a short dinosaur novel about the early cretaceous of morocco. adventure-themed. NOT FOR PROFIT.

1. Broken tooth
By Harrison James
DO NOT EDIT FROM ORIGINAL COPY!!!
Before you begin:
This is a not-for-profit book, not designed to benefit any one company or corporation.
This story is set 95 million years ago, incretaceous Morocco/Algeria, but may not be absolutely
biologically/geographically correct.
Please give kind feedback/ feed forward
A lot of this information is from websites such as Wikipedia and other really helpful websites.
A lot of inspiration comes from (including but not limited to)
BBC’s Primeval series
Planet dinosaur
Walking with Monsters
And many other awesome t.v shows.
Here are some pictures of the dinosaurs and other animals mentioned in the book:

2. Spinosaurus:
Deltadromeus:
Brachiosaurus:

3. Charcharadontosaurus:

4. Aegisuchus:
Alanqua:
Thank you for reading this book. I assure you will enjoy it.
This is a story of the (sometimes overlooked) Moroccan/ Algerian environment of the Cretaceous
period.

5. For all who love dinosaurs
Chapter
I
It was late one night, and I was just cleaning up the university. I was studying for a degree in
palaeontology and I was cleaning up the professor’s office, in hope that it would impress him, and
persuade him I deserved it. I had already published a paper that had obviously impressed him a lot. I
figured all I needed was to clean up his office for a bit, and I would have no trouble getting the
degree.
I was just cleaning his huge bookshelf, which had books about literally every dinosaur imaginable,
from Tyrannosaurus rex to coelophysis and triceratops. He was literally a whiz on this stuff, and man
did I think he was cool. He wasn’t the kind of professor who sits around with a beard and grunts at
you, he was young and almost cool, in his thirties. The reason I said almost cool is that every time
you joke to him about how it would really hurt if THAT grabbed you (pointing at one of the fossil
teeth on his drawer, for example) , he looks at you with this hard, disapproving look. At first I
thought he didn’t want you to kid around, but after a couple of times I realised. It is the same look
my granddad gave me when I joked about the war. He looked at me with that same look, like I don’t
know what I was talking about, that I wasn’t there, and that I have no right to make fun of it. But I
had absolutely no clue as to why THIS guy would be giving me that look about dinosaurs. He gave me
a similar, but more nervous look when I asked about the scar on his arm.
***
So anyway, I was cleaning the shelf, and I bumped one of the books with the cleaning cloth. I heard
something rattle on the top shelf. I reached up, and brought it down. It was a plastic case,
rectangular in shape with a padded bottom inside. And on that padded bottom was a massive, 4 inch
long Spinosaurus tooth. I had a peculiar sheen to it, unlike a lot of other Spinosaurus teeth I had
seen. It was in perfect condition; apart from the fact the root was obviously fake. Ignoring every
instinct that told me it was wrong, I removed the tooth from the case, and grabbed the root and
pulled. It came away immediately, and a small orange ball, about the size of pea, rolled out of a
hollow inside. I picked it up. It had a miniature bug inside it, and I realised it was amber. Then I
realised what I had done, and quickly fumbled to reassemble the tooth and put it away without him
noticing. Suddenly I heard footsteps, and in my hurry I dropped the tiny amber bead. It hit the floor
with a ping just as the professor walked in the door. I saw a flash in the corner of my eye,
accompanied by a look of horror on the professor’s face, and everything vanished.
When I woke up, my face was covered in dirt, strange insects were making thier midnight ruckus,
and strange smells filled my nose. I coughed, sat up and immediately froze. Something was standing
in front of me, and it was not human. With a flash of horror, I realised what I had done, and why the

