Tylosaurus and Others

The Tylosaurus was top predator of the underwater Cretaceous. Now here is what this extremely powerful, monstrous, killing machine evolved from: believe it or not it evolved from these super small lizards that were trying to escape the dinosaurs in the Jurassic. And the lizard's only defense was to escape into the water and eventually it evolved to be built for the water. And the creature evolution just made was called Dallasaurus. And when did it evolve? The early Cretaceous.

When the late Cretaceous came, which was the time all the dinosaurs died out probably because of an asteroid, Tylosaurus became a fearsome predator. Probably because of its little special weapon: its teeth. The teeth point back into the mouth, so the only way the prey can go to escape is into the Tylosaurus, but it is hard for it to go inside. It has roof mouth teeth so it can hold the prey in place. Now there are many different types of Tylosaurus, but all of them are related to the snake. The Tylosaurus' future relative is the snake.

Now not all Tylosaurus are the biggest of predators. There is a small one called Platecarpus. And what makes it strange is that it has webbed feet, rather than fins. But Tylosaurus had some fearsome rivals. Now one of them is called the Ginsu Shark, also known as Cretoxyrhina. But Tylosaurus thinks the Ginsu Shark is an easy meal, even though the Ginsu Shark is even bigger than the sharks of today. But here is a really, kind of easy to munch meal. It's called Tusoteuthis, an enormous squid, probably related to today's colossal squid. Another rival of the Tylosaurus is called Squalicorax, another shark. Probably not as big as the Ginsu Shark, but believe me, the Squalicorax  is quite a predator.

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Tylosaurus a.k.a. Mosasaurs

  (Photo from chicospinosaurus.blogspot.com)

Dallasaurus

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Platecarpus

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Squalicorax

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Tusoteuthis

(Photo from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

Cretoxyrhina a.k.a. Ginsu Shark

Here are some videos!

Stingrays

There are two different types of stingrays: fresh water and ocean. The ocean stingrays have a very small stinger and they aren't that mean with humans. The fresh water stingray lives in the Amazon River. It has a stinger two times the size of an ocean stingray's. And the fresh water is much more vicious. It also lives in much deeper water while the ocean one is more up for happiness at low tide. Now here is how the ocean stingray catches its prey: it buries itself under the sand and waits for some delicious prey. When something like a shrimp comes, its some lunch for the stingray. At the Amazon, the fresh water rays are some of the biggest that ever were.

Ocean Stingray

(Photo from niceimage.org)

Fresh Water Stingray

(Photo from djlobo.com)

The Great White, Remoras and Orcas

In this post we will be talking about the famous great white shark and the great white's little helper, remora. Now, remoras look like parasites to us humans. But really, remoras are the opposites of pests, they actually eat the pests. From millions of years from evolution, the remora kind of looks upside down when they are right side up. It might be because of its suction head. Remoras latch on to sharks while they have suction cups on their head. The great whites and other sharks don't usually eat remoras. There's also this other kind of fish that cleans the shark's teeth.

Now we will talk about the shark or rather the great white shark. The great white shark is a living torpedo. No really, its like a cruise missile (the cruise missile is a very powerful weapon). Now you may think those ol' great white sharks are super bulky to catch up to a seal lion, but actually the great white shark has amazing agility. In fact they sometime leap out of the water with the prey still in its mouth.

Now you may think that no one would mess with a great white shark, but really there are two predators that will mess with the great white. The creature is called the orca, also known as killer whale, but really its a dolphin. Most people call it a whale. And people call it a killer whale. Instead they should call it a killer dolphin. Now orca whales pretty much hunt in packs, but the great white shark can dive deeper. And here's the other predator of the great white... US HUMANS! Some people like to make shark fin soup out of them. And the worst thing us humans do: we hunt them for sport. Sport! That means really getting nothing out of it. Its just killing. And there may be less sharks than they think, because no one great white shark looks the same. On the plus side we have been putting tags on them.

(Photo from deeptypeflow.blogspot.com)

(Photo from marinebio.org)

(Photo from en.wikipedia.org)

a story I wrote, continued: Portal to Nature 3: The Temple of the Cobras

CLICK HERE for part 1 of this story.
CLICK HERE for part 2 of this story.

