EXPLORERS IN DINOSAUR WORLD

Late that afternoon they reached Richard Owen Lake. They set up camp in a shaded grove of flowering yews and magsnolia trees close to the water's edge and soon Jake had a small fire going. Wendy and Pete went for a walk along the edge of the lake. Reeds poked out of the shallow water near the shoreline. Hundreds of frogs made a weird chorus, their voices twanging like rubber bands. A flock of ducks cruised by. A heron, perched on one stick-thin leg, eyed the children curiously, perhaps wondering what kind of strange, new creatures these were.

As they walked around a large boulder they came face-to-face with two monstrous dinosaurs drinking from the lake. Wendy was startled and immediately reached for her brother's hand.

Pete whispered, "It's all right, Sis. They're just pentaceratops. Like giant cows—not dangerous at all!”

To Wendy's eyes these behemoths were bigger than any five cows, but she relaxed a bit and studied them, still holding tightly to Pete's hand. She knew enough about dinosaurs to know that pentaceratops looked like triceratops: their necks were covered by a bony, fan-shaped frill, they had two long sharp horns just above their eyes and a shorter nose horn. What made the pentaceratops different were two additional hornlike growths, one on each cheek.

"Usually they travel in giant herds," Pete said. "And the big meat-eaters pretty much stay away. Those horns could hurt even an allosaur"

One of the animals looked up and snorted, blinking its big, dark eyes at the strangers. But Pete and Wendy didn't look particularly menacing, so the giant herbivore shook its massive head back and forth and went back to drinking. When they were done, they lumbered ponderously out of the water and through the thick forest undergrowth, leaving deep footprints in the soft earth.