There is nothing new in it. We all know this stuff. The way it’s presented is excellent. The Australian references are always funny because the aliens view it the same way non-Australian humans do.
South Dakota doesn’t have any big predators – unless you count Buffalo, but it’s not their fault tourists are stupid.
However, it used to. As long as I get to make shit up, I don’t see any reason not to pull in local extinct species.
- Proboscideans: Woolly mammoths, Columbian mammoths, and American mastodons.
- Carnivores: Dire wolves, giant short-faced bears, American lions, saber-toothed cats (Smilodon and Homotherium), and American cheetahs.
- Ungulates and Others: Giant ground sloths (Megalonyx), giant beavers (Castoroides), camels (Camelops), horses, glyptodonts, and steppe bison.
Going further back
Key species found in the state include Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex, Edmontosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, and Dakotaraptor.
This will give me some strong monsters without going off-world. It keeps the ESFY option open.
As long as I’m writing this, I might as well hyper-link the quoted critters. Using Wikipedia just because everything will be there.
- Woolly mammoths
- American mastodons
- Dire wolf
- giant short-faced bear
- American lions
- saber-toothed cats
- American cheetahs
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus rex
- Edmontosaurus
- Pachycephalosaurus
- Dakotaraptor
Oh! Our intrepid heroes stumble over a “river serpent”. If I’m sticking to Earth creatures, that needs to be renamed.
Spinosaurus is the only dinosaur with definitive evidence of a fully aquatic lifestyle, possessing dense bones and a paddle-like tail to hunt in the rivers of the Sahara desert 100 million years ago.
I’ll need to add a giant fin to its back when I describe it. It will be good foreshadowing that dinosaurs are potential monsters. (It lived in the Sahara, but if I’m bringing it back after 100 million years, I can put it where I want it.)
