by Juan-Pablo Pina
75 million years ago, Late Cretaceous...
Niobrara Formation, Kansas...
Noon...
There are many different interpretations of “the underworld." Most associate hell with eternal punishment, fire and agony. But nature had a different idea. She thought of colossal waves, savage storms and a sea of monsters. For this place was the underworld's aquarium. And nobody knew that better than him.
He was an old male Nyctosaurus, a type of pterosaur with a wingspan like that of a wandering albatross and an absurd, antler-like crest the size of a man. Yes, this pterosaur has a crest the size of a human. To simplify, you can imagine it like the feathers of Indian peacocks in how the crest acts as a tool for display. But back to the night lizard.
The pterosaur looked out at the endless coast, the wind hissing as it whittled past his monumental head ornament. Waves crashed against huge cliffs, catapulting waves of white foam into the air while other sections were peaceful rocky or sandy beaches. Other Nyctosaurus flew over rolling waves while the horizon was blackened by a huge typhoon. This savage maritime Eden was the old male’s home, and it had been for many years. In fact, he was one of the oldest males in the colony, evident by the size of his crest. But he, like those who manage to see the next dawn, was a survivor. You had to be when your home was hell’s aquarium. AKA the Western Interior Seaway.
Hell’s aquarium used to stretch from the modern Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, splitting North America in half: Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. Eventually, around 66 million years ago, the Western Interior Seaway was all but gone, leaving a lush marshland filled with megafauna around the Dakotas and Wyoming. But the Western Interior Seaway wasn’t an abyssal hell. Instead, it was a shallow and tropical expanse of shallow seas abundant with sand flats and corals while typhoons and hurricanes rocked both the surface and coastlines. Beneath the surface, beasts not unlike Leviathan and Jörmungandr dominated coral reefs and endless sand flats while dragons stood on the shore of the sea and saw beasts breach out from the sea. But back to the pterosaur.
KROOM!!!
The Nyctosaurus looked out at the azure sea beyond the inlet. Out on the horizon, a typhoon was charging towards the coast. Lightning flashed from inside the bellies of black storm clouds that swirled and cycloned into hurricane-like forms. Water spouts created huge, rolling waves that roared and crashed while small patches of sunlight created a ghostly patchwork of light and dark on the surface. Like serpents made of light, huge bolts of lightning screamed and flashed in their ethereal yet horrifying forms before disappearing. But the storm would make landfall hours from now, giving the animals of both the inlet and the coast plenty of time to evacuate. For now, though, there were other matters to worry about. One of the main ones being hunger (I would suggest you start playing Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries right about now).
With a great leap, the giant pterosaur jumped off the cliff and dove down, the wind screaming past him as he tucked in his wings like a peregrine falcon. The white foam of the sea crashing against rock got closer and closer every second, a few droplets making contact with the flying reptile and matting down his pycnofibres. His heart pounded and his mind raced, his pneumatic systems, not unlike those of a theropod or sauropod dinosaur, working overtime. Finally, with a faithful and daring movement, the male Nyctosaurus spread his wings to their maximum and rode the thermal current of the sea. His wings let out a low flapping sound as the wind screamed by and the ocean roared beneath. And just like that…he was flying.
Sploosh!
SKREE!!!
Out of nowhere, a young female Hesperornis leaped out of the water like a penguin, a small octopus in her mouth. These oceanic birds, totally devoid of forelimbs, were the Cretaceous version of a totally aquatic waterfowl, only coming to shore to rest, lay eggs, or escape a predator. They were just one of the many, many strange beasts that make up the terrifying roster of hell’s aquarium.
The Nyctosaurus continued to soar over the rolling marine blue waves, his bones and muscles lurching every time he made a sharp turn to avoid a freak wave. The wind screamed past him and his crest while the stinging spray of the sea felt like getting hit by something like shrapnel. Up, down, left, right the pterosaur went, jumping from air current to air current in an attempt to save as much energy as possible. Beneath the waves, though, was a whole other world.
