Anzu and Palaeosaniwa

No, not the anime character or the monster from Mesopotamian religions. I'm talking about the species of dinosaur known as Anzu. Now that I've cleared up that mess let's begin.


Anzu lived in what is now known as Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota 66 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period. So it would have been around when the asteroid hit.


Anzu is the second largest dinosaur from the Oviraptorosauria clade of which we know, Gigantoraptor being the only one surpassing it in size.


We know much about Anzu's physiology thanks to relatively complete and well preserved fossils. These have also revealed to us that the male Anzu towered above its female counterpart and would have been even taller than the average adult human.



Diet: Plants, nuts, insects, small vertebrates and carcasses. They weren't picky about what they ate.


Casualties: None, but the male did injure a woman.


Palaeosaniwa was a carnivorous lizard that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous period from 75 to 66 million years ago.


To say Palaeosaniwa was big is an understatement. In fact, this lizard was massive. Able to become as large as the komodo dragon of today, you might find it surprising to learn that it was actually a relative of the modern day gila monster.


Though it's not confirmed, many scientists believe that just like its living relatives Palaeosaniwa might have had a venomous bite that it would have used to incapacitate its prey.



Diet: Small to medium sized creatures and eggs.


Casualties: None, but it did injure a man.


Anomaly incident: An anomaly opened inside of a grocery store in Samara, Russia and a Palaeosaniwa came through it.


The cold blooded reptile crawled behind a display case and made itself as comfortable as it could in its hiding spot.


While the lizard slept in its hideaway a pair of Anzu came out of the anomaly and began to wander around the grocery store.


Meanwhile the anomaly's signature appeared on the monitors at the ARC facility and a team was dispatched to its location.


Back in Samara, the store's nightly shipment of groceries arrived and the workers began to unload the goods from the trucks and then carry them into the establishment. As the they began to restock the shelves and displays one of the workers arrived at the display case where the Palaeosaniwa was sleeping.


When the worker noticed the white, black and orangey brown tail poking out from behind the display he bent over to pick it up. But as soon as he grabbed the tail the Palaeosaniwa woke up and in a flash it turned around and lunged at the man. The reptile bit down as hard as it could on the worker's right leg causing great pain and pumping venom into his body. It then let go of the man and let out a loud hiss before running away.


While the employees tried to help their fellow worker the Palaeosaniwa began to make its way towards the backroom of the store.


When the ARC team arrived they found the store's employees gathered around the body of the man who had been bitten. They asked the workers what had happened, but as the employees were answering the ARC team's question, the female Anzu snuck past them, but anomaly researcher (*******) noticed the dinosaur and she began to walk towards where she saw it.


But when she arrived she ended up face to face with the male Anzu that was standing between herself and the female Anzu. Before (*******) could do anything the male Anzu kicked her to the ground and then began to peck (*******).


Luckily the ARC team heard her screams and she was able to get her arms up and block the enraged male's attacks long enough for her teammates to come help her.


Quickly the ARC team shot the duo with tranquilizer darts and in a matter of minutes the Anzus fell onto their side fast asleep.


The ARC team with the help of some of the employees were able to drag the pair of dinosaurs back through the anomaly. They then started to look for the Palaeosaniwa that was still lurking somewhere in the establishment.


As the hours passed the ARC team began to think that the prehistoric gila monster had gone back through the anomaly on its own. But they then heard one of the workers shout that they had found the lizard.


Quickly the ARC team ran toward the screams and tried to tranquilize the Palaeosaniwa, but the lizard was too fast for them. Then one of the workers pushed a shelf over. This momentarily stopped the reptile and gave the ARC team just enough time to shoot the Palaeosaniwa with tranquilizer darts.


Once the lizard was asleep the ARC team brought it back to the anomaly and pushed it through just as the anomaly closed behind it.

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