The storm pounds the shallow sea for three days and leaves the island in a wreck. Along the top of the beaches, dead pterosaurs lie crumpled next to smashed ammonites and stranded belemnites . Lying with his tail just in the water, the giant male Liopleurodon is stranded on the beach. His breathing is laboured. He is too heavy to crawl back to the sea and his lungs are collapsing under the pressure.
Death is near.
Within days, there could be as many as 50 Eustreptospondylus crowded around the corpse. They will stay there, fighing, eating and mating, for as long as the food lasts, which could last six months. And when the meat finally runs out, they will probably strip the island of everything they can catch before another scent tempts them off. Copyright 1999 ABC, BBC Click the maps to see how the Earth has changed in the last 149 million years. You will require the Macromedia Shockwave Plugin which you can download here .