getting to know doctor "needles"

i can safely say i HATE being caught, captured, and just in general being held prisoner by not nice people!!!

this time it has been by some guy called "spectre", who beat up professor paradigm and then dino-napped me... i don't know why he has taken me though!

my only hope is that someone out there is looking for me! though at the same time i'm very worried they won't find us. not where spectre has hidden us both!

the cheeky meany has chosen the most unlikely hideout in the whole valley. the last place i'd ever look for a dinosaur abducting... uh i'm not actually sure what he does for a living... guy!

he has made his lair in the royal tyrrell museum!!!

as if that weren't enough, spectre has taken over the back room of the cretaceous garden, my former home in the tyrrell!

which ironically makes me wonder, after living right outside it for 4 years, why i never bothered to look inside this room before?!?

i have to hand it to this spectre guy though. it makes the perfect evil genius hideout. the cretaceous garden is the most missed part of the museum by visitors, and this backroom is only accessible by the gardener (who isn't at work today!!!) normally.

it was in here, the museum's plant nursery, spectre had me tied up.

"how does it feel to be back home, traumador?" spectre asked me menacingly as he put me down on a large table towards the back of the room.

i had rope all around me, including my mouth. despite my powerful tyrannosaurid bite, my jaws weren't very powerful when it came to opening (just like modern archosaurs) so i wasn't able to properly respond.

i tried to answer "let me go!" but it just came out a muffle.

"yes, i thought you'd be surprised by my choice of 'workspace'," he answered smugly, despite the fact i hadn't remotely replied at all to his question.

"no! i said let me go!" i tried to counter, but my words were smothered.

"please," spectre responded as though slightly insulted. which was weird, as why would he be surprised i didn't like being tied up and being held captive? "you don't have to be so formal. i'm not a doctor at moment, so much as you're companion of personal discovery, and i am so very much hoping we are about to make some exciting discoveries about you. i feel therefore that we have entered into a more personal relationship. my 'friends' all used to call me needles. so please no more of this doctor spectre nonsense."

what? why on earth would i be concerned about to call him at a time like this?!? who cares?!? i wanted out!!!

"let me go you madman!!!" i stifled, ignoring him.

"yes it is hard to believe isn't it," dr. jaden "needles" spectre happily told me, not that i asked! "back before my falling out with the palaeontologic community i used to have many many friends."

seriously, what was wrong with this guy?!? here he was scarily looming over me, as i was tied up, and he was happily telling me his life story... i was getting even more wigged out by this behaviour (was that the point of it i wonder?)...

"which is funny. it was those very 'friends' who drove me to this form of lifestyle," needles lamented on some clearly long gone better time in his past.

i struggled against the ropes in vainly. if it wasn't bad enough being menaced by this madman, i didn't want to hear him blab on and on...

dr. spectre seemed to think i was shaking my head in disbelief (in reality i couldn't really move my torso below the neck due to it being secured to the table) "i assure you, it is true," he pleaded with me. "why there was a day when 'good old' alvar paradigm and me were best friends."

not that i'd asked, but that was a surprising claim. not that it didn't make sense. during their fight paradigm and spectre had seemed to have a bit of history... just based on how they fought, i'd never have thought it was a good one.

taking my mind off both the ropes and dr. spectre rambling he interjected on his own monologue. "oh well," he said as he reached into a drawer outside my vision. he started rummaging through its content, and my blood went cold as i could hear various metallic objects and tools clang against each other as he tossed and turned them.

"time for us to begin," spectre informed me, though what we were beginning was a mystery to me. however i'd watched enough TV to know that my being tied up for it wasn't a good thing!

needles had picked his first implement, and was ready to thrust it at me. "hold still!" he sinisterly instructed me, and lunged the long slender tool at my face... i let out a muffled scream!

suddenly to my surprise i found that dr. spectre had begun to brush my teeth with a toothbrush! which felt very weird, as i'd never brushed my teeth ever before in my life!

before you say anything people of the webwide world, it's not like i need to brush like you mammals... you only have the two sets of teeth in your life, so you need to take very good care of them. i on the other hand like all other dinosaurs (and for that matter most other reptiles) continually grow new teeth throughout my whole lifetime. so if one breaks or gets a cavity i'll grow a new one in no time... as an added bonus i make a killing off the tooth fairy!

having my teeth brushed tickled, and i was kind of enjoying it. meanwhile, dr. spectre resumed talking. "yes, what an ungrateful man paradigm is," he cursed, and for a moment he brushed harder. "i gave him the best years of my life, and what does he do, banish me into exile from the scientific community!"

i was partially zoned out, enjoying my teeth being scrubbed that much. i let out a blissful sigh, which through my tied up mouth must have been a weird noise. needles interpreted it to mean i was curious about his latest tangent...

"it is true, i gave that man everything, and yet he destroyed me!" needles angrily told me. "i had a promising future when i started out in palaeontology, and he couldn't stand it!" "

"i graduated with my PHD by age 20 and promptly offered a curatorship. making me the youngest scientist to have ever be offered such a position at a major museum. do you know what i did with that chance? i let alvar paradigm talk me out of it, and for what? the chance to co-fond with him the most "unique" palaeontologic institute in the world. HA! that was rich. do you know what that institute turned out to be?" he demanded of me.

"palaeo-central," he snarled. i for the first time was interested in what he had to say. he grabbed my head and forced it back on the table. "no please stay down," as he resumed brushing my lower jaw. "yes, i too was palaeo-prime alongside alvar for the beginning of palaeo-central. what an honour most thought, what glory others resented, what adventures some even stupidly envied. if they only knew!"

with that he finished brushing my teeth, and set aside the toothbrush. as he went back into his drawer i was excited to see what he'd get out next. having my teeth cleaned was fun!

man i'm stupid sometimes. the next thing he pulled out was a surgical pick and a scalpel!

"all palaeo-central ever did for me was put me up against dangerous villains, endanger my life, and worst of all cost me years of research time!!!" needles vengefully fumed, waving the scalpel around my face... "oh but 'it was all for the greater good' alvar would assure me, and i stupidly trusted him. can you believe that. that arrogant jerk never cared about my standing as a scientist, he just used me to boost him up. while i squandered those years, alvar was always 'somehow' making the most amazing discoveries, getting the best publications, and becoming a power house in the palaeontolgic community! "

"what did i get you might ask?" dr. spectres demanded of me again. not that i was paying any attention to his words, what with the insanely sharp tool weaving around my snout! "nothing! that's what. i spent all my time taking care of the 'business' side of central. that would be the combat, the intelligence, and dealing with the law. paradigm as the science end of the duo would swoop in and grab all the credit for anything of scientific value that we found!"

