Deep within a forest of spruce, an animal sleeps. She is the queen of her world. The animal is laying like a dog does, curled up in a circle. Its head is a brilliant white, which is in stark contrast to the deep black colouration on the rest of her body. Her body is covered in a thick layer of feathers, the only part not covered is her snout.
The animal is called Tyrannosaurus rex, the tyrant lizard king. But, unlike her name suggests, she is currently in a very peaceful state. Her chest raises and lowers in a slow, rhythmic pace and her eyelids are closed shut. As the wind lightly blows so does her whiskers that adorn her snout.
It is the beginning of fall, and the weather is starting to get cooler. The many pines that decorate the forests and the plains are still the brilliant greens and blues like always, but some of the other trees are turning shades of crimson and gold.
In the clearing by the forest a small herd of dinosaur walk by. The dinosaurs are called Edmontosaurus. Their scaly skin is primarily green, but stripes and spots of brown, yellow, and black are dispersed within it. Alongside one of the smaller females is a baby Edmontosaurus. While walking next to its mother it sometimes wanders off to inspect a flower, butterfly, or small mammal. But, once it gets too far its mother comes to usher it back to the safety of the herd.
A couple of kilometres away from the herd is a small pond. There, frogs croak within the safety of the cattails, and a few fish swim, gobbling up any insects that land on the water's surface. Out of the forest walks a giraffe sized pterosaur called Quetzalcoatlus. The pterosaur's feathers are a grey-ish white, and atop its head is a bright red crest that runs from the nasal to the back of the head. The Quetzalcoatlus bows down its head to take a drink before walking back a little bit, and using its arms to push itself off of the ground and into flight.
As dusk approaches the queen awakens from her slumber.
Her, like most large predators, needs large amounts of sleep in order to have enough energy to hunt.
As the rex begins to get up it uses its small arms to push itself up off of the ground. Once standing the Tyrannosaurus shakes the pine needles and dirt off of its feathers and starts walking. The female, being around 12 metres long from head to tail and about 3.5 metres tall at the hip, has a massive territory that she needs to survey. So, the Tyrannosaurus begins the long process of walking her entire territory, searching for any intruders.
As she walks through forest, through streams, and through open shrubland all she finds are the usual small carnivores and birds. As soon as the survey is done, she begins to prepare for a hunt.
The first step is to locate prey. The most common place for the rex to find food is usually in the plains or by a water source. So, the plains are where she opts to check first. Slowly walking through the tall grass, she spots a dinosaur 15 metres ahead.
Tyrannosaurus rex has been found to have eyesight that surpasses that of hawks in both directions she can see in, depth perception, and how far away she can see.
Using this fantastic eyesight she spots a Struthiomimus, an avian-like dinosaur. The Struthiomimus' feathers are light brown to blend into the grass. The Struthiomimus is a young female, who seems to have just left the protection of its mother. After every couple seconds of eating the seeds and grass it lifts its head up to survey for danger.
The Tyrannosaurus crouches down in the grass to let itself not be seen. It inches forward ever so carefully. Once it is a few metres away from the Struthi, it bursts into a sprint. The Struthiomimus begins running as fast as it can. While the T. rex can run at ~36 kilometres per hour, this is not enough to catch the ostrich mimic can run much faster, clocking in at ~75 kilometres per hour.
After a short chase the Tyrannosaurus lets the Struthiomimus get away. Even though she is the queen of the Cretaceous, she cannot always complete a successful hunt.