6. professor acted like he did. Amber shouldn’t make a ping noise when dropped on soft carpet. Why
would the professor still have a fabricated Spinosaurus tooth? He was the kind of person who would
give a fake to a junior fossil collector for free rather than keep it. And if my suspicions were correct, I
was In real big crud. Standing in front of me was a Deltadromeus. It was 7 metres long, with long,
slender legs, and a hungry glint in its eye. It moved one leg forward, and I heard a sinister noise
escape its throat. I started shuffling back on my bum, terrified it would eat me. I bumped my hand
on something hard and cylindrical, and picked it up. It was a torch, standard emergency issue. I
picked it up, praying that the batteries still worked, and flashed it in the carnivore’s eye. It recoiled
with an angry roar, and shook its head from side to side. And when it looked back, I was gone, the
bushes swaying in my wake.
I was lucky. The bushes were there when I needed them. Deltadromeus was, from the fossil record,
a fast runner. If I had been in open ground, It would probably have killed me. I trekked up the hill,
trying to not bang that bush too hard or not hit my head on that branch overhead, all the while the
roars of an angered Ceratosaur echoing behind me. I had brushed with death, and succeeded by
means of a rare miracle. But why was the torch there anyway? I did not have to ponder this for long.
I realised why the professor had that mark on his arm. He had been here. He had been as stupid as
me, and dropped the amber bead. He had learned, and hidden it in a fake tooth. But why had he let
me clean his office? And why, did he come to the university at that hour? Did he suspect me? These
thoughts played badminton in my brain as I trudged up the hill. After a while I began to sweat, and
realised my sweater was NOT Jurassic park trek gear. I took off the hot, prickly sweater and threw it
at a bush that grew alongside a river, in hope that the Deltadromeus would get attracted to that
because it was so sweaty, and not to me. But I shouldn’t have done it, or maybe I would have got
back to the present.
Chapter
II
I saw the bush thrash, way too much for it to be my sweater. All of a sudden a massive crocodilian,
Aegisuchus, sped out of the bush towards me, and grabbed my shirt. I started struggling, but it was
no good; Aegisuchus’s teeth were adapted to eating slippery fish so it would have no trouble
gripping me. I was dragged into the river, and I saw muddy, dirty water swirling past me. I saw the
Aegisuchus jerking its jaw from side to side, not knowing what to make of me. Then is saw other,
much larger jaws scything the water around me. All of a sudden I saw blood in the water, but I
looked down and I was not even bleeding; in fact, the Aegisuchus was not even trying to kill me
anymore. It had gone limp, and it was being pulled out of the water by something huge beyond
measure. At first my scrambling mind said Mososaur, but I realised it could not be. Mososaurs do not
live this far in land, and they lived underwater. Whatever had killed Aegisuchus was pulling it out of
the water. It wasn’t another crocodilian; a crocodilian would not be pulling it directly upward out of
the water, it would be pulling it horizontally up the bank. Quickly, I fumbled to loose my shirt from
the Aegisuchus’ teeth, not wanting to be seen as part of the meal by whatever had killed the
crocodilian. I swam away under the water, trying not to break the surface. I saw a clump of weed

7. protruding from a bank, and surfaced in the middle of it. Wet, gooey strands clung to my face, but I
was relieved. I was alive. I looked around and saw the gigantic creature that had killed Aegisuchus.
And I wondered why I had not thought of it earlier.
Standing on the bank was the largest carnivorous dinosaur known to man. It was an adult
Spinosaurus, with a massive dorsal sail of skin, supported by spines, to regulate temperature. Its
long, almost crocodile-like jaws were perfectly suited to kill the Aegisuchus, as Spinosaurus usually
hunts aquatic prey, despite being the largest predatory dinosaur. As I watched, the Deltadromeus I
had ‘met’ earlier burst from the forest onto the river bank, probably tracing my scent. It then saw
Spinosaurus, and immediately started to back off. The Spinosaurus must have been hungry,
however, because it didn’t even wait to discover whether this was another kill-stealer or not. It just
dropped the carcass and slashed Deltadromeus across the neck with its massive claws. Its claws
ripped out Deltadromeus’ jugular and it died in a shower of red. I didn’t want to watch, but I was
transfixed. Palaeontologists had speculated for years about dinosaur vs dinosaur fights, and here I
was watching one of the least-speculated duels, first-hand. Quickly I realised the potential danger of
sitting in the river like I was, as another crocodilian could appear at any moment. And this time,
Spinosaurus would be too gorged on Aegisuchus meat to care. I scrambled onto the bank, trying not
to slip, and quietly crawled into the forest.
***
After trekking for a while, I found that I was getting tired way quicker than I should. Then I realised
that, because this was the early cretaceous, there was a lot less oxygen. At the point that I almost
blacked out, I decided to make camp. I thought of making a hut in a tree, but that would not stop
many predators. I decided to save myself the labour of making a tree hut (for what little good it
would do me) and made a small, camouflaged and (hopefully) inconspicuous hut. I didn’t make it
TOO good; staying in one place for too long would attract predators. I would use it for 2 nights at the
most; after that, I would HAVE to move, or die. As soon as I lied down, I blacked out. Or maybe it was
sleep. I can’t tell which by now. I had tortured dreams of pounding waves, and drowning dinosaurs
screaming. Only when I woke up did I realise that the sounds were real. But there were no waves,
and the dinosaurs were not screaming because of drowning. The pounding was due to a large herd
of Brachiosaurus grazing at the edge of the forest. The shrieks were from a pterosaur, Alanqua,
riffling through my stuff. It had something glinting in its beak, and with a start I realised it was the
amber bead. My only way back, down the gullet of that little morning-ruiner. I tried to catch it, but it
flew off, shrieking. My arms sagged, defeated. Everything in this world wanted to kill me or seriously
annoy me. The only things that DIDN’T were the brachiosaurus herd nearby. And even then, they
woke me up early.
I started to wonder where I was. This was certainly not North America; these dinosaurs didn’t live
there. I thought of all the ones I had seen: Deltadromeus, Brachiosaurus, Alanqua, Aegisuchus,
Spinosaurus. I thought of where they had been found. I realised where I was.
Morocco, 95 million years ago.