"my early reputation as a palaeontology prodigy faded away, and i became nothing more then paradigm's lackey in everyone's eyes. an inferior man serving his better! i was the joke of the scientific community," he coldly recalled. "i'd publish something, and everyone would congratulate him! obviously it was the great paradigm helping out his lackwit assistant needles... i saved that man countless times for unfathomable foes, and that was how he repaid me!"

i was now terrified. not only of the tools he was starting to pull out, but of how he was so detachedly telling me his life story. i just wish i could have paid more attention to it. as he sounded like he could have answered many of my questions about paradigm, palaeo-central, and the dark side of palaeontology... that was of course if he wasn't the most dangerous manifestation of that dark side i'd yet to meet!!!

he had now pulled out a incredibly scary saw to supplement the scalpel and pick. i shivered as i was figuring out what he was up to. the cleaning of my teeth had just been his first step. as i don't brush my teeth their often encrusted in old gooey chuck of meat and such. so if you wanted to see them for study you'd need to get that off. which spectre had now done. i feared he was planning on cleaning off a lot more then my teeth now!...

as he stood clearly contemplating how to proceed with his planned "cleaning" spectre continued his rant about his past with paradigm. "it didn't matter i used to convince myself in those days. in the 70's i'd hit upon the most revolutionary discovery! on the side of my palaeo-prime responsibilities, i gathered and prepared my scientific masterpiece. the first definitive proof that dinosaurs were warm blooded!"

dwelling upon this painful memories seemed to slow down spectre's decision making processes, and he dawdled in picking a tool or technique to get started on me... not that i minded of course, but a moment later i was in for a surprise. i was about to sympathize with the man, despite what he was doing to me...

"i will always remember how i felt on august 16, 1986," spectre said crushed, it was the first time i felt anything resembling pity for the man. despite his being an evil palaeontologist who had dinonapped me, i for that instant related with him. through his voice i could tell he spoke of a genuinely devastating moment in his life where all his dreams collapsed on top of him. i know because it happened to me on september 21 2006 (like him i will always remember the date of that event!). "the day bakker released that damn book!"

"i'd been ahead of them all the whole time, even the 'revolutionary' robert bakker by a good 3 years it turns out. yet, due to the restraints and delays forced upon me by paradigm and palaeo-central i'd been kept from claiming my rightful place in scientific history!" he anguished.

suddenly i couldn't bring myself to completely hating this man... not that he was my new best friend mind you. still, he was right.

there wasn't a palaeontologist in the modern generation more famous than robert bakker. he'd started the dinosaur renaissance, and put dinosaurs and fossils back on the scientific map. with challenging the proposition that dinosaurs were more then lumbering stupid lizards, bakker had become one of the key legends of palaeontology. a name that will no doubt remain prominent in science history.

yet had things turned out differently (or properly?) it sounded like instead we'd all remember jaden spectre, or maybe dr. needles? as being the one to make this find... my head spun at this possible alternate history.

snapping me out of what could have been, and back to what was, spectre lifted up the scalpel and the scary saw, and started mentally weighing them against each other.

he muttered out loud comparing the too. "you'd be best for the cranial incision, but you'd be more fun," he said favouring the saw as the "more fun" option. "but you'd be better at the peritoneal extraction," he went back to the scalpel. "though you'd be more fun," in favour of the scary saw. "the added control for the brevis peeling would be nice," spectre once again referred to the scalpel "yet, in the end it won't be as much fun," his arguments for the saw seemed pretty single noted...

as spectre continued comparing the tools in his head, he turned back to me. "to think after all we'd been through together, alvar sided with bakker when i tried to stop the publication. our entire 'camaraderie', and he discards it for a simple matter of 'proper' timing. if not for alvar i'd have published my findings years before that bearded glory hog!!!"

spectre then made up his mind. "well, i could do the job quickly and cleanly," he said thinking of the scalpel. "but where's the fun in that." okay, like i was surprised at that outcome...

as he picked up the huge scary saw, spectre concluded. "needless to say, i've been trying my best to out do paradigm and the rest of his 'established' scientific community ever since. something which i think you'll help me out with perfectly my small friend."

"i do appreciate your sacrifice in my ascension," spectre informed me. "and though you may not be around to revel in it, i'm about to make you a very famous specimen."

of course the part he left out was that to be made famous, dr. spectre was going to have to clean off my skeleton too! which based on his "fun" saw, was going to hurt a lot... at least while i was still alive...

all i have to say, is good bye people of the web wide world! please think well of me when i'm gone (though being famous might at least help with that)...

to be continued???

agents of palaeo-central...

things were looking grim... REALLY grim people of the innerweb!

i'd solved the case, and figured out who was poaching fossils... the tag-team of a rogue technician named megan sauer and a PHD student gone bad called "jo" jocelyn harvager, who were after vivusly preserved dinosaur eggs.

they'd captured me when i snooped around their dig site for too long (oops...). things seemed like they were going to turn out alright when professor paradigm showed up on the scene. he was able to take out one poacher (megan), but jo proved a very capable fighter and out fought the professor. meaning it was now the eggs, me, professor paradigm who were in big trouble.

the only good news was jo being at a momentary lose right after defeating the professor. she was the only one of us at the site who could do anything (i was tied up and the other two were unconscious) and without megan to help her, it was clear jo didn't know how to proceed. who can blame her really lugging out all the fossils AND an out cold colleague was a bit much for anyone person...

however when jo picked up megan's gun off the ground, i suddenly felt a massive chill down my spine. as jo walked up towards the professor i couldn't help but get the distinct impression she intended to finish him off... sadly it made sense to me. one less thing for her to worry about, as she waited for megan to come back too.

jo pointed the gun at the professors limp body when suddenly a song could be heard from around the hill... i couldn't believe my ears, not that jo would probably have known the voice, but i sure did!

jo marched over to investigate, and came face to face with my former roommate dan!?!

a million and one questions raced through my head... most importantly what was dan doing here??? the last time i saw him, he was moving out of town!

i had a lot of other questions. even if dan had come back to town, how did he end up here? why this spot?

as jo approached she pointed the gun at dan, who just obliviously kept singing "i'm walking on sunshine".

"who the hell are you?" jo demanded. clearly all the random people showing up at her illegal dig was trying her patience... well maybe if you weren't do illegal stuff this wouldn't happen to you jo! have you thought about that?!? sorry got a little carried away for a second!

dan in a most uncharacteristic for him way, happily answered. "i'm dan," as he dumbly waved at her. what was going on i thought. in all my years living with dan i'd never seen him this silly or happy (most of the time i'd know him he was always grumpy... though i guess the might have been due to the trouble i caused him all the time!)

dan's weird behaviour was wigging jo out. "what is the matter with you?" she flailed the gun in her hand to ensure he'd noticed it.