One day Phil wanted to go skydiving and maybe find some falcons while he was falling. But before he could, the portal came. And Phil jumped into it. And he landed at the same place that he was before: the world of animals. And encountered the same spider monkey, and he said, "Someone would like your help"

And the one who needed his help was an armadillo. The armadillo said, "I want some help to get to the Temple of Cobras." The temple of Cobras has a really special diamond called a ruby, one of the shiniest crystals there ever was. Unfortunately, it's guarded by a king of the temple. And the king was a monocled cobra. His temple shakes out tons of venom-y spit. "I need your help to get there." And Phil said yes.

Eventually they entered the desert. They were getting extremely thirsty. Eventually they found an oasis, filled with tons of delicious jobo fruit. The armadillo said he knew this place. It was the oasis of the basilisk. The basilisk owned this lake. It was free to get into. And he always gave someone some free jobo fruit once they entered. There was a huge waterfall too. They just stopped there for a while and relaxed at the beaver hotel there. That was just another location of the beaver hotel.

They continued their journey, and eventually the ground started to crumble. They fell down into an enormous hole, nearly endless, going near the center of the earth. And they entered the world of the devil worms. The devil worms are the deepest living animal. The worms sacrificed them and trapped them into an enormous cage of thick mud. But then there was a shaking in the ground. They eventually met a famous animal: the aardvark. His claws were so strong it could bust through concrete. The aardvark busted them out of the cage and brought them back up.

They kept on their journey. They let the aardvark come along with them. And the aardvark wanted to tell them how many more dangers they'd have to go through. They'd have to go through the trench of death. And they'd have to go through lava lake. And then finally, they would make it to the Temple. And the aardvark wanted to tell them about the Trench of Death. You see, the Trench of Death is a very far down trench. Once you finally make it down, you might get into some salt water (and shallow too). And in the water is stonefish!  The stonefish are really bad. They have spines on their back and if you step on it, it unleashes terrible pain. The only way across it is a narrow, old wooden bridge.

They started their journey. Aardvark forgot to tell them that the trench was in a lake. None of them were really going to risk going inside a lake because also down there in the lake was also lots of volcanic activity. The lake was filled with lots of gas. Volcanic gases are trapped inside the lake and it's building enough pressure to break out of the water surface. So eventually they did find a bridge. But unfortunately it was a wooden and extremely broken bridge. They risked going across it, but aardvark had a better idea: to tunnel under the water.

They finally made it through the lake and they make it to lava lake. There was only one way across it: a little bit of a frozen magma rock that they could float on, and so they went on. It didn't really carry their weight very well but they needed to risk it. They did. They made it through safely.

Finally, they made it to the ultimate temple. Luckily the monocled cobra wasn't there. So they just sneaked in and got the ruby. Unfortunately the monocled cobra came back and threw out tons of venom at them. They dodged it! But then the cobra chased after them on the way back. They lost him at the lava. And the monocoled cobra was never to be seen again.

But they all made it and brought the ruby back.

Footnote:  devil worms are real worms. They live very deep down in the earth's crust. They were found in a gold mine in South America.

Venom Day

Alright everybody - you've heard of Valentine's Day. Well, well well - why didn't anybody invent Venom Day, where we give Valentines to venomous creatures? In case anybody doesn't know what venom is, it is like an acid that can kill creatures. It helps a predator kill its prey.

Now there are different ways to get the venom inside the victim. Well there's a difference between a komodo dragon and a kind of venomous snake, well let's just say king cobra. Now the snake has fangs and when it bites its prey it shoots out the venom. But the komodo dragon cannot do that. It's a little less organized with the shot of the venom. It's sort of just squirts out a puddle of the venom on its mouth and then pretty much bites the prey and waits for it to die.

And here are some different types of venomous creatures.

Venomous creature #1: funnel web spider. Now these creatures unfortunately like to go where the humans go: somewhere nice and shady. On the bright side, they live in Australia. Well at least it's good for all Americans looking at this. And I hope this creature does not go in your shoe, or else!