8. Chapter
III
That morning, I decided what I would do for the remainder of my life. My hopes and dreams were
gone; they vanished down the gullet of that infernal pterosaur. Making temporary bases was not
going to suffice; especially not in the slim hope that the professor may have a way of rescuing me. I
would need to make a permanent base if I was to survive for as long as possible until he could find
me. There was no point in moving around anymore; sooner or later the carnivores would find me.
And I had fears, knowing where I was, that there may be meaner things than Deltadromeus out to
get me. Although I could not recall the name, I remembered hearing that large carnivore teeth had
been dug up in morocco, in the same place as Spinosaurus teeth had been dug up. And this one
wasn’t going to get pre-occupied by fish. I had read that it had shark-like teeth, and unlike
Spinosaurus, was adapted for hunting on land. It would see me as an easy meal, no doubt. But as of
yet, the name still escaped me.
Another issue that was increasingly apparent was food and water. Although I knew how to solve the
water issue, the food was becoming increasingly worrying. All I had for dinner were some eggs that I
had found and cooked over an open fire. The fire seemed to keep the dinosaurs away, but when I
cracked open the eggs; I found that after eating some of the cooked egg inside, there were some
cooked embryos inside the eggs. I had to eat those, too, and I admit they were not that bad. The
only thing that worried me was what the embryos looked like, and consequently, who I had stolen
the eggs from.
The embryos, who had been not too far from hatching, had a short, strong skull, and worst of all,
They had shark-like teeth.
***
My worst fears have been confirmed.
Early this morning I was chased out of my ‘permanent’ camp. I suppose you can’t call it ‘chased’; I
saw the dinosaur coming and ran for the hills. My camp had been built in a small hollow in the side
of a hill; a thick forest surrounded it most of the way, but directly in front of the hollow was a long
clearing, that stretched most of the way to the edge of the forest. Beyond that, I could see herds of
dinosaurs grazing next to a thick swamp. Occasionally I would see a large fleshy ‘sail’ move between
the swamp trees, and I knew that a Spinosaurus was hunting in the swamp. On the occasions when a
Spinosaurus came out of the swamp, it seemed relatively unconcerned with the herbivores nearby;
indeed, it has been hypothesised that Spinosaurus was a fish-eater, and unless there was a drought
in the area, would take little or no interest in prey it was not specialised to eat. This morning,
however, a very different carnivore came out of the swamp. I recalled the name to be
Charcharadontosaurus, meaning ‘shark-toothed lizard’, and it was headed straight towards me. It