"oh nothing," dan happily replied, as he ambled towards jo. she raised her firearm, and made it clear she'd shot dan if he got closer. he stopped but kept his goofy grin and a bizarre body posture. "i'm just out enjoying a good old fashion sing in the badlands, jo."

jo dropped her jaw at her name being mentioned, but she stiffened ready to fire.

"before you do anything rash," dan said almost unconcerned by jo's actions. "you might want to consider that no matter what you do to me, palaeo-central has you IDed now. which means there really isn't anywhere you're going to be able to run to that we can't find you."

did i just hear him right?!? as i was on the other side of the hill there was a chance i miss heard dan. if i did though, he just said he was with palaeo-central if i'm right!!! my own former roommate, one of the closest people i have to an actual family, and he has kept that secret from me?!?

before i could stew on this any further tons of things happened at once. jo now aimed the gun at a fairly lethal spot of dan. at the same moment as i turned to look away (which was silly of me as all i could see was the hill between us, but i felt i shouldn't be facing away when dan was made no more) i found i was suddenly face to face with a girl who was crouched beside me. i nearly screamed out loud, but she grabbed my snout and kept it from opening.

"be absolutely quiet," this stranger instructed me. "i'd untie you, but i have a bit of rescuing to do. excuse me." with that she shot up the hillside.

to emerge right behind jo. who was telling dan. "too bad that palaeo-central isn't here right now then isn't it!"

dan just snickered. "if you say so."

as the new girl on the scene leapt from the hill...

right onto jo!

before you knew it the new girl had jo down in an armlock. "get off me!" jo screamed in both pain and frustration.

jo still had the gun in her hand, but before she could think to use it, dan pounced on it. "i don't think so ms. harvager," he stated pulling the weapon from jo. dan then looked at the girl immobilizing the poacher. "could you have left it any closer to the last second there amanda?"

amanda responded. "sorry, i was distracted," she motioned over her shoulder with her head in my direction. "there's a miniature tyrannosaur all tied up on the other side of the hill."

she paused and then said in a slight amused voice. "oh and also the professor is lying the next hill over. i took a few seconds there to, come to think of it," dan glared at amanda. "what? like you won't have taken a moment to capture that on film?!? i'm going to legendary back at HQ when everyone sees these. though if you want in on the action and sneak a peak, i'd tread lightly. he won't be all that happy when he wakes up. especially if he found out we'd seen him laid out like that."

jo started to groan and struggle, but amanda just applied pressure to her wrist. "calm down tough girl," jo winced audibly in pain, as amanda warned her. "you might be a 3rd degree blackbelt, or so i assume based on the fact you beat up the professor back there, but i train against people at your level for my warm ups. just be a good girl and stay down... for your sake."

"i have her as my martial arts coach," dan quipped to jo. "trust me, you don't want to take her on, and i only have sparring as a reference."

amanda applied some handcuffs to jo's wrists, and hoisted the now relatively secure poacher to her feet. jo hanging her head in defeat grumbled. "we would have pulled it all off if not for that stupid tyrannosaur!"

dan overhearing that. "speaking of which, amanda think you can handle her on your own?"

"a mere 3rd degree," amanda replied sarcastically. "i think i'll just barely manage."

"good," dan replied as he started walking in my direction. "i've got a former housemate to untie."

next a secret that is as old as i am!!!

Battle of the Horseshoe Nest

(From the active case files of the Palaeo Central Initiative. Personal log of Palaeo-Prime: Professor Alvar Paradigm.)

I have been accused (and possibly rightfully so) of lacking emotional connections with the world around me. My agents and colleagues seem to think this observation is some sort of helpful critical feedback on my personality, and to be a more efficient leader I need empathy. They then wonder why I hold their assessment abilities in such contempt?

If they had even a slight concept of the burdens I endure as the chief guardian of palaeotology. They think it is my arrogance or ego that prevent me from lowering my defences to the world, but it is a necessity of surviving my position as Palaeo-Prime.

There was a time when this wasn't the case, but that was a whole different life, one I left behind decades ago. The constant threats of my modern existence make emotions a weakness I can no longer afford. Which is why Drumheller is such an odd place for me.

Despite all I left behind when I formed Palaeo-Central, my past, friends, and loved ones, I have never completely shed this place. It is one of the few things that can still invoke sentimentality in me. Which is why it is such a great pain to me, that nearly every time I have returned here in the last decade it has been due to a case! This summer is no exception.

Case #132-2009. It began in late 2008 when I received intelligence of unknown parties probing the geologic records pertaining to my Alberta fieldwork in the early 1980's. I had the foresight to have these records red listed, and thus have their access closely monitored. My chief concern was of course the vivus-bearing layers I discovered in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in 1984.

I have always feared these egg bearing layers being discovered by outside parties. This summer I have seen those fears realized, with a team of poachers systematically digging and removing a number potential vivus specimens. Right from under my nose, at least after a fashion. I had need for them to think they were accomplishing their task undetected.

In the course of the inevitable case review by the International Palaeontologic Committee of this operation, attempts will be made to pin the blame for this poaching on me. I can already see Dr. [Catherine] Everett trying to remove me as Palaeo-Prime, with trumped up charges of scientific conspiracy. She will fail in this effort as always, but I do have to admit this a case of my conjuring a true conspiracy. One of sadly too many. Though the list of these is not as long as Dr. Everett would claim it to be thankfully.

I have always been torn by my decision to suppress knowledge of this layer's existence. Despite its scientific importance, this layer is just too dangerous to itself to be made known. For every well meaning researcher who would explore it, a dozen unscrupulous entities would seek to exploit it.

All the proof I needed of this fact I have found today. The first party to independently discover these layers (with assistance from my own previous efforts, granted) have illegally collected from it. If not for my intervention today, who knows what the culprits may have gotten away with.

This is turning into a unique poaching case however. I have combated countless poaching rings, but this one is among the most impressive such operations I have ever encountered. It scares me to note that it was matched only by Spectre's digs in its beauty.

Unlike the typical smash and grab poachers, these ones are conducting themselves like capable scientists. Based on the quarries they have been digging over the past few months, and now their field notes I have just acquired today, it is true shame this team is not part of the legitimate palaeontologic community.

What has me more worried however is their potential buyer. If this were a simple commercial outfit, the eggs would have been dug up without so much as a single sentence recorded about them. The average collector has no interest in details quarry maps and specimen records like have been recorded here. No, a desire for such information requires legitimate scientific knowledge and interest. Of which there are only a limited number of possibilities, and all are very dangerous if they learn of this layer's existence.