Venomous creatures #2: stone fish. Now the stone fish doesn't have a killing venom but let me tell you something - it may not kill its prey, but EXTREME PAIN! It hurts so much you would probably be rolling on the beach and trying to get the pain off. And the plus side, another danger, the stone fish is unfortunately camouflaged and yet again, it lives in Australia. Here's how you may get hurt by this venomous stone fish: they have spines on their back, and when you step on it, that's how you get the pain.

Venomous creature #3: the black mamba. I told you about this in another post. The black mamba breaks the record for most venom ever. It can kill at a time table from 30 minutes to up to an hour. So I'm pretty sure this creature actually lives in Africa. But remember, like I told you about the honey badger, it's one of the only creatures that will withstand the venom.

And here's creature #4: the man-of-war, a jellyfish from Australia. And this is unfortunately one of the fastest jellyfishes in the world, I think. Anyway, there is a weapon for the venom and you may have it in your kitchen. It's olive oil.

Okay, here's the final creature: the scorpion. The scorpion is a venom monster. Its got a venomous tail. A venomous bite. The tail is for defense, the bit is for prey and the claws are for keeping the prey in place.

(photo of a black mamba from worldmostamazingthings.com)

 

(photo of a komodo dragon from animals.nationalgeographic.com)

(photo of a funnel web spider from spyderwood.com)

(photo of a stonefish from petsfoto.com)

(photo of a man-of-war jellyfish from brandoncole.com)

(photo of a fat-tailed scorpion from arkive.org)

Dive to the Depths

Ready to go down deep? Well, the deep is a long way to reach the bottom. There's only one sub that can go deeper than any submarine: the deepest submarine is called "Alvin." The deepest diving sub ever made.

And all's ashore that's going ashore! So, this is the sunlight zone. Where we here will find the most life. You can find many sea otters sleeping in the giant kelp. And as the clown-fish are protected by the anemone. And where all the dolphins are searching for some delicious fish to eat. The great white sharks are hunting for schools of fish, or a seal at least.

And now we go deeper. This zone is called the twilight zone. Down here we can find this really rare battle that no one has seen before. And the battle is giant squid (or colossal squid) versus sperm whale! Never before seen battle at nature.

And now we go deeper, to some of the deepest of sites: the dark zone, and don't forget your flashlights. Down here we shall find many strange fish. One of these fish is called the angler fish. Only the females have that crazy light that attracts prey. And some fish have stolen the angler fish's mechanism. Other creatures like the viper fish also have this feature.

Now we go deeper, to the darkest of them all: welcome to the abyss! Down here we won't be finding much life. Life down here can be pretty tight. There are rat-tail fish and dumbo octopus. And you may also find plenty of six-gill sharks.

But now we bring to the secret depth: it's trenches! Life is so rare down here. But here's what you can find: vent fish, vent shrimp, vent crabs, and Pompeii worms. And that's all!

Oh and by the way, sorry we couldn't find a picture that included a trench.

(illustration from sjfc.edu)

End of the World

Ok, everybody, I don't want to alarm you but earth is in many dangers. Now don't worry, this is going to come in millions of years - very long into the future.

Now first we start out with an enormous asteroid headed for earth. It could destroy all life on earth. But it hasn't really entered earth's atmosphere yet. If it did enter earth's atmosphere, then you'd be in trouble because the asteroid would have entered earth's gravity. I hope it hits the moon instead, because I'd rather have a really large tide rather than no life on earth. But there's one kind of a thing we could do. We could shoot a rocket at it. But that would break it into pieces. Well I'd rather have a bunch of small asteroids headed for earth than one big one.

Ok, everybody, this is a little freaky but our closest star, the sun, is giving our earth a huge blot of danger. You see, you know how the sun can shoot out tons of fiery balls - well one of those fiery balls of sonically charged particles is going to hit earth. And you know about our power lines, that also send out tons of electrons, well if that giant blot of power hits earth, the power lines will overload. And we will get about 10 years without power. We might as well go back to hunting for animals, like homo sapiens (cavemen) did.