A huge fish with a face like a pug swam below the waves, its shimmering black and white patterning much like a barracuda’s. This motorboat-sized monster of a fish was none other than Xiphactinus or an “X-fish”. If the devil kept fish, then this would be one of them. Imagine the speed and tenacity of a barracuda mixed with the raw power of a tiger shark. That’s an X-fish. Like moths to a light, X-fish will make haste towards any blood they can sense, even willing to compete with the colossal shark Cretoxyrhina. X-fish live and fight dirty, eating whatever they can whenever they can, even going so far that they’ll eat other X-fish. But their world might as well be an alien realm.
Sunlight filtered through the glassy surface before becoming a spider web-like pattern that danced on the surfaces of many objects. Stones, both large and small, formed a rugged labyrinth of nooks, outcrops, and ravines. On these rocks grew corals of many different varieties. Some looked like antlers and were blazing red. Others were dull and looked almost like brains. Alongside the corals grew sponges, some of them looking like pink smokestacks and others looking more like mighty and rough barrels. The reason some look like barrels or smokestacks is because they have small cells in them that wave around, filtering in water and capturing nutrients. In an experiment done in 2014, a biologically safe green dye was released into the water next to some sponges. In only a few seconds, the same green dye began to slowly billow out from the sponge’s holes.
Elegantly gliding over the sponges of the Niobrara seas, however, was another group of animals: plesiosaurs. These animals may remind one of the famous myth of the Loch Ness Monster, a long-necked marine cryptid said to lurk in a Scottish lake. But these animals were very real. In fact, they were one of the very first staples of paleontology being found along English coastlines later dubbed the “Jurassic Coast”. Not only that, there were many species, some of which lived right here in hell’s aquarium like Styxosaurus and Elasmosaurus. Using their long necks, they can grab mouthfuls of unknowing fish without spooking them all with their bulk.
The Nyctosaurus, totally oblivious to the wandering X-fish below it, banked left, turning to face the rocky shore. And using his keen vision similar to an osprey, he spotted his prey: a school of fish near the surface. Nyctosaurus, due to the male’s huge crests, are not as adept at hunting schools of fish as animals like Pteranodon who have far smaller crests. Even female Nyctosaurus are better than males. But that didn’t matter right now, for the male merely wanted a snack. A fish, or maybe a few, would do just fine. So he prepared himself, leveling out and visualizing the critical moment when he would open his bill and manage to…
SPLOOOSH!!!
Suddenly something the size of an orca exploded out of the water, jaws wide open revealing sharp teeth. The pterosaur barely had time to react before the maw clamped down on his shoulder, the teeth shearing through skin and flesh while the sheer force felt like a sledgehammer. No. This was more than that. It was as though a mountain just tried to annihilate him with a single hit. It was so fast, so…powerful. The air was catapulted out of him as bones snapped and cracked and internal bleeding ensued big time. The impact alone from…whatever it was was just so painful and sudden. One moment there was flying. The next, agony and force. And then…nothing…
The Nyctosaurus never even managed to let out a scream or a cry of terror and agony before being forcibly yeeted downwards to the sea, the contact with the surface like a huge slap. Blood began to swirl and curl around the corpse and very soon its killer. The killer swam through the azure waters, the bright red blood that curled around her like an ethereal curtain or dress that flowed behind her muscular and scaly form.
But what monster of the deep was this? Who other than one of the most powerful marine reptiles to have ever lived: Tylosaurus.
Tylosaurus, being a squamate, was related to animals like snakes and monitor lizards. However, animals like this grew to be nearly the same length as a school bus, with larger relatives like Mosasaurus living around the coral reefs of Europe. This female was just short of the length of a school bus, making her the largest individual in the inlet. And to get that big, you need to be able to eat.
A study done in 2023 revealed that Mosasaurus hoffmani was able to reach nearly 75 mph (120 km) by bending itself in a “C-shape”, a form in which the subject makes a curve with their body that allows their tail to launch them forwards at incredible speed. And in these marine reptiles, it allowed them to attack like a great white shark after a seal. But the most deadly part was the impact. These bus-sized animals would’ve hit their targets with so much force and speed that the impact alone would’ve been lethal and, more often than not, fatal. And this female had mastered that technique. Every other animal feared her. To be expected, especially when you’re basically a reptilian orca. She may as well have been the devil’s very own “Shamu”. But she shared her tank with other monsters like colossal sharks and fish, long-necked plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs with truly inane crest designs. She lived in a realm thriving with corals, roofed by rolling waves, and ravaged by coastal storms…
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