It did not take me long to discover who one of my culprits was, when she discovered me investigating the site. I was forced to take notice as she cocked a gun (a Grande Puissance 35 if I'm not mistaken) and proceeded to point it in my direction. Based on her body language I had no doubts she would use it. I complied as she ordered me to "Freeze!"

To keep her calm and build her sense of security I naively put my hands in the air, and flubbed out a number of pleas for her not to shot me.

I can now confirm my suspensions that one of my poachers was Megan Sauer. She had been at the top of my list of key suspects. How many renegade first class technicians in the world can there be? (Six for the record, as of this point in 2009). Central has been trying to track down Sauer since her ingenious heist of German fossils while pretending to oversee the transfer on behalf of her former employer the Carnegie in 2006. Ever since Saurer has been closely linked to half a dozen high caliber poachings around the world, but up until now we'd never successfully pinned any of them directly to her.

Megan began ordering me to do various things at gunpoint, especially to carefully put down her meticulously gathered field notes. I can understand and sympathize with her on this mark. There is nothing worse then having ones field notes damaged or stolen in the middle of a dig, something I've had happen many times in my career! It provides me a perfect opportunity to turn the situation to my advantage.

I'd hoped to lure the poachers out one at a time, as it makes it easier to subdue, but this strategy always carries the risk of them getting the drop on me. Which requires me to regain the initiative. Which this non-cleaned up dig site provides me ample resources to do so with.

Clumsily dropping the field notes I took a subtle step towards Saurer. As her eyes instinctively followed the notes I seized my moment. Kicking the grater lying by the quarry, I flung it up in the air similar to a lawn rake.

The shaft of the grater struck Saurer square on the hand as I'd aimed, sending her firearm flying through the air, and leaving her completely vulnerable.

Not wanting to risk anymore surprises from her (something I've had to learn the hard way over the years capturing suspects) I finish her off. Many would attack me as being ungentlemanly in such conduct. Anyone who buys into this PC nonsense clearly has never had a woman try to kill them before! They are no worse at it then men, let me assure you!

I now had one culprit removed from the situation. Time to neutralize her associates. The evidence I was seeing led me to believe there would only be one or two more. I was very curious to see who Saurer had gone into business with. Up until now she had been a minor nuisance, as opposed to major threat.

As I had now done a proper survey of the site, I could afford more stealth and try and take out the rest of Saurer's crew without them being aware of my presence.

Interrupting my plans, I was shocked to spot on the ground a set of Tyrannosaurid footprints. Not fossilized ones, but freshly laid vivus ones! Based on their small proportions there was no doubt who had left them. TMP 2003. 12. 7 [Traumador's official catalogue number]!

That idiot! After I'd warned him multiple times to ignore this situation. This was a whole new development, and one not easily assimilated into the current tactical situation. TMP 2003. 12. 7's presence in the crime scene added numerous complications since he was now in potential danger. As of my contact with Saurer I could no longer withdraw to reassess the situation, and I certainly could not charge head long anymore. Why can things not ever go as planned?

I contacted the contingent team to alert them of the new development, and to adapt it into the operation's conduct.

That damn coelurosaur! The distraction his presence caused, allowed Saurer's accomplice to sneak right up on me.

Great minds think alike it would seem, as she also saw the grater as a ready made weapon. It is such a shame I should come up against such a great mind at a moment like this!

I am no rank amateur though. As she approached, little did she realize she betrayed herself through the effort. A force of habit I have picked up as Palaeo-Prime is to always stand with my back to the sun. I caught sight of the poacher's shadow the instant she posed to attack.

I attempted a preemptive attack, but my assailant was a very capable martial artist and handily countered my strike. A fossil digger with advanced hand to hand combat training, it could only be Jocelyn Harvager.

How fitting that I would run into her here. I had been counting the days till she officially graduated to one of my adversaries. Not that she hadn't already done damage to the palaeontologic community.

I had once thought of recruiting Joceyln into Palaeo-Central back when she was merely just a graduate students. She was perfectly tailored for Central. Scientifically accomplished, a team player, and a championship level martial artist. Yet she turned down an incredibly promising academic career for simple monetary gain.

This despite all the trouble we on the executive of the International Palaeontologic Committee had gone to to fast track her PHD and assign her the description North America's first feathered Dinosaur. How did she repay these honours? By stealing the Dinosaur and selling it to the highest bidder.

Harvager made a small fortune off this sale, and the Committee had hoped she would simply fade away with it. I knew better. Despite how Jocelyn had corrupted, I knew she was addicted to to it all. Palaeontology ran through her veins. More to the point a small fortune can not replace a larger one, and it was only a matter of time before she reemerged to try and do so. I had been off by a mere month in my predictions as to when that would happen.

Unfortunately for me, Jocelyn had not only met me, but knew my capabilities. She took full advantage of her gained initiative, and I was unable to counter her. Jocelyn in just 10 seconds of her official career as a poacher risen to among Palaeo-Centrals most dangerous adversaries. Just below Spectre in my estimation!

Jocelyn has me incapacitated within thirty seconds. A modern record. Others would have made the quip "I must be getting old" had they been in my position. I do not have such pride. Harvager was better than me, and given my lack of preparation I deserved the beating I received.

Though Jocelyn was skilled, what she possessed in combat prowess she lacked in honour. After reducing me to half consciousness, Jocelyn literally kicked me when I was down to ensure I was no longer a threat.

Despite how painful this was, I took a momentary comfort in one thing. She was proving I had been correct in thinking her to be a perfect potential agent, as I would have done the same t her given the chance.

This of course concludes the personal observations I can make about Case #132-2009. I was unconscious for the rest of the incident, and thus can offer no first hand observations on how further events played out.

To be Concluded...

paradigm's egg layer...

things had hit rock bottom, people of the innerweb!

i'd solved the case of the fossil poachings going on around drumheller. however i'd gotten a little to keen in my investigation, and ended up being caught by the fossil poachers themselves!

worse still they weren't who i thought they'd be. as their two new "players" in this whole dark side of palaeontology i was very concerned. i had no idea what they were going to do to me, apart from probably sell me!

here were the two suspects... okay criminals, i didn't suspect them anymore, i knew they'd done it!...

from listening to them for the last few hours and paying attention to how they do stuff here is what i have figured out...

on the left was megan. she'd taken a job at the tyrrell's education department this year in an effort to infiltrate the museum to help with the poaching scheme. when i first met her, megan had been looking at a geological map of the drumheller area. she said it was a "project" she was doing over the summer. she was also no doubt the one who broke into the geology department.

one the right was jo. the member of the pair i knew the least about, but i was learning a few things. her job had been to do most of the digging once they started working on a poaching site. that way megan could keep up her presence in the museum, and make sure they hadn't caught on to the current dig. jo was also the the more ambitious of the two, and not as cautious as megan.