Oh and by the way, these dangers are getting worse and worse as we speak. Which is saying worse and worse things for earth the longer we talk. I'm talking about stronger forces, by the way.  Another danger earth is definitely in: who wants a hot spot? I don't! Because Antarctica is melting into a handful of ice cubes. Yeah, the sun may be strengthening. And the ice is more delicate, than scientists think, to all that sun. Because you know that a huge chunk of Antarctica just broke off. Well that's a sign that we may be having a little heat problem. I mean, it's getting hot here - the sun is strengthening & sea levels are rising. If we lost just 10% of our ice, we'd be floating in a water bottle. And when ice starts to melt into the sea, scientists like to call them "ice quakes." But maybe it's not the sun that's strengthening. Well you see, there's this thing called a greenhouse gas. And you see, the sun brings in light to earth (it only takes light 8 minutes to get to earth). Well earth has this stuff called greenhouse gases. The greenhouse gases keep the heat in. But since we've made a lot of polluting stuff like cars, factories, and other stuff, the greenhouse gases have been strengthening because of our pollution, and that is keeping more of heat in and less of it is escaping.

And here's another danger: it's at Yellowstone National Park. Oh and you know what? I've always wanted to go there! You see, I know there are lots of geysers - they are traces of ancient volcanoes. Well there may be still an enormous volcano over there. It's a volcano so strong filled with so much ash and lava, it could devastate the whole planet. Because you know what happens when you breathe in volcanic ash: well, uh, it's a little creepy - I'm not going to tell you. I'm just going to say: it has something to do with your lungs.

And here is another disaster. Now things that collide can be pretty big. I mean asteroids can collide. Planets could collide. But the biggest collision of all is galaxy collisions. And it just so happens that our milky-way galaxy is going to collide with another galaxy and that is not going to be good. Now gases could collide with our planet. Stars could head towards our planet. Even our sun could be destroyed.

And next enormous disaster is the worst of all. Now what would happen if you took away everything in the world? What would happen with nothing, just outer space? Well outer space IS something! In fact, it's something like a fabric. You can twist it, you can bend it, and this is the same mechanism that earth has to keep its moon in place. You see, earth puts dents in space, and the moon is circling around earth, that's why. Now you remember the story of "the big bang" - the beginning of our universe. Scientists thought that space was expanding - and they were right. But they thought it was going slower and slower. But they were wrong! It was accelerating (which means to go faster and faster). And space is getting stretched out. And if space breaks, it'll be catastrophic. Oh and I should tell you how space is expanding - well that would be some black matter. The black matter has lots of energy in it, so it makes space expand. Ok, here's what it will destroy: it will destroy everything! Even time will lose its meaning! Dun, dun, dunnnnnn! And that's all.

Beaver

The beaver is one of the few other creatures that build their homes, rather than us humans. Oh and paper wasps. And termites. And did you know that the outer layer of those big teeth is much stronger than the back of the teeth? So every time a beaver cuts down a tree, its teeth just get sharper and sharper. And guess what? They can make their own ecosystem, because they make those dams. So many creatures can come to the lake, like bass and otters, many different types of frogs, and of course, good old ducks, like the wood duck. And here's the warning signal: when a beaver sights danger, they slap their tails on the water and hopefully many other beavers hear it so they can hide from the danger. Now you might think they just use sticks, sticks, sticks - well if they only used sticks, the dam would bust open and there would be many leaks. But instead they also use mud, to, you know, make the walls nice and secure. And you may think that beavers eat the wood, like their work is also their food - well, it's something like that. Now they don't eat bark, they eat an inner layer of bark. And how a beaver knows where his last work was: he can make a beaver trail.  And hey, those beaver teeth never stop going. If they didn't get worn out by all that chewing wood, ooh, boy - they're teeth would be pretty long.

