Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were a group of reptilian species that dominated the Earth in the Mesozoic era. Dinosaurs were among the most iconic of primordial creatures. The exact time period they first arose is made fuzzy by the temporal anomalies and time travellers who helped scatter them across history, but mainstream paleontologists such as Ross Geller and Eva Jain concluded that dinosaurs arose first in the Triassic period circa 252 million years BCE. Throughout the Mesozoic era, dinosaurs dominated the ecosystem alongside similar species of marine reptiles, pterosaurs, slurpasaurs and the earliest proto-dragons (who often engaged in predation of the dinosaurs, especially the slower, lumbering species of semi-aquatic sauropods and hadrosaurs). Some dinosaurs were largely peaceful herbivores while others were vicious and at times voracious hunters. The exact form dinosaurs could take varied wildly, even among many who through fossils were labelled identically. Some dinosaurs were slow-moving, lumbering behemothic lizards, slow-witted and inefficient. Other dinosaurs, however, were swifter, more agile and intelligent. In the Jurassic period, a subspecies of Ornitholestes developed Stone Age-level technology and intelligence. While this sentient species of dinosaurs did not make it to the end of the period, by the Cretaceous period, some dinosaurs had managed to develop sentience and various forms of society. This includes one that curiously mirrored the human society that would exist millions of years later and another with a level of scientific knowledge that enabled them to develop multiple time machines including one that operated as a train that traversed the Mesozoic era. It is theorised these sentient dinosaurs were uplifted by the time traveller Captain Neweyes. These sentient dinosaurs lived alongside related species such as Silurians, Sea Devils, Voth and Reptites.

The Mesozoic era is, of course, most famous for its vicious end. One factor behind the Cretaceous extinction was time travel. The Trans-Time corporation sought to farm dinosaurs for meat and, despite several containment breaches, was able to inflict a severe dent in the dinosaur population. A powerful superweapon developed by a cult leader was sent back in time by a group of scientist-adventurers led by Benton Quest, which further devastated the planet. Alien incursions also battered the dinosaur population. The Predators hunted dinosaurs for sport and the Nesk flung a meteorite at the planet to deal with a rival species known as the Mecora. The Achuultani also flung several asteroids into the planet, wrecking the environment. These two causes linked when the Brainspawn visited Earth and proceeded to ravage the dinosaur population. Beyond outside forces, sentient dinosaurs also inflicted severe damage themselves by triggering large-scale climate catastrophe. Dragons also ravaged sentient dinosaur populations after evolving past the so-called 'Prehistoric Dragon' form. A small portion of intelligent dinosaurs were able to evacuate Earth and set up colonies beyond the Solar System, while non-sentient dinosaurs were preserved in an ark created by the Silurians. Despite the seeming extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth, however, in fact many dinosaurs managed to avoid extinction.

The migration of numerous dinosaurs to a 'great valley' in the south where a microclimate protected against the worst climate effects of the Cretaceous disasters and its hidden location guarded against intelligent species targeting the dinosaurs protected some of them. Other dinosaurs were able to survive in deep caves underground, accessible only through passages into Earth's interior, such as the underground continent of Pellucidar. A few dinosaurs emerged from these underground caverns during the Ice Age, leading to brief periods where dinosaurs coexisted with later megafauna such as mammoths and sabertooths, as well as with ancient humans. Prehistoric man, naturally, tended to greatly fear dinosaurs that they shared the planet with for the most part. However, at various points early humans were able to forge cooperative relationships with dinosaurs. The ancient society known as Bedrock is known to have domesticated numerous species of dinosaurs, keeping some as pets and making use of others as beasts of burden or sources of meat. The contemporary society of Lem also had a cooperative relationship with dinosaurs. Elsewhere, depictions of a caveman who could ride a Tyrannosaurus rex and fought other dinosaurs, humans and various monstrosities were documented on multiple cave paintings found in Europe. However, conflict did continue more commonly. The alien Yargonians, who attempted to invade Earth during this time, weaponized dinosaurs against primitive man. Eventually, the large-scale dinosaur presence alongside prehistoric humanity would end amidst a deeper Ice Age freeze, once again relegating dinosaurs to the 'great valley' (whose climate remained suitable for dinosaurs despite the general drop in global temperatures) and underground refuges.

As the Ice Age concluded, rapid continental drift occurred. This had significant consequences for the 'great valley' that was the last bastion of dinosaurs above ground. The region split apart and drifted into many areas. Much of the valley would become islands later labelled 'lost worlds' by observers. The Skull Archipelago, Caprona, Dinosaur Island and Yaanapalu all would be formed in this time. The islands would also enable the formation of other 'lost worlds' thanks to the frequent appearance of temporal anomalies on them. It is believed dinosaurs arrived in the Savage Land, Maple White Land, the Forbidden Valley and Pal-Ul-Don thanks to anomalies opening up. Despite dinosaurs' presence for much of human history, humanity at large only really took notice of the lost worlds in the late 19th century, on the heels of advances in paleontology. The 'bone wars' between Cope and Marsh and Bolt and Cartland helped fuel numerous waves of fossil discovery as well as public captivating, especially as the likes of William Johnson and Deborah MacGuiness added fuel to the wave of fossil-driven dinomania. Dinosaur fossils were used by Stephen Maturin to justify the theory of evolution, an argument picked up by Charles Darwin and other subsequent advocates of the theory. It is likely this that laid the groundwork for adventurous explorers to seek out remnant dinosaur populations.