from eavesdropping and watching them... what else am i supposed to do tied up, waiting for my doom?!?... i'd figured out they were both professionally trained fossil diggers who knew their stuff.

megan had definitely been a technician at some point in her life based on how her conduct and methods. i'd over heard her say she'd worked at the american museum of natural history and the carnegie, two of america's prominent museums to be sure! she also had a tendency to remind jo of all the different places she'd dug in before... which so far sounded like every continent except europe and australia! why would such a well experienced and qualified technician abandon it all to take up fossil theft though?

jo was coming across as more of a scientist, and based on some goading by megan about some unfinished skool, i'm guessing jo had tried to become a palaeontologist once. whether she'd completed her training or not was besides the point, she was knowledgeable. very knowledgeable. i found it hard to believe she wasn't a curator already (though that would be hard when you're leading a life of crime!!!). i was getting the impression she'd done a lot of work in ontario, but she didn't name drop museums like megan did...

watching them work was both impressive and terrifying! for a two person crew they could get a lot done in a short span of time.

they also could interchange roles seamlessly and efficiently. I watched them swap tasks twice, and it was effortless. one of those cases where less was more powerful. a bigger dig team often needs to slow down and meet to make sure everything is done proper. in their defence big specimens are easier to damage (as you typically need to make them smaller for safe transport).

what surprised me most, as i watched, was how meticulously they were recording the site and information about the fossils positioning. that's what a proper scientific dig would do. recording how a fossil sits in the ground and mapping the whole site is where 75% of information about a fossil comes from.

why two commercial poachers needed to record this i wasn't sure. how many fossil collectors would want the full scientific dossier on the specimen? a little bit of info maybe for a keener, but anyone that interested in the information these two were gathering would probably want the specimens in a proper museum anyways! which a proper museum shouldn't be dealing in!

`
the two had an argument about it for a moment, but sadly as they both knew what they were talking about it didn't last long enough or outline enough details for me to really understand.

jo while digging asked megan to read back some of the mapping details for this last specimen. megan read back the numbers, but the eggs angle wasn't right. jo snapped at megan. "you're kidding me right? you've been approximating map coordinates?!?"
`

"only on this last batch. like it matters! i wanna get out of here. its only a matter of time before someone notices the tyrannosaur missing," megan defended herself. " it's not like anyone's going to care if the spatial orientation is off by a few degrees."
`

jo had one of her typical scientist sounding moments. "it defeats the purpose of the dig if we don't bother to record it right!" she scowled. "besides if orwell is as keen to purchase these as he sounds, then we better damn well make sure the information is spot on! you know how much his bosses care about the details."
`

"orwell, as in annex co. orwell?" megan asked to clarify, but the name had meant something to her and she crazily scribbled in the necessary corrections.
`

"yeah the one and the same," jo answered annoyed. "i emailed him some photos this morning, while you were blending in at the tyrrell. he replied within a few minutes. word out there is the company is very keen on acquiring any and all vivus-specimens they can these days."
`

that was it, beyond that they just started to double check their facts and field notes... not much to go on, yet i was not totally in the dark.
`

this annex co. i'd heard of it before. lillian the albertosaur had signed on with it after being fired by the tyrrell. however i had no idea what it did beyond run travelling exhibits in museums... why would they want illegal specimen for those? won't the museums ask where they'd gotten the amazing specimens from?
`
sadly i didn't have long to think about it. my time had run out... they were busy removing the last jacket. once it was out, jo and megan were likely to gather up the egg field jackets and myself, and ditch everything else and get out of town in a hurry. meaning i wasn't going to be anywhere to be easily found in under an hour!
`

despite the dread and terror that was starting to overwhelm me, the incident that happened with the removal of this jacket is of particular note...
`

as jo popped the jacket off its pedestal (the last rock holding the fossil in or on the ground) the underside of the jacket (aka the rock that had seconds ago been attached to the ground) fell off of the main block...
`

"oh *BEEP*," jo cursed as the loose chunk tumbled down the hill.
`

"there is an egg in it!" screamed megan. "we don't have long before it dies, pick it up quick!!!"

that didn't make sense... sure the egg was vivusly preserved. that is to say, somehow, it had fossilized so that the egg was still alive after millions of years... yet there was no way after being dropped and tumbled like that the embryo inside would have survived!
`

yet jo rushed forward very concerned as though she still had a chance of saving it. as she picked up the egg she asked in panic. "that wasn't 10 seconds was it?"
`

megan shook her head. "no you got it in time. nicely done!"
`

10 seconds, what did that have to do with anything? dinosaur eggs much like reptile and bird eggs can only handle SO much jostling before they die. especially for most non-avian dinosaur eggs, they would die even if you turn them over. just like most reptile eggs. only birds and a few closely related coelurosaurs ever evolved turnable eggs.
`

confusing me more, jo said in a dreading manner. "why did it have to hit the air? stupid vivus fossils," she hesitated as something started to happen to the egg in her hands "i hate this part!"
`
what could the difference between a vivus fossil and a regular fossil be when they hit the air, other then one was dead and the other was alive (okay a big difference i grant you, but 10 seconds and air shouldn't be a difference right?... well that's what i thought until)...
`

jo cringed in visible discomfort, not quite pain, but it certainly didn't look pleasant. before i could wonder why, i was hit with an all too familiar wave of dizziness and discomfort... oh no! not again...
`

i was having another of my magic episodes! professor paradigm had predicted that i'd become a "living detector" and so far he was sadly being proven right!
`
the egg in jo's hands lit up like a x-mas tree with "mystical gradient radiation" as the smart people around me had been calling it... i think the term magic gets the point across a lot better myself!!!
`
i don't think either megan or jo saw it the way i did based on their reaction...
`
jo definitely felt the magic release that's for sure. she nearly dropped the egg as though someone had given her a super powerful electric shock!

i felt it too, and i wasn't even close bu! thankfully it was a short burst. the shortest i'd ever encountered in fact. it was very intense though... on the level of whiro or the kete o te wananga.

jo, and megan too, were mystified by the phenomenon (which if you just got a huge shock from a fossil without the light show i saw, it would be very confusing), and both stated their ongoing puzzlement as to why vivus-fossils always did that when they were dug up. yet they didn't ponder on it for long. without the visual i had, it wouldn't have made sense...

