3 The Tinosaur

Once the Earth was nothing more than one big swamp.

There were no people.

There were no roads and no houses.

The land was filled with dinosaurs,big and bigger—mostly bigger.

There were Supersaurs, Brachiosaurs, and the Brontosaurus.

All of them were big—very, very big.

The biggest of the big were the Ultrasaurs. They were so big that the word “big” is not big enough.

They lived in a big world.

Life was fairly easy for the big dinosaurs.

There were big plants to eat, and big lakes and rivers to drink from.

Life was good for the big dinosaurs.

As big as the big dinosaurs were, there were those that were small.In fact,they were smaller than small.They were tiny.

These little creatures were called Tinosaurs.

They would run here and there looking for food.

The best food was large walnuts. The walnuts were bigger than even they were.

The Tinosaurs would feast on the nuts and eat and eat.While they ate, they would watch out for the Supersaurs.

For if a Tinosaur were stepped on by the Supersaur, it would be super sore indeed.

Things would have stayed this way for millions and millions of years,but something scary happened.

It all started one day. A Triceratops went lumbering by just as scared as he could be. “The ice is coming! The ice is coming!” he cried.

“Ice?” asked the Theropod. “Ice would be nice on a hot summer's day.”

But ice wasn't nice. It wasn't nice at all. It was the coming of an ice age.

It wasn't long before it began to get cold and colder and colder. The Theropods could see great mounds of ice—glaciers—creeping down from the mountains.

“We must move from here,” said the Theropods. “We must escape to someplace warmer.”

And with little thought or planning, they began moving away from the ice.

But the Tinosaurs were too small to escape. Their legs were too short and they could never run far enough.

“What are we to do?” one Tinosaur asked another. “If we stay here, we will be covered with ice!”

They thought and thought. Big plans for little creatures.

“We must find some place to stay warm,” one finally said to another. “A place where we can hide from the ice,” the other said in return.

“I have an idea!” said the first one. He quickly told them of his plan. “Follow me!”

With that, he searched about and found a large walnut shell.

The other Tinosaurs did the same.

They ate the meat inside until there were only hollow shells left.

Then, one by one, they each climbed inside a shell. They twisted and curled themselves inside and then pulled the top down tight.

Safe and warm in the hard shells, they fell fast asleep. They slept as the Earth turned cold. Sadly, all the other dinosaurs became extinct during the ice age.

The Tinosaurs slept and slept, waiting for the ice to melt. And, in time, it did.

After the ice melted and the days became warm, all over the world, Tinosaurs crawled out of their walnut shells. But to this day, some Tinosaurs remain asleep in their shells.

If you are lucky,some day you may crack open a walnut shell and there find a Tinosaur, fast asleep.