9. stopped every ten metres or so to sniff the air; then it would turn back towards my camp and keep
going. And it was roaring a lot, a very angry, deliberate sound, and not just a random roar at all.
This was what woke me up, and when I scrambled out to see what the fuss was, I literally gathered
what little I had and made my way up the hill. As I was gathering my belongings, I realised I would
not be able to escape it forever. Combined with what smell it had, and the fact that it was faster
than me, I would never get away. Unless…
My sweater. It should still be on the bush on the other side of the hill. And from what I remember,
they had a small deodorant aerosol in the pocket. It was a big risk, but I was willing to take it.
I smeared myself in mud and quietly stole out of my hut. After I had climbed about 25 metres up the
hill, somewhat hidden in the bushes that covered the hillside, I heard the sound of something very
large, and very angry, smashing my hut. I looked around, and saw the Charcharadontosaurus rooting
through my hut. It withdrew its head, unsatisfied, and sniffed the air. It whirled its head round and
roared, straight at me. I could see its eyes locked on me. I stayed stock still, hoping it would move
away. But instead it started up the hill. I wondered why it had spotted me so quickly. Did I smell? But
no, I was covered in mud, that was not it. I reached up to wipe my face, and wiped off some egg
from the night before. Quickly I smeared mud on my face and double checked there was no more
egg. I knew now why it had targeted me. It could smell the egg on my chin.
I knew there was no point in visual stealth now. I began to run, all the while hearing the boom,
boom, boom of a very angry 15-tonne dinosaur getting steadily closer, as I steadily grew more tired.
As I reached the top of the hill, I found a rocky outcrop and crouched inside another small hollow.
The Charcharadontosaurus came up behind the hollow and started sniffing. But now, I could not run.
It was too close. Suddenly, I had an idea. I picked up a medium-sized pebble and threw it down the
hillside, and watched as it bounced and skidded on the way down. The Charcharadontosaurus wasn’t
fooled, however, and continued sniffing the rocky outcrop. I realised it was now or never. As it was
turned away, I quickly slipped out and sprinted down the hill. By sheer luck, it only spotted me on
the way down. As I ran down I saw a boulder poking up from the soil. I ran right past it, and was
rewarded when the Charcharadontosaurus tripped on the rock. It recovered quickly, and was up and
running again in half a minute. But by then I was in the swamp, and the odds were stacked against it.
Chapter
IV
As I squelched through the mud, I hear the Charcharadontosaurus enter the swamp, smashing a
couple of trees in its haste. Obviously it had made the connection in its predatory brain that I was
the egg-stealer (guilty as charged) and would stop at nothing to kill me.

10. I was making steady progress, as Charcharadontosaurus was not adapted to the swamp, when I
tripped and started sinking in a half-invisible pothole of mud. I started to pull myself up on the only
nearby branch, but as I grabbed it came loose and I found it was not a branch at all. What I was
holding in my hand was a flare. It was pretty muddy and mossy from the swamp, but by the looks of
it still worked. Another piece of the professor’s junk.
But I had a more immediate problem: I had stopped sinking, but I could not get out of the bog. And
the angry Charcharadontosaurus was getting closer and angrier. Suddenly I saw something move off
to my right, and silently thanked god for my luck. It was a huge, fleshy sail, and in an instant I knew
what to do. Grabbing the cap of the flare, I pulled it off and ground the rough side against the flare
(this was a survivor flare; the cap has a lighting surface included) and threw it over the Spinosaurus’
sail. Dinosaurs have a natural phobia of fire, and the smell of smoke threw the Spinosaurus into a
panic. It ran the opposite direction, and burst into the clearing just as Charcharadontosaurus did the
same. Charcharadontosaurus was the first to react. It had expected a small egg thief and now it had
a large carnivore. And it was NOT happy. Spinosaurus lashed out with its claws as
Charcharadontosaurus charged, trying but narrowly missing Spinosaurus’ neck. Spinosaurus lunged,
and clamped its Jaws down on the Charcharadontosaurus’ neck. It quickly withdrew, and in a second
Charcharadontosaurus had bitten down on Spinosaurus’ sail. It pulled it over, and if not for the soft
mud, Spinosaurus might have broken its back when it’s Sail spines hit the ground. But it didn’t, and
in its scrabble to get back up, slashed Charcharadontosaurus’ neck with its feet. As
Charcharadontosaurus went down, it fell onto Spinosaurus’ sail, breaking it’s spine.
And the fight was concluded, nought to all.
I grabbed Spinosaurus’ tail and dragged myself out of the pothole. I was dripping with mud, and
stunk to high heaven, but I was more focused on a more apparent danger.
Even through the thick mud of the swamp, I could feel tremors rocking the earth. And they were too
large for any dinosaur to make.
***
I carefully picked my way through the swamp, not wanting to make the same mistake as before.
Every now and then a series of tremors would rock the swamp, and some rotten branches might fall
from a tree. I could smell a burning smell in the air, accompanied by a slight tinge of sulphur. In the
distance I could see a wispy column of smoke rising from a mountain far away to the east. But I was
not heading away from it, like most of the swamp’s inhabitants. I even saw a juvenile Deltadromeus
run past me, too preoccupied with escape to worry about me. The herbivores were a lot slower to
react, and many were still eating, albeit a little nervously. But I continued the pursuit of my goal.
Every 20 metres or so I might find something that didn’t belong in this time. Simple things like a
muesli bar wrapper, or a tissue, or even an apple core. Obviously the professor had been here, and
was in a hurry to get to the volcano for some reason, although I had no idea what. All I knew was
that something important may be waiting at the volcano judging by the trail of litter, and I better get
there soon, as the tremors were increasing with frequency and severity. They had gone from 1.3 to
2.1 magnitude (I could tell; there was another piece of equipment I found in the swamp: a pocket

