet smell of dry land.
But Pod is too weak to swim to shore.
ISLA HATEG, RUMANÍA HACE 80 MILLONES DE AÑOS
The next morning, on the island in question, sea birds are at it again.
Something new on the beach.
For a second, Pod wonders why the sea is so calm.
What's with those trees?
Then, it's lights out.
While he has no memory of what happened,
Pod has washed ashore on the back of his log,
and 24 hous later, he's still out cold.
Curiosity once again overcomes the sea birds,
and they're not the only ones.
Drawn to the scene by all the racket, is a very small version of...
...Pod.
The birds are put on notice that this corpse is taken.
The claim is backed up by two more associates.
And stay away!
Birds are pushovers.
Terrestrial crocodiles are a whole new ball game.
Allodaposuchus, a long name for predators short on brains,
but totally fearless in battle.
The little raptors are about to be outclassed...
...in more ways than one.
Pod is delirious, but he's nobody's carcass.
When Pod takes a stand...
the crocs back down.
But not the miniraptors.
Pod's never seen such aggresive behavior
from animals this size, and for some unknown reason,
they've never seen anything like Pod.
Pod has survived the perils of the sea,
but his journey has only just begun.
He's stranded on dangerous new ground.
The good news: it's not shaking.
That's just his legs.
Half-dead but determined, Pod will follow the trail of the local raptors.
If he can keep on his feet,
these islanders will lead him to a pack of his own kind, a second chance.
Pod hears a welcome sound.
It comes from a stream on its way to the sea.
The search will have to wait.
Pod hasn't had a drop of fresh water in days.
The calls of animals in the distance tempt him to leave.
But Pod senses he doesn't have the juice.
He must drink now, or die.
Although water is cooler than fresh, the effect on Pod is narcotic.
It's time to find a safe place to crash.
At the base of a 10-story softwood,
a hard day ends, on a pillow of soft leaves.
At daybreak, every muscle in Pod's body is stiff and sore.
A thick crust of sea salt on Pod's skin and feathers
demands attention.
Pod is caught completely off-guard.
It's one of the raptors from the beach.
How can a creature so small be so aggressive?
Pod's gut tells him that a pack of hunters is planning the next move.
80 million years ago, southern Europe looked less like a continent
and more like a chain of islands.
The islands dotted a body of water called the Tethys Sea.
Yet the dinosaurs still managed to get around. How?
Would you believe... bridges and boats?
During the age of dinosaurs, continental drift was reshaping the face of the planet.
As the continents drifted, the animals went along for the ride.
When one landmass collided with another, a land bridge formed,
allowing dinosaurs to colonize new territory.
Likewise, as continents drifted apart,
members of the same species went their separate ways.
The evidence?
Relatives of Tarascosaurus are found on southern continents,
but nowhere in the northern hemisphere,
except in southern Europe.
How were these and other dinosaurs able to 'island hop'?
Perhaps on natural rafts.
Some Caribbean islands are populated by iguanas
whose ancestors had to cross nearly 200 miles of water.
The only transport, rafts of vegetation.
It seems improbable,
but with enough time, say, millions of years,
the odds of even the unlikely occurring become almost a certainty.
The miniraptors Pod has been tracking have found him instead.
But there's something about them.
Instead of treating Pod as a kindred species,
they panic and retreat,
as though he were some kind of giant, alien predator.
But Pod senses the intruders might still lead him to a pack of his own kind
and the promise of survival.
So Pod embarks on a prehistoric journey of discovery.
Yet, the more he explores this brave new world,
the less he understands it.
At least the water tastes the same.
Now, another riddle.
A herd of tiny Iguanodons hunted down by the same miniraptors.
While Pod's hunger is stupendous, he can't bring himself to join the hunt.
Pod disconnects his instinct.
While the size ratio between predator and prey is the same,
the overall scale of this creatures,
compared to their surroundings, is too small.
Nothing in Pod's experience provides a clue.
The creatures on this island can't be that different from the ones he grew up with.
No way!
Just downriver, Pod stumbles straight into a catered lunch.
A group of pint-sized Titanosaurs stand directly upwind.
Called Magyarosaurus,
they are 1/4 the size of the giants Pod knew on his old island.
These pocket versions are completely unaware
that they've walked directly into Pod's crosshairs.
Luckily for them, Pod's instinct to avoid their kind is too deeply ingrained.
Feeling no comfort factor, he withdraws.
As an added precaution,
Pod puts some daylight between himself and the odd-sized animals.
Just around the corner, his luck takes a 180.
Broadcast down the walls of the river valley
are the sounds of boundless opportunity.
Fighting for territorial control, two dwarf Iguanodons duke it out.
And the fight seems to be spinning out of control.
Hard beaks are leverage to deliver punishing body blows.
The invading male takes a serious hit from the sharp thumbspike .
When the wounded contendor refuses to withdraw,
the defending male pours it on.
Pod is not the only predator drawn to the showdown.
A hunting party of land crocodiles have waited this long.
A duel meant solely as a test of strength,
now ends in a primeval bloodbath.
For the victorious Iguanodon, triumph is fleeting.
Now, his fallen rival presents Pod with a golden opportunity.
He's wired to deal with crocs.
Confidence very high, thank you.
In his old neighborhood,
Pod's driven these bullies off many a kill.
This crew is no different.
Pod dives into the first carcass he's ever eaten on his own.
The siesta that follows provides the crocs another shot at the leftovers.
