Clay: A Hunter's Journey

Introduction

North America, sixty six million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous. The end of the dinosaur's rule, and mere seconds in geological time before the mammals were bestowed the throne - in the form of a several kilometer wide space rock.

This is a world is simultaneously familiar to us yet also alien, with a more varied climate like ours yet a vastly different wildlife scene. From their humble beginnings in the tail end of the Triassic the dinosaurs have come a long way from simply bipedal crocodile relatives, now dominating the land in an endless number of diverse clades and genera. At this point in time some of the largest land animals to have ever lived roam the globe in the form of Titanosaurs, a family of colossal Macronarian sauropods who's remains have been found on every single continent.

And on the long gone continent of Laramidia, soon to be North America, there roams an animal so iconic it has become a pop culture icon in addition to a scientific marvel - Tyrannosaurus. This is a beast so well known to the field of paleontology to the point where every stage of its life has been represented in our fossil record. It is by far the most well known dinosaur of all, yet few pieces of media exist that depict it as what it was; an animal. Not a bloodthirsty movie monster, not a genetic abomination, an animal. And that is what I want to change.

This is a story about a hypothetical individual of whom we will dub Clay. We will document his life from a mere egg up until a mighty adult, and chronicle his inevitable downfall in his elderly years. The aim of this novel is to educate and inspire, not provide a bloodbath, so without further ado, we shall begin.