Prologue - Pangaea, 208 million years ago
The Micropachycephalosaurus hopped gingerly through the tall undergrowth, trying with all its might not to draw unwanted attention to itself. Of course, it did not know that it was a Micropachycephalosaurus. It was acutely aware, however, that it was very small in relation to the hordes of other scaly-skinned beasts that so often towered above it, intent on eating it. And if carnivores weren’t chasing it, it had to keep an eye out for those idiotic but enormous plant chomping ones that so often came charging through the forest, forcing it to take extreme evasive action to avoid being horribly stomped to death.
It was a bright sunny day in Pangaea and the chicken-sized herbivore was feeling particularly good about things. It hadn’t seen a raptor the whole morning and it was now with a bounce in its hop that it looked here and there for tasty shoots to eat. Then it saw it, a large healthy plant with strange looking pods at the ends of its many tufted red fronds. It was unlike anything the Micropachycephalosaurus had ever seen before and it sidled up to it with interest. The plant stirred ever so slightly as the small dinosaur nuzzled its nose inoffensively against its pods as if trying to decide upon which one to nibble on first. In the blink of a reptilian eye, the Micropachycephalosaurus was gone, never seeing the gleaming white teeth and slavering jaws that lunged downwards to snap it up.