(photo from animal.discovery.com)

Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian devil lives around Australia.  These creatures may look like a scary animal, but they really are not. In fact these creatures are important to the environment. Well they may look like a predator, but really they are just a scavenger, which means they eat animals that have already died or are sick. The Tasmanian devil gets rid of harmful diseases that get passed on to many other animals. When another T-devil approaches (oh and by the way "T-devil" is another name for the Tasmanian Devil), they start to fight over the meal. And guess what? Their ears turn red! Their jaws are strong. In fact, when they are eating a carcass they can crack through the bones and steal the highly nutritious marrow inside the bone. No wonder they broke the record for the strongest jaws of any creature. And they have night vision; it may be black and white, but it is sharp as a tack. And if a juvenile Tasmanian devil wants to find where a carcass is, they just climb a tree. Only the juveniles can do that. They do that to get a better sent of the carcass.

(Photo from blogs.discovermagazine.com)

Megalodon vs. Prosqualodon

Alright, this is another prehistoric one - or more like two posts in one. A couple million years ago when our ancestors were becoming less ape-like and in fact a whole new animal form, Australopithecus --well we're talking about what was happening under water. Now you know that old great white shark, well millions of years ago about when the Australopithecus was roaming the earth, under the water was a shark called megalodon. And this enormous shark was bigger than today's great white. In fact, it was the size of a Greyhound bus. There was a rival, much smaller than it. The rival is called prosqualodon. Now it is much small than a megalodon. Alright, here we have the fight in action. Now first we have a megalodon swimming through the sea, minding its own business, but then comes a small prosqualodon. Then the ginormous megalodon attacks the prosqualodon. But the prosqualodon hunts in packs, so there are many more prosqualodons. And the other prosqualodons start biting at the megalodon's gills. Now the one prosqualodon might have been killed, but look at megalodon. He's got quite a few scars, too. And the picture may look like a dolphin, but believe me that is the prosqualodon.

(image of megalodon from en.wikipedia.org)

(image of prosqualodon from blogevolved.blogspot.com)

Little brown bat

All right, the little brown bat is just one of millions of bats. Now only one is a blood-sucker: the vampire bat, we all know that. And we pretty much all know that they really don't turn into vampires - and anyway these vampire bats they actually suck blood from cows. Some really big kinds of bats eat lizards. But most eat mosquitoes or pollen. Now little brown bats have this little way of seeing in the dark - well not seeing - it's echolocation, like when I posted about the platypus. The little brown bat, or any other kind of bat, squeaks a high-pitched squeak so high that us humans cannot hear it. And then it bounces on something, then it goes back to the bat's ear. That's why bats have such big ears. And then the bat knows where the prey is. And here's something about the bat's wing: from millions of years of evolution: it's really just a wing finger because the pinky is just a really long pinky. But on the down side the thumb was pretty much taken off. And that was the same wing design as the ancient pterosaurs used.

(photo from caveofthemounds.com)

Australia in the Pleistocene

The period: Pleistocene,  when our human ancestors were hunting. Meanwhile at Australia - well, today's marsupials are really small cute and cuddly, but at the Pleistocene the marsupials were super-sized. But in a land dominated by mammals, comes an enormous reptile that may be related to the Kimodo dragon - now, scientists are not sure if the poisonous drool is included. It's Megalania. But here's its prey: there's procoptodon, the super-sized kangaroo. Now I told you about the kangaroo of today - that they do those kickboxing matches. Well with procoptodon's even stronger legs, could you imagine how strong the kicking is? And procoptodon is so tall it's about as tall as a giraffe! And it's pretty much easy prey for Megalania - even though it does have those powerful kicks, this creature does not run very fast. And on the plus side, megalania has powerful scales, like armor. But probably one of the hardest lunches for megalania  would be the diprotodon. Yup, it's the super-sized wombat. And it's about the size of a rhinoceros - I know, it's surprising, but they find out by the skeletons. But I should say one of megalania's rivals: thylacoleo, or nickname: the marsupial lion. But this creature really isn't related to the cat - it's in the marsupial family. And here's another thing about the megalania: now, he may look bulky, but believe me, it's got lots of speed.