i on the other hand, despite this being my first vivus-egg excavation, now had a pretty solid theory!
`
the magic had erupted off the surface of the egg, almost like a second shell... i think the magic was protecting it. protecting it from the wear and tear of millions of years! it made perfect sense, how else were things, otherwise long extinct, surviving the void of deep time into the present if not magic...
`
of course my theory had some holes big enough you could fly a dragon through them! first off i had no clue what magic actually was. from what i knew of it from the movies it could do anything, but as i'd learned from dinosaur movies what makes it too screen and what happens in real life can be drastically different!
`
more to the point how magic had gotten onto an egg millions of years ago made no sense to me... though based on the light show i'd just seen there clearly was an explanation...
`

jo wasn't as concerned with the incident as me. to her it was just a strange one off effect of finding vivus fossils.

however with its magical protection now gone the egg was as vulnerable as an ordinary egg. thus jo now handled it very carefully. "let's go put you somewhere nice, warm, and safe," she almost caringly assured the inanimate egg... i wasn't sure if she was eying it with extreme scientific curiosity or outright greed. perhaps a mix of the two i thought.

as jo went to store the egg i realized something. there were no more eggs for the two poachers to dig up... the excavation was over.

i gulped in slight dread as megan walked over to me. "well say goodbye to your old home," she instructed me. "i suspect it'll be the last time you ever see it."

"why are you doing this?" i genuinely asked... though i just meant what she was about to me.

megan seemed to think i meant my question about her chosen evil career path, which i can't help but feel was some sort of guilt complex on her part. after all why would a victim be even remotely interested in the bully's problems? "good question," she answered, which i thought meant she was reconsidering letting me go... however she was just thinking of how to word her life story all sympathetically.

"i did work for years in the name of science. i helped make many important discoveries," megan seemed to look off into the distance. perhaps in her mind down memory lane to times less illegal. i though it just looked silly... come on, a dinonapping technician yearning for the good old days... even i, who forgets TV isn't real sometimes, thinks that was cheesy!

to her credit megan snapped out of it too, and the moment ended with her rather sensibly admitting. "then i realized i wasn't being rewarded for my work on any level. the pay sucked, and worse the PHDs were getting all the credit and attention. i began wondering, would they be on the news or covers of people magazine if not for the finds i made for them? they wish! i went into business for myself when i realized how much more i could make on these 'freelance' gigs."

"that's fantastic," i sarcastically responded. so she was an accomplished fossil hunter who "snapped" under the hard pressure of not being rich or famous. i didn't have either of those thing, yet i hadn't broken down to the life of crime... so i'm not sure why she expected me to sympathize. "i meant why are you holding me against my will?"

megan just raised an eyebrow at me. "duh!" was her only reply. i guess i can appreciate that. after some of the things it sounds like she'd done along the path to selling out, pleading from me her latest victim wasn't going to turn her around to redemption.

"again i'd say goodbye to a lot of things. pretty soon you're not going to be able to enjoy them the same way again, unless you get lucky with a really nice new owner," megan warned me as she went to go collect the field notes.

i probably should have felt fear or dread or something hearing that. after all both megan and jo were making finally preparations to abandon the site with the goods and me. there wasn't anything i could do to stop them, and no one was coming to my rescue...

or so that was the situation until a minute ago. just as megan was finishing her lifestory, the wind had shifted ever so slightly. a human would never have noticed what i did off the downwind...

help had just arrived. professor paradigm was on the scene, and i was pretty sure (if his reputation as the head of palaeo-central were true) he wasn't too keen on the poaching from these badlands...

to be continued...

sticking my snout where it shouldn't be!

i'd figured out what the pack of the primordial feather was poaching! the naughty coelurosaurs were after vivusly preserved dinosaur eggs... i suspected in hopes of finding more theropod eggs with which to raise new recruits for the pack.

in the tyrrell's geology collections there had been 20 samples from potential egg bearing sites throughout the horseshoe canyon formation. of those though only 12 were well mapped, meaning that the poachings were almost certainly at one of these!

i'd investigated as long as i could after finding out about these sites. they'd hit 2 out of the 12 sites when i started my investigation. i'd spent all of yesterday checking 5 of the other 10. the first 2 put me in a false sense of relief, they hadn't been hit yet. however the next 3 in a row had all been dug at!!! meaning 5 out of the 7 sites i'd been to had been stolen from... there was no knowing just how many eggs they'd gotten (though by my count of the dig holes, at least 14 "nests" had been excavated!).

i got up with the rising sun and checked 2 more sites already today. one was fine, but the other had been poached and recently too! if i was right the dig had been within a matter of days... that put it at 6 out of 9 sites stolen from so far. a very scary average i must say.
`
as i approached the 3rd site of today i realized with a chill, the poachers had been following roughly the route i had been for the remaining 10. starting close to the museum and then moving away. only unlike me, they had avoided sites that were harder to get to. the 3 sites that they'd left alone, would not have been pleasant to get in and out of carrying heavy equipment and field jackets full of fossils. even nice small ones like eggs (which can come in BIG batches!)

walking through the badlands my blood ran cold as just around the bend i thought i could hear a jackhammer grinding away. there was a lingering smell of dust and smoke as i grew closer. both things i'd experienced at fossil digs before...

i now sped up to a jog. i was so eagerly watching for signs of a dig i didn't look properly where i was stepping. my ankles (which are way higher on my legs then a human's) hit something solid, that nearly caused me to fall over. looking about my feet though, there was nothing visible... weird.

as i came around the bend i yelped out loud...the site had not only been poached, but it was in the process of BEING poached!!!

there were tools, field jackets, and even field notes around a number of excavations along a single mudstone layer. it could only have been paradigm's egg bearing layer!

why there were field notes confused me a bit... why would the pack need to keep those? only someone interested in the scientific information of the site would need to record anything...

after only 30 seconds i'd seen enough to know i needed to report this back at the museum. whoever (or whatever) was doing the digging was clearly taking a break or something, as they were no where to be seen. however they no doubt would return soon to resume work on the site. i intended to have the authorities swoop in and catch them in the act.

as i was about to turn and run as fast back to my car and my "cell" phone as i could, suddenly i felt very uneasy. from deep within my primal predatory instincts i didn't feel safe...

just as i was about to look around the wind shifted direction... my incredibly powerful t-rex sense of smell instantly picked up a strong scent. a human, one i'd met before, but not someone that popped to mind immediately... and they were RIGHT behind me!!!

before i could react to this presence the whole backside of my head was a blaze with intense pain, as i was karate kicked from behind. the only good news was it was so well placed a blow the pain lasted but a mere moment. i was out cold a second later...

when i started to wake up i was really disoriented. it felt like i was floating, and my limbs won't work. as i faded more into consciousness i realized i wasn't floating, but rather lying with my back propped against a hill. as for my useless limbs there was good reason they won't work. my arms and legs were all tied up.

my eyes were still a little hazy, but i could make out voices. "what do you mean he just showed up?" a woman's voice demanded of someone. i'd heard it before i thought

"i'm telling you, i was working on the last nest when suddenly he came wandering up from the highway," another woman, who wasn't as familiar as the first. "we're just lucky he triggered the trip wire or i'd have had no warning at all!"

