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The discovery.
The area was hot and dry during the summer months but even then it was freezing at nighttime.
During the long winter months which were soon approaching, temperatures would plummet to well below zero even during the daytime. Such was the climate where C.B. Talcus and his small team of amateur paleontologist were fossil hunting.
The team was in a hurry to complete their investigation of the various Biotypes to be found in the K-T boundary of the region before the long and severe winter months set in.
Most of the team consisted of volunteer college students still in their early twenties, out for their doctorates.
By comparison, C.B. was a grizzled old man of thirty-six and it was a popular joke among the other team members that he liked studying the "Gray" period because he was gray himself.
Actually, C.B. had a bold and different idea about what secrets the K-T boundary might hold, though he had spoken to no one about it yet.
His partial theory was borne from a single femur that he had discovered nine years before of a dinosaur, but one that would have walked erect like a modern day human being.
Potassium –Argon dating had placed the fossil's age to be around sixty-five million years B.P. which neatly corresponded to the K-T layer's age in which it had been found.
Lately, C.B. anxiously but without divulging as to why, had his small team intensify their search of the area in order to get a better idea of what the mysterious creature might have been like in real life.
Being naturally secretive, C.B. insisted on being present at all finds so that he could take over immediately in the event of any further discoveries relating to the strange fossil leg bone he now had secretly stashed away in his remote home.
So far the searches had turned up nothing new and after nine years of strained silence; C.B. finally felt the need to tell someone.
The rude awakening.
Jason Tilgerth was jarred awake by the sound of his phone ringing even though he was a light sleeper anyway.
As the phone continued to ring, Jason glanced at the clock near his bed that said "Two-twenty-one AM' on its illuminated green digital display.
Jason already knowing who was on the other end sighed in exasperation as he sleepily answered his phone. Before Jason could say anything he heard C.B.'s gruff anxious voice at the other end, "Hello Cap!" C.B. called Jason "Cap" because of their former service in the military a few years back.
"Get over here immediately!" "I've got something very important I want to show you!".
Jason looked again at his clock through his bleary eyes just to make sure that he had gotten the time right before he irritably spoke back to his rude but life long friend C.B.,
"Listen Drinker, Unless you've got something that threatens our national security and I am once again being reinstated as captain in the marine corps special forces, We can wait until my normal time to rise for me to see this "Important "Thing" of yours Okay?"
Jason affectionately called C.B. "Drinker" due to the fact that C.B. was an exact double in his physical appearance to the late nineteenth century paleontological genius Edward Drinker Cope.All who had encountered C.B. went further to say that he also shared the late genius's abrasive personality. Jason had dealt with all types during his twenty year service in the Marine Corps.
He saw that beneath C.B.'s aggressive and defiant exterior was a man very much afraid of failing.
C.B. shouted back,
"I mean now Cap!" "This is extremely important or I wouldn't have taken the trouble of calling you!"
Jason in a partially raised voice of his own spoke back irritably,
"Okay Okay!" Just give me a minute will you?"
But all he heard at the other end was a dial tone. Jason was angry at what had been unusually rude behavior even for C.B. but there had also been an undertone of urgency in his friend's voice that spurred Jason into hurriedly getting dressed and heading for C.B.'s home. Jason arrived at C.B.'s remote home an hour later. C.B.'s modest one story house was located twenty miles outside of town in a densely wooded area. C.B. was not poor by any means but he did not spend his money lavishly either. "Besides." He would always say to Jason, "Why spend a whole lot of money on a big house when most of my time is spent outdoors anyway?" "I only come in to organize my finds and to sometimes eat." Jason shook his head in disdain at the old house that badly needed painting as he politely knocked on C.B.'s front screen door that was never locked. Getting no answer Jason opened the front door and walked carefully inside. He had to step carefully through the dark unlit living room so as not to crush any of the hundreds of neatly arranged fossils that lay everywhere on the living room floor. Jason had been in this house almost as many times as C.B. had over the years and was by now familiar with the best path to take in the direction of C.B.'s dinning room where he knew C.B. would be waiting for him.C.B.'s hallway was also similarly choked with carefully arranged fossils except that at least it was lit. Jason carefully followed it down and turned to his left at the end where the dimly lit dinning room was located. Upon entry Jason saw C.B. quietly staring at a solitary package in the center his otherwise empty dinning room table. C.B. suddenly looked up upon Jason's entry and then just as suddenly looked back down at his wrist watch with a stern frown. As he sarcastically said, "Well, I'm so glad you could finally find the time to make it over here!" Jason looked slowly around at the orderly clutter that was in every room visible except this one empty dinning room and came back witha quiet statement, "I can see why you never got married Drinker." Jason then focused his gaze back on C.B. "Tell me Drinker, Just what am I doing here in this dinosaur mausoleum at this ungodly hour?" Jason started to yawn but stifled it with C.B.'s dramatic gesture toward the single 4"x4"x10" package marked "FRAGILE" in the middle ofhis dinning room table as he said, "I have brought you here Cap to witness an anomaly to all established facts ofmodernPaleontology." "But First I'll need your vow of silence before I can allow you to lay eyes on what you are about to see." Jason having