SABERTOOTH

Mimi and Smiley were playing: Mimi would scratch the cat under his chin and Smiley would attack her hand, growling in his baby cat voice. He seemed to know that he should be careful and keep his tiny claws sheathed so he wouldn't scratch her. She laughed as he rolled over on his back and began pummelling her hands with his furry paws. She ruffled the soft fur on his belly and he purred with contentment.

Barry was watching the wild creature and thinking how someday this kitten would grow up to be the fiercest predator in Prehistoria; it would weigh five times more than Mimi and be able to hunt a huge animal like a mammoth. As he watched, the kitten stretched his muscular little legs, gave a mouth stretching yawn and began to groom himself again.

His sister's voice brought him back from daydreaming. "Oh, Barry," she said.

He looked up and swallowed hard. "What ... what is that?" he stammered

"Whatever it is," Mimi whispered, "it's too big and too close." She hurriedly looked for the right picture on the automated guide.

"It's big enough to give a tyrannosauus rex a good fight," Barry said in dismay. "I hope it eats plants."

"The giant baluchitherium lived in Asia during the Oligocene Epoch, over thirty million years ago," the guide announced. "This huge herbivore grew to almost thirty feet tall and weighed as much as thirty tons–nearly five times more than a modern elephant. It is the largest mammal to ever walk the earth."

The children stared in fascination. The creature stared right back. Its thick, wrinkled skin was covered with sparse, wiry hair like an elephant. It had legs like huge pillars and massive, three toed feet that flattened the grass and left wide footprints wherever it walked.

As the Pteranodon Trolley glided slowly past, the immense beast blinked its big eyes. Then, with a flick of its small tail to get rid of pesky flies, it went back to eating, paying no more attention to the children.