Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure Page #4

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Probably the size of an alligator.

And it seems like

he swallowed a shark.

Big eater, this guy.

[Narrator]

For several weeks, the travelers push on.

The female's flipper is slowly healing...

the embedded tooth

now surrounded my scar tissue.

The young female is drawn away

by a potential meal of squid.

One escapes among

a colony of crinoids-

prehistoric relatives of sea stars-

perhaps swept up from the bottom

by currents.

The female has put herself

directly in the sights of a giant.

Taking the exposed parts

of the skeleton together-

skull to tail- I make the specimen

about a 29-footer.

Yeah.

There's something in the stomach.

[Narrator]

They had found the monster's last meal...

entombed within its ribs.

Because dollies are fast...

a tylosaur's best bet

is to catch one by surprise.

[Hissing, Roaring]

The female escapes.

But her brother doesn't see

the danger coming.

The Sternbergs had discovered

a story locked in time...

of two ancient lives intersecting.

But why did the predator die

so soon after eating the dolly?

Tylosaurs were likely territorial and aggressive,

even with each other.

Perhaps an older tylosaur

suddenly appeared.

The younger tylosaur

is threatened and tiring...

slowed down by the large meal

in his stomach.

The female dolly is forgotten.

[Bones Snap]

The younger tylosaur is mortally wounded.

But his story isn't over.

His final fate was recorded in stone.

A shark's tooth lay near the fossil.

Look at this.

The female moves on with the others.

Soon the scavenging will begin.

The young dolly has seen

the deaths of her mother and brother...

but she survived.

Each year,

marine reptiles gather again...

in the birthing grounds

of the shallows.

Among them is the dolly

with the wounded flipper...

now fully grown.

She's completed her journey

and returned to the waters of her birth.

And after several seasons,

she becomes a mother.

Her young will grow

larger and stronger...

and, one day, set out on their own journey

through the inland sea.

Day by day, month by month...

life plays out.

She sees several litters

of her offspring mature...

and depart on lives of their own.

Eventually, a year comes

when the mother can't finish the migration.

One quiet day...

when old age has weakened her body...

her life comes to a gentle end.

Millions of years' worth

of days and nights and seasons pass...

as she lies undisturbed.

Sea levels rise and fall.

Around the world, continents shift...

and volcanic activity

changes the face of the Earth.

New species appear,

and old species vanish-

including the last

of the sea monsters.

Beneath the shifting land,

the remains of the great ocean reptiles...

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