11. seismometer) and the column of smoke had thickened, along with the smell in the air. As I reached
the edge of the swamp, there was a large tremor, and the volcano spat a short burst of debris into
the air. I heard a shriek above me, and the same Alanqua who had stolen my amber crashed into the
ground next to me, killed by flying debris. I quickly gutted it and found my precious amber bead. I
put it in my pocket and closed the flap. I was not going to lose it again. As I crossed the plain, I saw a
small stream of lava emerge from the trees surrounding the volcano. As I watched another stream,
half the size of the first, cleared the trees. I had to get up that mountain. I could now see what the
professor had gone to the mountain for; about three-quarters of the way up, I could see a small hut,
approximately three metres tall. On top of the roof was a regional transmitter aerial, designed for
transmitting a signal for an area of about 15 kilometres. The professor hadn’t built it; gear like that
would have been too heavy to bring through on accident, or even at all. It must have been put there
by someone else, and whoever it was still there, as there was a yellow light coming through the
windows.
Chapter V
I toiled up the mountain, all the while with the tremors gaining in magnitude. One time I tripped
over a root and my face hit the ground 2 centimeters from a little flow of lava snaking its way
through the bush. When I finally reached the hut, the lava had almost reached it. Realising I was
probably doomed anyway, I opened the door and slammed it shut. You can imagine my surprise
when I heard a surprised voice yell “Oi! Who’s there?” and even more surprise when I find a dirty,
unshaven, almost wild man in front of me with a sawn-off shotgun. He was probably expecting a
dinosaur. As he realised what I was, he dropped the gun with his mouth wide open, the shotgun
shells clattering on the floor like marbles. “Who- who the- how’d ya get here, mate?” he finally
stuttered. “I.. well, I found this little amber bead, and I dropped it, and…” His ears perked up at the
sound of the amber bead. “Do you still have it?” he asked frantically. “yes, I have it, just in this little
pock-“ but before I could finish he ripped open the pocket and grabbed it. “come along with me
mate- you arrived just in time! Now we can skedaddle out of this stinking mess!” he said, grabbing
me by the arm and leading me down some concrete stairs. He lead me into what appeared to be a
basement, with some kind of microscope-looking device on a desk attatched to a generator. It had
wires with little foam grasps leading from the slide to some kind of miniature electrical pylon
mounted on the back of it, with a little calculator wired up to it. He hooked the grasps up to the
bead and flicked a little analog switch on the bottom. The little device hummed and flickered, before
the calculator fired up and beeped. He then started punching in some numbers. When he finished,
he took me by the arm and said, “hold on sonny. This could take us anywhere.” In a strange, sensible
voice, much different from his earlier, wild tone. I heard the familiar PING as the bead hit the carpet,
a bright flash, and then nothing.
All of a sudden, I was waist deep in a muddy stream, with rich oxygen filling my lungs. I looked
around, giddy with the rush of air, and found myself in a jungle stream, with massive, weird trees
towering above me, and the loud drumming of insect wings beating the air. I turned around and saw
the man, and behind him, agiant Mesothelaespider crouched on a log, waiting to spring…
Continued in the next book: Swamp mud