known C.B. almost his entire life was now accustomed to the man's usual theatrical behavior. Expecting nothing more than a fragmentary relic to one of the small shrew –like creatures that flourished during that time period, Jason tiredly yawned as he nodded his acceptance to C.B.'s vow of silence. He wondered absently why C.B. felt the need to pack the usual tiny fossils in a package that could hold a medium sized cat. As if C.B. had sensed Jason's last thought, C.B. roughly pushed the package toward Jason such that Jason was cut off in mid yawn as he had to stop the Speeding package. C.B. just as roughly commanded Jason, "Open It!"Jason carefully complied as he gently undid the wrappings. Jason's eyes widened in surprise as he uncovered the mid section of what appeared to be a coelosaur upper leg bone since as far as he knew all dinosaurs were alleged to have gone extinct at this time period. Jason froze in astonishment once he had completely removed all of the wrappings to the fossil. Speechless with disbelief, He alternately looked at C.B. who seemed to be standing there waiting patiently for a conclusion on Jason's part and then back at the amazing fossil before him.Many thoughts raced through Jason's mind. Most prominent were the possibility of a hoax or an elaborate prank but he was quickly able to dismiss these thoughts with the obvious authenticity of the fossil's condition. He then had to grapple with the implications that went with the fossil being for real. Jason was barely able to speak and stuttered his first question to C.B. , "Has…Has… This fossil been dated yet?" "I..I mean , is it contemporary with the K-T event?"C.B. just stood there in silence as Jason wiped the perspiration from his forehead from his tense excitement. Jason looked back at the fossil for a closer examination.Speaking mostly to himself while he examined the fossil femur further Jason said, "This appears to be some sort of advanced Dromosaur.." Jason looked up at C.B. with astonished disbelief as he concluded, "But one that had walked as erect as you or I now do." Still getting no response from C.B. Jason frowned slightly as he carefully turned the fossil over furtively glancing in C.B.'s direction as he added, "This fossil was badly scorched." "The burn characteristics indicate that its owner was either alive or dead a very short time when the flames had engulfed its body."Jason took a long look at the femur before he said, "The only other thing I can conclude from this amazing fossil is that its owner stood somewhere between four or five feet in height when it was alive." Jason looked directly at C.B. as he proceeded to repackage the fossil. "I take it that this is your only specimen for the moment?"Jason went on before C.B. could answer him, "You don't suppose Drinker that this individual was contemporary with the K-T event do you?" Jason upon hearing C.B. draw an exasperated breath braced himself for another verbal onslaught from C.B.C.B. replied, "Suppose, Suppose, Suppose !" "That is all one can do with just one fragmentary fossil!" C.B. with his hands thrust into his pockets was now pacing the room in his frustration. Finally he waved his arm in a wide exasperated arc as he once again faced Jason, "I have had you along with the rest of my team comb the entire area for more fossils related to this specimen until we have practically turned the area upside down, but all we keep coming across are more teeth and jaws of those prehistoric shrews!" C.B. waved both his hands with his increased frustration as he almost shouted, "There's got to be more fossils out there of this same type creature somewhere, but the problem is where to look Cap!"Jason shook his head in understanding as he looked once more at the scorched fossil. Once again he was momentarily overwhelmed by the implications of the fossil as he said, "I certainly agree with you Drinker." "This was obviously some kind of advanced coelosaur but there isn't much more that can be concluded than that from just this one fossil."C.B. with his chin up in a defiant pose argumentatively responded, "I beg to differ with you on that Cap!" He suddenly became animated as he lectured, "I have every reason to believe that this creature evolved from some common ancestor related to the Stenonychosaurus as was proposed by Dr. Dale Russell back in the early eighties.""You remember his Dinosauroid don't you?" C.B. took the package from Jason and carefully removed the fossil from it as he pointed to its joints. "See the scars where the muscles were once attached to the two joints on this specimen Cap?"Jason nodded his affirmative as C.B. asked him, "What do they tell you?" Jason spread his hands as he replied, "They imply great strength in this individual's legs I would say." C.B.Countered in his exasperation, "Any amateur could have come up with that conclusion Cap!""Anyone can see that this was a powerfully built individual as far as his legs were concerned." "If I could project the rest of this individual's strength in proportion to that in his legs, He would have possessed a physical strength equal to twice that of an average present day human of the same size." "But Cap, As usual you seem to have missed the finer points with respect to the characteristics of this fossil." Jason had long ago become accustomed to C.B.'s abrasive manner and just patiently waited for C.B. to state his idea. C.B. brought the fossil closer to Jason's vision as he said, "See here Cap?" "In spite of our late hero's impressive physique, you'll notice that the wear patterns on these joints do not correspond to those of an individual that would have had to hunt and forage for a living." Jason replied in amazement as he recognized the truth in C.B.'s statement. "They are very similar to the wear patterns that would be found on contemporary sedentary people in our own time!" C.B. spoke with an excited force, "That's Right Cap!" He then brought his face within inches of Jason's as he said almost inaudibly, "Even with just this small amount of evidence before me Cap, I can boldly state that not only did this individual live to witness the impact event" C.B. paused for dramatic effect and then quietly said, "I believe that he was well aware of its coming long before the impact took place!" C.B. DESCRIBES A HOMOSAUR.