Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
dire environmental effects immediately following the collision of a large
comet with our planet, some 65 million years ago—a calamity that set the
stage for a new suite of creatures on land and sea to vie for dominance.
But here on this quiet bottom, with the sunlight from the sea's surface
50 feet overhead mottling the sandy bottom and its late Mesozoic inhabi-
tants with faintly visible patterns, that catastrophe was still 12 million years
in the future, and ammonites and their Mesozoic world were in fine fettle.
He had already seen in the sand shell fragments that he suspected were from
ammonites, and if he couldn't find any living specimens, these would have to
do. There were too many questions waiting to be answered for him not to
bring home something of these enigmatic animals, even if it was only frag-
mentary shell material from long-dead specimens. But the living could an-
swer far more questions than the dead, even the recently dead, so he swam
onward, searching.
Ahead, emerging from the gloom, he saw a new feature: what appeared
to be a large mound of rock. Yet, as he moved closer, he saw that the "rock"
moved ever so slightly in the swell, belying its lithic appearance. With a start
he realized that he was looking at a carcass of rotting flesh and disarticulat-
ing bones, a once-large marine reptile—an elasmosaur?—now transformed
into a submarine feeding station. It was the focal point for a diversity of scav-
engers and carrion eaters. Sharks swam among the bones, worrying slabs of
flesh off the rib cage, while smaller fish nipped at gray carrion. Some areas of
the carcass were nearly covered with crabs and snails, scavengers cloaked in
a carnival of shape and color. The sharks looked quite familiar, as did the
crabs, but many of the snails were strange to him. These ornate creatures had
ribs and knobs like those found today only among tropical mollusks, but they
were members of species no longer alive.
He moved closer, wary of the sharks (which looked just like those of his
world), and as he did so, a new side of the carcass came into view. Upon see-
ing the new suite of animals feeding there, he felt a great throb of joy, for
among the busy scavengers were several old friends, creatures still alive in the
modern-day tropical Pacific: pearly nautiluses. Two large adults and several