(image of megalania from moonlightinvestigation.blogspot.com)

(image of procoptodon from npacc.net)

(image of diprotodon from austrailianmuseum.net.au)

(image of thylacoleo from primeval-fanon.wikia.com)

Pigeon

The pigeon has extraordinary powers. It can fly pretty fast for low-level flight. And it has a good sense of smell. And here's the amazing thing about it, it can find its way home because it has iron in its beak to use it like a compass. Now these creatures may be some good prey for the peregrine falcon. And you know birds - they always bring something home for their babies. But guess what the pigeon gives its babies? A milk-like substance. And I must mention, the speed they can fly at is 40mph. And you can pretty much have pet pigeons. You can make a pigeon coop - those are fun, eh? You can put tests on the pigeon - take them on a wild ride far away from home and see if they come back. And when a pigeon is scared, they poop to make them lighter so they can fly faster!

(photo from sodahead.com)

Proboscis monkey

Here's an amazing thing about the proboscis monkey: the leader of the herd searches for danger and when it finds danger, with a blow of its big old nose, it'll tell the herd to run away. And the honk that it does with its nose is called "the core honk." And here's an extremely amazing AND rare thing about these monkeys: they have webbed feet which are useful for swimming away from its predator, the gharial (a relative of the alligator). Well here's how a gharial would probably get to its delicious proboscis monkey lunch: well, you see, if the monkey is in water, that is just one way of attacking. But you know how fast creatures like this can strike. So if one is maybe sort of just at a thin branch up, just over  a stream or something, then the gharial might be able to attack.

(photo from bestourism.com)

(photo from dinets.travel.ru)

African elephant

The African elephant is a really strong animal. They've got thousands of muscles in their trunk - who knows how many are in their legs or other parts? And here's why they are so quiet when they step: they have pads on their feet. And here's why they have such big ears: well when an elephant is in trouble, they can make some big big sound in the ground. Only the elephants can hear because they're so low. And another reason would be how hot it is in the African savannah. They flap them to make their own little air conditioner. This is the same mechanism that the plates of the stegosaurus would probably use. And here's what they can do with their trunk: they can greet each other by shaking their trunks, like handshakes. And the most amazing thing: they can chase away lions with it. And hug their juvenile.

(photo from elephant-pictures.info)

Spinosaurus

All right, everybody says, "T-Rex is the biggest land carnivore" well, there's a couple things bigger than it. Like the ginormous giganotosaurus (and it's a land carnivore too). And there's even bigger than giganotosaurus: there's carcharodontosaurus. But the biggest of all is the spinosaurus! It's called that because it has a sail with some spreaded out skin and spines. It could be for many things - a fishing lure, a use to stay cool, or maybe to look cool. And here's its big weapon: its enourmous claws. Oh yup, it can do some bad damage to its rivals. And here's another thing about it, it has unusual teeth. Compared to T-Rex, the spinosaurus' teeth are shaped like cones while T-Rex's are shaped like steak knives.

(image from photo-dictionary.com)

Therizinosaurus

The therizinosaurus - because of the "saurus" part, this is not an animal from today. In fact, it's a dinosaur. The therizinosaurus breaks the record for longest claws of the dinosaurs. And this is a herbivore - but it walks on 2 legs like most carnivore dinosaurs do. All right well, here's the difference between omnivores, herbivores, and carnivores: carnivores usually have 2 legs and most 2-legged dinosaurs eat meat. Some of them that have 2 legs can also be omnivores though. Omnivores can eat both meat and plants, but usually they mostly eat meat. Herbivores: they usually have 4 legs and eat plants. The therizinosaurus was actually a herbivore - scientists were amazed by that. And another way it looks pretty weird is how it has pot belly.

 (image from blog.webosaurs.com)

a story I wrote, continued : The Portal to Nature 2: The Mighty Redwood Tree

CLICK HERE for Part 1 of this story.

One day, a man named Phil was tornado chasing. But the next thing Phil knew was that his truck was starting to fly off the ground in the rough wind. Then a mysterious portal came out and it brought him to the same place after he crashed his plane last time. It was the Land of Animals.

Phil encountered the same spider monkey again. He wanted Phil to go on a hike and show him the neighborhood. Phil did not refuse. He said yes. So they started their journey.

This journey was a little fun and a little dangerous. The place was he was going to was where the giant redwood tree lived. The hike was not exactly for fun. It was for a mission to, “Protect the mighty redwood tree.” the Spider Monkey exclaimed.