While the earlier Lidenbrock expedition had encountered dinosaurs in Earth's interior, it was the Challenger expedition of the 1890's that was the first to prove dinosaurs still existed. This in turn sparked a wave of exploitation-some dinosaurs were captured and placed in circuses for entertainment beginning with the famed Gertie, a trained Brontosaurus who toured globally for nearly 20 years. Ambitious big game hunters would seek dinosaurs as quarry, a key factor in nearly wiping out the Mokele Mbembe species of carnivorous sauropod native to the Nazis used dinosaurs taken from the Savage Land as war animals during the D-Day landings. By the late 20th century, dinosaurs were reduced to the status of a critically endangered species. Poachers, vengeful hunters, climate change and introduced diseases wiped out most known lost worlds, with only very isolated realms like the Savage Land being left intact. The war against the Dinosaur Empire left many habitats in the subterranean world inhabited by extinct fauna desolated. The biggest subterranean ecosystem to survive was in Canada and would not be discovered until several surprisingly intelligent dinosaurs emerged from it in 2007. Dinosaurs were not technically extinct but as far as everyday people were concerned they might as well be. However, a new solution emerged: cloning. The first large scale attempt at cloning dinosaurs in the postwar era was carried out by Darren Penward in 1979, which led to his creation of a small private zoo of dinosaurs by 1984. Penward's death at the hands of his clones would not be the end of this, as his research was acquired by operatives hired by InGen CEO John Hammond who envisioned creating a large scale zoological centring on dinosaurs. Hammond set up what he dubbed Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar off the Costa Rican coast, but disaster struck in 1992 before it could open when a disgruntled employee shut down electricity which unleashed many ravenous dinosaurs from containment, killing at least a dozen. Hammond, despite his reputation as a cold capitalist, was shaken by the peril his two grandchildren ended up in during this event as well as his own near-death at the hands of a group of Compsognathus and abandoned the planned park.

However this would just be the beginning of a push to establish dinosaurs in captivity. Hammond's nephew Peter Ludlow would oust him as CEO and attempt to reopen Jurassic Park in San Diego only for the plan to fail when a Tyrannosaurus escaped and rampages through the city, eventually consuming Ludlow himself. This led to Isla Sorna, InGen's so-called Site B, being declared a nature reserve by the reinstated Hammond and the Costa Rican government. But the push for dinosaurs as attractions would not end there. Gerry Harding, former veterinarian at Jurassic Park, had made copious note of the healthcare needs of dinosaurs, making the prospect of raising them in zoos more feasible than it had been. This sparked a boom in 'dinomania' as dinosaur-centred parks like Enoshima Dinoland and Jurassic World (set up on the same island as the original attempted Jurassic Park) would arise over the next decade. Smaller scale education-centered facilities such as Prehistoric Park would also set up during this period, the latter earning a great deal of attention for its use of temporal travel (based on technology developed by Britain's Anomaly Research Center) and the documentary series set at it starring Nigel Marven, whom had used the same technology to make similar documentaries on prehistoric life earlier on. Marven's program would temporarily be handed off to Drew Luczynski after Marven disappeared through an anomaly, thought to be eaten by a Giganotosaurus until reappearing alive almost a decade later, just as the park he built began to franchise out under the name Prehistoric Kingdom.

From 2003 on, many zoos that were not specifically dinosaur-centred would begin to open dinosaur exhibits as the cost of care for dinosaurs dropped. This had a number of causes-the Shiawise decision helping weaken liability risks, the spread of clean energy technology pioneered by the Future Foundation and a general zoo boom prompted by animal-centred reality shows such as The Wild Thornberrys and V.V. Argost's Weird World increasing earnings for zoos enough to make having a handful of dinosaurs a plausible option. This caused heavy competition for dinosaur-centred parks, especially the aforementioned Jurassic World which was increasingly forced to rely on corporate sponsorship and a luxurious resort experience to remain profitable. It is likely due to this competition that the park resorted to trying to create new hybrid dinosaur species, which in turn led to the disaster of 2015 that saw the park closed down for good. An attempt to evacuate dinosaurs from Isla Nublar during a subsequent volcanic eruption led to a large dinosaur population becoming invasive to California, causing widespread panic and calls from some to render dinosaurs genuinely extinct. The awakening of Cthulhu in 2020 proved devastating to the remaining lost worlds, as most were in the southern hemisphere and therefore bore the brunt of Cthulhu's wrath. Nevertheless, dinosaurs were able to not only survive but thrive, overrunning parts of North America after the Great War. By the 41st century, the descendants of the sapient dinosaurs of Dinotopia had found the secret of time travel.