"this is just great!" the first woman stated in pure frustration. "right when we hit the jackpot!""

"what are you so worried about?" the other asked her. "his just an extra item for sale. how many collectors do you know who would say no to their own vivus tyrannosaur? that alone annex co. they'd pay through the roof for him!"

"i guess you're right," the first woman replied, though she didn't sound completely convinced. "i'm just worried. the museum staff say he's connected to central somehow."

the second woman countered enthusiastically. "if that were so, you think they'd send a little more then just him," there was a pause, as the second woman waited for a reply from the first. which she must have got, a nod would be my guess, the second carried on. "they don't have too long to send in the cavalry. we just need to jacket up these last three nests, and we can get out of here."

"not too soon," the first woman impatiently stated. "i've been having trouble keeping up my cover. the tyrrell's administration suspects its someone on the inside, and they've been pulling surprise inspections. i've only got an hour before i'm supposed to check back in. they think i'm leading a tour right now."

tour? i thought, as my mind started to shake off the fuzz of unconsciousness. there was only one department in the museum that led hikes! the education department... i knew who the first woman was!

as my sight came back, i found i was right as she stood towering over me, the new "education" staff member megan.

"i'm giving you one chance to answer this, traumador. if i don't like the answer i get, you'll lose something precise too you," she instructed me. "does anyone else know you're here?"

"no... no one... no one else...else knows i'm here," i stuttered terrified. i realized what an idiot i'd been in trying to keep my investigation secret. no one knew i was out looking for these sites. in fact i hadn't checked in with anyone for days. for all anyone knew i'd gone back home to new zealand!

"see i told you, and he's not smart enough to lie to us," the other woman said from around the hill. i couldn't see her, but i had a sneaking suspicion who it was. "he is so stupid he thought it was a bunch of dinosaurs working this job when he told us about it!"

what? the pack of the primordial feather had nothing to do with the poaching?!? then why did they try to kill me??? what are they guarding back at the museum, and then what are these two women after dinosaur eggs for?????

megan snapped back. "it's not as dumb as you seem to think it is. i've seen dinosaurs excavating before!"

"really?" the other woman asked in disbelief. she then challenged. "where?"

"out of the two of us, who has worked at the american museum of natural history and the carnegie again?!?" megan harshly rebutted, as she clearly didn't like her colleague questioning her claim. i'd venture she more to the point didn't like having her authority being questioned at all. with a resume like that she must have known her stuff!. "i've seen vivus carcharodontosaurs and abelisaurs digging sites just like this one in brazil, patagonia, and argentina."

okay so i'd been wrong about the pack being behind this dig, but i was right about them being capable of it! carcharodontosaurs and abelisaurs may not be coelurosaurs and thus in the pack of the primordial feather, but they aren't that different in build from true coelurosaurs...

though as jo came into sight from around the corner (i had thought she was the other woman) my concerns came back the present...

"what you think than," jo asked megan. "we put him to work digging?" she coldly joked.

"no," replied megan.

"lighten up," jo smiled. "of course i was joking! i wouldn't risk an instant million bucks like him run off now would i. these young tyrannosaurs can run pretty fast when they want to..."

oh man this wasn't good! this was SO beyond not good! i dare say this was beyond terrible!!!

i was about to be sold as a illegal vivus-fossil... worse still no one out there even knew i was in trouble!!! why did i have to go play the hero?

"let's just finish up. i'd like to finish this dig in under an hour so i don't have to go back to the museum again," megan instructed. "besides the quicker we get these out, the faster we can go collect our money!"

what was i going to do people of the innerweb... i was in the clutches of fossil poachers, and helpless to escape!

To be Continued...

cracking the case wide open!

i had them... i was about to uncover what the pack of the primordial feather was poaching from the badlands.

i'd managed to sneak into the tyrrell museum's collections, right under the noses of the crimson talons i might add! (i sound like i'm boasting, but it actually worries me just how easy it was to get by them!). now i could retrace the break-in that happened in here a little while ago.

i was certain the poachers had used the rock samples in the horseshoe canyon drawer to figure out where to dig up their targets. if i could decipher what the clue was they had been looking for, hopefully i could figure out what kind of fossil they were stealing!


my only problem was the horseshoe canyon geology cabinet itself. it had so MANY samples for me to go through...

the number wasn't surprising really. all you had to do to collect more for this specific section of collections was walk out of the museum and up to ANY of the hills around it and grab some rock (minus the very top ice age layer ontop of the valley walls).

`

still this wasn't good. as i was supposed to be finding what the pack was after...

with several hundred layer and formation samples to go through, i was really hoping whatever they were looking for was obvious!

my geology know how was intermediate at best (i'm more of a fossil guy really). considering how fast the break-in had seemed to be (it happened while collection's staff were nearby!) i was thinking it must have been something easy to spot in a hurry... hopefully i would know it when it when i saw it...

`

the good news was it was just the rock samples... had the poachers also hit the horseshoe canyon formation fossil drawers i would have been looking through collections for at least a week! there are a lot more horseshoe fossils kept here then rocks!

`

for the first several drawers nothing caught my eye... i grew more worried with every other vile and box i looked in, as none of the samples seemed noteworthy to me...

then i hit something. in the back corner of the fifth drawer, was a fine mudstone sample full of snails and clams...

this wasn't the first time i'd seen this. when i went back to the poached sites, the majority of the poachings at the 1st site and all of them at the 2nd site had been from mudstone layers laced with snails and clams...

i pulled the sample aside.

even as i did so, i thought there was a chance i was reading to much into this shell criteria.

both snails and clams are common in two other formations in the valley, afterall. the layer lining the top of the valley from the 15 000 year old glacial lake only had fossils of freshwater snails, nothing else. further down the valley in the oceanic rocks laid down before the horseshoe canyon formation, the most common fossils are clams.