The spider monkey told Phil that they might need a little luxury. The luxury was Albatross Airlines! They went to the Ocean Airlines which was the other name for Albatross Airlines. So they went across the ocean on an airplane.

The sea can be very dangerous with all those seas storms. Especially if they are full hurricane force, which nothing can stop, not even boats and definitely not the Titanic. They went through a sea storm... hurricane force. They were lucky... Extremely lucky that is. They got a lot of money for doing that from the mayor. They got the money so fast because the mayor was on the plane too.

They made it to where the mighty redwood tree was. But they still had a little more hiking to do. Then the spider monkey noticed that they were lost. An old Galapagos tortoise came along and the spider monkey knew this tortoise. The tortoise knew the whole land. The tortoise told them where they were and that they were near the redwood tree.

They saw the mighty redwood tree. The tree spoke and said, “Hello.” The spider monkey forgot to mention that trees can talk around here. The redwood tree was extremely powerful. It had super powers. It could zap lighting and it was so tall that it was above the clouds. The spider monkey forgot to tell them why they were on a mission to save the mighty redwood tree. “You see,” the monkey said, “Since you were the first one to get into our portal, many other people found the portal and want to build their homes here. They even want to chop down the mighty redwood tree. Many other animals will come here to protect the tree. It seems that we are the first ones here.” said the spider monkey. Other animals came and they started to guard the tree, even Galapagos tortoises.

The rhinoceros came. Then aardvarks. Every animal in Animal-land came. Then the people came. The rhinos used their horns to confuse all of the humans and throw them up in the air. The aardvarks used their claws to distract them. The elephants confused their opponents with their trunks. The redwood tree thanked them for saving the last of his kind.

The king who was an anaconda brought Phil home.

The end.

Footnote: The redwood tree exists. You can find it in California. And rhinos really do use their horns to throw lions in the air.

CLICK HERE for part 3.

a story I wrote: The Portal to Nature (Part 1)

One day a man was driving a plane, just for fun. Now he found out the he lost altitude and fuel. He was starting to fall. But before he made it to the ground, he saw a strange portal. He fell into it. And he landed on the ground with a crash landing. And a large tree branch crashed on his head, knocking him unconscious. But when he was still unconscious, a spider monkey carried him up a tree and the spider monkey tried to wake him up.

The spider monkey said, Hey, buddy. It looks like you could use nourishment. 

The guy was amazed. “Wow!”

Now the spider monkey asked him if he wanted to see the king and if he wanted direction to a watering hole.

Once he got there the king asked “What would you like?” The king was an anaconda. The spider monkey said, “I think he wants the directions to a good watering hole. The king told him. And then they started their journey. But before that, he told them that there is a spy that is a raccoon and he probably could tell you where there is some good jobo fruit.

The raccoon told him where the really good jobo fruit is. He also told him some very good hotels. Now the guy asked, what do you use for money around here. The raccoon said, we pretty much use leaves. And the raccoon said, “I've heard in your world, you guys have a little legend that money can grow on trees, well over here that is real! And the money is free! The raccoon got him some of the money, which was leaves from the tree to get to the hotel.. And raccoon told him his choices. There is the Beaver Hotel, or Meerkat Manor. And the guy choose Meerkat Manor.

When he was done, the raccoon was still around. He was also told that the Beaver Hotel had a little wood shop. The guy went there and he asked for a plane, of course. So then the king made the portal and he flew back home.

The moral of the story is: even animals can give you help.

The End.

Foot note: The jobo fruit really does exist.



CLICK HERE for part 2

Meerkat

The meerkat is a very fast animal. And they live in, well, holes. And these creatures' predators are mostly eagles and large birds of prey, of course. And there are many different jobs for different meerkats. You see, some meerkats do one job and some do another. Well, here's one of the jobs: the lookout, who must watch for predators. And some dig the holes. They are very good diggers, but sometimes it's easier just to borrow a hole from the aardvarks. You see, when the aardvark is done using the hole, many other creatures may want to live inside the hole. That's what the meerkats do - they go inside the hole sometimes.

(photo from tripadvisor.com)