But just as they start to dig in, the party is crashed by a pack of Troodons.
Smaller and smarter than Pod, these predators are a handful.
The land crocodiles refuse to share the carcass.
By the time the Troodons return, Pod has eaten his fill.
The fresh meat has returned his strength
and he'll need every ounce of it for the new challenges that lie ahead.
Imagine two closely related dinosaur species.
One regular-sized on the mainland,
the other, dwarf-sized on a nearby island.
Strange, but true. Or at least that's what the fossils seem to tell us.
Take this sauropod leg bone.
It's truly impressive in size.
This Magyarosaurus legbone is a miniature version of the same,
Only 1/4th the size, yet both bones are from adult dinosaurs.
This same phenomenon has been repeated many times in the recent past.
On an island near Santa Bárbara, California,
paleontologists unearth evidence
that a stranded species of mammoth
shrank from 6 tons to about 2 tons in less than 5 000 years.
These recent examples show a direct association
between body size and living space.
The greater the area, the larger the maximum body size, and vice-versa.
Whether mammals or dinosaurs, large-bodied animals marooned on islands
tend to downsize over time. Why?
Probably several factors, inlcuding limited food supply.
Whatever the reason, these dwarf species show that
big things really can come in small packages.
ISLA HATEG, RUMANÍA HACE 80 MILLONES DE AÑOS
Like a river, evolution takes the path of least resistance
as it flows through time and space.
This concept is the key to the mystery that confronts Pod at every bend.
While concepts are beyond Pod's abilities,
his primal confusion over the size of the islanders is about to end.
There's something different about this herd.
Pod sees creatures of the same kind together.
Adults and juveniles walking side by side.
They are the same animals as those he grew up with,
only small.
Pod's landed in a prehistoric Lilliput.
This island is smaller than the one he came from,
and the environment can't support normal-sized animals like Pod.
So, evolution has favored the small over the great.
Life and death struggles go on here,
only on a smaller scale.
While Pod can't process the fine points,
one thing is sadly clear:
he's more alone now than he ever was at sea.
Throughout this strange island,
animals of every sort remain in constant communication.
But Pod's cries for companionship go unanswered.
His calls fade like the sunset
on this strange and lonely land.
The layout of Pod's new land ascends from the sea to a high country
alive with hidden cascades and lush valleys.
Hidden here as well may be the company Pod craves.
Distant relatives of his own kind,
raptors willing to take a stranger into their group.
Up on this high ridge, the sounds of other animals seem to come from everywhere.
Maybe a good shout from up here will travel well.
Deceived by his own echo,
Pod believes he's made contact with another raptor like him.
Pod's broadcast's not gone unheard.
The question now is whether he's attracted an audience
or a dangerous mob.
Pyroraptor is known only from a handful of bones,
yet, it is fully reconstructed here,
and with many birdlike features.
Is this gross speculation?
Well, not quite.
We start by looking at specialized features common to two or more kinds of species.
That evidence is then used to generate a branching diagram
that gives us a best estimate of evolutionary relationships.
A kind of biological family tree.
The few bones we have of Pyroraptor
share several specialized features
with other small carnivorous dinosaurs,
like Velociraptor.
Since Velociraptor is known from nearly complete skeletons,
we can use this information to help
reconstruct the missing pieces of Pyroraptor.
Sherlock Holmes might have called it deduction,
biologists call it cladistics.
But what about non-bony tissues, like feathers?
Recent discoveries in China include remarkable fossils
of several kinds of meat-eating dinosaurs
with distinct feather impressions.
The diversity of this feather evidence
now includes several groups of carnivorous dinosaurs,
indicating that the common ancestor of these little predators
was also feathered.
Since Pyroraptor belongs to one of these groups,
it's reasonable to conclude it was feathered too,
though we can't be certain.
In my line of detective work, new clues are always turning up
and few cases are ever truly closed.
ISLA HATEG, RUMANÍA HACE 80 MILLONES DE AÑOS
Pod's quest to find others of his species
has ended in failure.
But a pack of dwarf Troodons has heard him loud and clear.
Pod has reached the crossroads of his journey of discovery.
He can play it safe on the high ground,
or climb back down to a world of uncertainty and risk.
There is no doubt: the plaintive calls are meant for him,
but they come from a pack of skillful, well-organized predators.
Pod decides to go for broke.
With his killing claw deployed, Pod is ready to confront the pack.
But the return vibe seems submissive.
For the first time on this island, he gets some genuine respect.
All the Troodons want to do is follow in his footsteps.
Literally.
Pod's new pack want this relationship to last.
Like them, he's an intelligent and accomplished killer,
only more so... like 4 feet more so.
A dinosaur's been taken down by Pod's old nemeses.
Throughout his life, Pod has had to sidestep for Tarascosaurus.
The only thing they had going was their size.
That was then, and this is now.
Pod's killing toes score direct hits.
Pod has laid down the new law:
from now on, all kills on this island belong to him.
Pod's victory has confirmed the highest expectations of the Troodons.
In return for their acceptance, Pod will share the spoils of his new empire.
Pod is now the apex predator on the island.
The sun has risen only 10 times from the day he washed ashore,
and Pod has yet to find the miniraptors
that inspired his long trek inland.
His island wanderings have returned him
to the spot where his journey began.
The calls of the sea birds turn his attention to a large and familiar object:
the ark that saved his life.
The log still carries the scent of another life,
a world Pod will never see again.
Exiled from a realm of giants,
Pod now rules an island of dwarves.