`

there was a chance this sample was either run off contamination from one or both of these layers into a horseshoe canyon level. or it was just a filing mistake, and this specific sample was simply mislabelled or misplaced from another formations cabinets (which does happen).

i carried on looking. stress and anxiety started to eat away at me as the single clam/snail sample become an ever increasing singular oddity. i wasn't finding anymore like it...

as i came to the last drawer of the whole horseshoe canyon formation collection i panicked... clearly i had imagined the whole snail/clam connection... there must have been something else in these drawers... something i hadn't noticed at all!!!

my panic nearly caused me to skip the last drawer and start all over... fortunately my small brain doesn't cope with changing outer world tasks well while it is in deep thought. i just plowed into the last drawer while dreading having to start over...

i'm glad i didn't start all over!

in the last drawer i found almost nothing BUT clam and snail samples!!!

which was weird. the specimens had all been collected independently and over many years. in fact in the notes that accompanied each of them, no one had even remotely connected any of the samples with each other. that alone gathered and organized them into the same drawer...

no! someone had pulled them all out of their various correct spots and drawers and rearranged them together into this one on purpose!

it made sense. this last drawer was a perfect hiding spot, as i'd just demonstrated. it was right at the ground, so you had to bend over to look in it (this is one of those rare good times i'm SO short!). not the usual place someone would start looking randomly. more to the point, if you didn't know to look for them, you could very easily happily search the other 40 drawers of the horseshoe canyon, and never know you missed this cache of weird samples in the last drawer...

i at first thought the poachers had stashed them all here out of sight and out of mind. however, it occurred to me they hadn't had had time to sort anything. the cabinet had been left a total ransacked mess when i found it after the break-in. the poachers had probably had to leave these shell samples scattered amongst the rest of the horseshoe collection.

so who had reorganized these snail/shell samples together and hide them... there was one person i knew who had a big interest in the poaching case, and more to the point had been in the collections moments after me... professor paradigm!

`

the question was why had he hidden these all?... i couldn't help but feel it was a tactic to try and keep anyone else (like say me) from stumbling onto the same trail as the poachers...

okay so now i had a reoccurring oddity sample type. in addition to them all have lots of shells , i had evidence they were "hot" items. they were the only rock samples that had been re-sorted and removed from their proper catalogue order in the clean up from the break-in! the question now was why were they so important?

i could now safely eliminate both the extralayer contamination and/or in the wrong drawer theories. there were 20 snail/clam samples, and 12 of them had thorough field notes to prove exactly where they had came from. all were horseshoe canyon formation, and all were from the red deer river valley!

in fact it was these accurately collected field notes that confirmed they were connected to the poachings! the third sample had been collected from one of the poaching sites i'd "found"! rifling through the rest of the field notes i quickly found the other poached site i knew of. there was no doubt now... the poachers had being using the samples to find sites!!!

i stepped back to calm down from this excitement... okay traumador, i thought to myself, you did good. we found the bad guys "treasure map", but we still don't know what the treasure is...

somewhere in the back of my brain a voice was screaming about the snails and the clams... they were the key. the worst part was i knew why, i just couldn't remember why...

i flipped through the remaining ten sites, and found nothing to help jog my memory. in desperation i went to the eight iffy documented samples. they had information, but not very precise. they all seemed to be from older collecting, back from when the museum was being set up in the 1980's, and were initial exploration with the possible intent of further exploration later on, but nothing thorough at the time. clearly no one had followed this up (which happens in science. there is so much to learn you can expect it to all happen within your lifetime!)

`

as of such these eight wouldn't have been much use to the poachers. the vague geographic details given were not exact useful for surgical hit and dig runs like the fossil thieves had been using. if someone had wanted to track down these layers it take you a couple days of looking with this info. you certainly would have found them, but not quickly.

`

i thought these eight vague samples weren't going to help me either... till i caught a reference on the last one. "sample of surrounding sedimentary matrix from TMP 85. 14. 1"... that was weird. all 19 other samples were collected from the field as just rocks. this appeared to be some saved rock from a prepped fossil...

`

TMP 85. 14. 1 was a tyrrell museum catalogue number, but it could have been any of the 150 000 fossils stored here!... yet this particular number rang a bell in my head... okay not really, as i don't have a bell, nor have i ever heard a bell unless one were present... let's just say it seemed like a very familiar number.

`

oh course! how could i ever forget it?!? that was lillian, the girl of my dreams', catalogue number!!! i zoned out for a second missing and thinking of her, and drooling over the saurian goddess' hotness...

`

wait a second... reality set back in... lillian's dig site had never been confirmed. which irritated darren tanke to no end! she was one of the few modern lost quarrys (in fact all the other modern missing dig sites from alberta were "oddly" vivus dinosaurs)... this made no sense. why was there suddenly a lost record of her discovery here in a geology drawer?

`

till i noticed the report author's signature... i should have guessed... professor paradigm!

he was the world expert on vivus dinosaurs, so it made sense that he was finding many of them. based on how hush hush he seemed to keep most things, hiding the locations of vivus fossil sites fit his profile. i just never would have expected him to hatch a scheme to hide scientific data from the scientific community. i almost wanted to report him... when the true significance of this hit me...

`

hatch a scheme... traumador you pea brained idiot, i cursed myself. that's just it! literally hatching... you can't get a vivus dinosaur without a vivus egg!!!

the snail and clam shells, they were a key ingredient to preserving fossil eggs!!!

how could i not have seen this before...

`

it all made sense now!

`

everyone i'd been talking to had suspected that poachers going to this much trouble in alberta must have been digging up something new and never before seen around here.

`

sure dinosaur eggs were known from alberta, but they were from farther south in the province in devil's coulee (in fact as that area was close in geologic age to the horseshoe, everyone had just assumed lillian had been found down there).

`

no eggs had ever been found around drumheller before...

`

at least on the formal record. it seemed paradigm had found a series of layers through out the horseshoe formation that did indeed preserve eggs, but kept it a secret. that is till now. as the poachers had learned his secret.

`

the fact they were eggs, and that these had produced vivus-dinosaurs (lillian for example), now completely explained why the pack was involved. how else could you get more pack members if they all went extinct?... you dig them up for course!!!

`

this was huge... i'd "cracked" the case, and hopefully before it could be hatched by the pack.

i grabbed the top sample's field report and rushed out of the museum to see if i was too late...

it took me to a nice little stretch of badlands about a 10 minute drive west of the museum.

i rushed quickly (but carefully... i still remember my close accident in the badlands) towards the layers location. reaching the hill marked in the report, i let out a sigh of relief. there was no signs of any digging.

yet examining all the mudstone layers in the hill, i found in the fourth one from the bottom the signs i was looking for. a fine grain mudstone full of snail and clam shells.

slightly down the hill i found a nice spot where the layer had slumped and exposed some micro-fossils. though they were neat and dandy, i was looking for just one thing.

my heart nearly skipped a beat when i spotted it.

this is the sample i brought back to the museum. a piece of dinosaur eggshell...

i'd just found something that had never been found around drumheller before (officially anyway)!

the scary part was the pack had too, and at at least two sites. there was no telling if they'd already hit any or all of the other nine other known layer locations...

there was only one thing for me to do.

find out!

to be continued with the true nature of the poachers...