How do you suppose that this animal survived Not Yet Doctor Lerna? It's been about 65 million years and all since the last one.
"I mean, didn’t you and the other egghead tell me these things were supposed to be ‘ek-stink’?" Officer Coppola had been derisive of Lerna and Dr. Bradbury’s chosen vocations since the minute they came into town, and apparently their encounter with a living fossil hadn’t changed his opinion.
"I don’t know," Lerna admitted with a sigh. "I’d be baffled by all this if I wasn’t terrified."
Dr. Bradbury was less perturbed, and Lerna could tell his keen mind was already formulating a hypothesis. “Extinction is historically hard to prove,” the old man mused. “The coelacanth was believed to be extinct for just as long as the retrosaurs, yet just under two decades ago we found them to be alive and well.”
"With all due respect, Doctor," Lerna said, "A six foot fish is different than a 100 foot tall reptile."
"True," Dr. Bradbury said. "But look at where we are. There is an entire ecosystem here, where science would have thought it to be impossible!" The old man huffed as they climbed over a fallen tree branch that was as big as most normal trees. "We’ve clearly discovered something earth shaking for the entire field of biology."
"When you say ecosystem," Officer Coppola interrupted, "Do you mean… uh… what I mean is… are there more of things like Big Green back there?"
Both Mina Lerna and Dr. Bradbury stopped in their tracks. Officer Coppola turned back to look at them, and was startled by the absolutely grim frowns they wore on their faces. “There could be more, yes,” Dr. Bradbury said. “In fact, there’d have to be.”
