Chapter 583

Chapter 583: Can You Believe the Meat-Eating Ankylosaurs?

"Good! Well done!"

"This bunch of little opportunists!"

"Even though I accidentally turned you into ornithischian dinosaurs, you’re still fierce!"

"Small but vicious."

Trilobite watched the little ones fiercely fighting the beak-like whole pipe fish munching on his "crops" in the "pond," nodding with satisfaction.

Though the beak-like whole pipe fish wore hard armor—big enough at market to feed his human self twice over—and had sharp beak-teeth offering some defense, Trilobite didn’t worry.

Because they were…

"Even as an ornithischian, even as armored superfamily dinosaurs…"

"I can still easily handle shield fish!"

"Because I’m a Chinese Dragon!"

"No joke—these guys really are Chinese Dragons."

"Specifically the Liaoning Dragon from the Northeast!"

When Trilobite mentioned "Liaoning Dragon," he meant not just where its fossils were discovered, but that this peculiar dinosaur’s actual name was Liaoning Dragon.

Unlike earlier cases like "Chinese Chinese Dragon" or "Shanxi Shanxi Crocodile" with repeated place names, this one’s full title was "Strange Liaoning Dragon."

Here, "strange" served as its species name.

Species names typically form the second part in binomial naming (though Chinese convention lists them first), while the first part is the genus name.

Take the famous Tyrannosaurus Rex: its Chinese name "君王暴龙" (King Tyrannosaurus) means "Tyrannosaurus genus’s king."

Incidentally, "Tyrannosaurus" was initially translated as霸王龙.

Since only one species exists in this genus, using just the genus name causes no confusion.

霸王龙 and Tyrannosaurus are identical—just different translations.

But "霸王龙" is fading from use because "霸王" (overlord) duplicates the meaning of "rex" (king/overlord).

Calling "Tyrannosaurus Rex" 霸王霸王龙 would create clunky repetition.

Binomial names often reflect their namers’ quirks.

Unimaginative scholars pick discovery sites; meticulous ones choose fossil traits; fame-seekers use their own names.

Some honor important figures—like "Attenborosaurus" for Sir David Attenborough, commemorating his documentary work.

Trilobite once saw the most ridiculous example of naming a new species after one’s own wife.

Damn, that was so fucking romantic!

The binomial nomenclature of the Strange Liaoning Dragon was actually quite standard.

The genus name "Liaoning" referred to the place where it was discovered, specifically the Yixian formation in Liaoning Province; "strange" described the feelings it brought to the discoverers.

Strange!

So damn strange!

This ornithischian dinosaur actually ate meat!

Truly unusual!

Among ornithischian dinosaurs, well-known examples included iguanodons, various hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, stegosaurs, and also the ankylosaurs to which the Strange Liaoning Dragon belonged.

They all sounded herbivorous.

The only ones showing slight omnivorous tendencies were the heterodontosaurs, which converged somewhat with archosaurs.

But within ornithischians, the only one that evolved into an almost purely carnivorous diet was the Strange Liaoning Dragon.

Even weirder was that Liaoning Dragon belonged to the ornithischian order, armor-suborder, and ankylosaur infraorder.

Plus, their length was probably less than one meter, making them possibly the smallest ankylosaurs!

Hmm, the smallest ankylosaurs actually ate meat!

Ankylosaurs sure played wild.

No wonder ankylosaurs survived from the late Triassic all the way to the Cretaceous extinction—not just through dumb luck; more importantly, they actively explored new ecological niches and survival strategies.

These small dinosaurs from the ankylosaur infraorder still looked somewhat like ankylosaurs; but their bumpy armor and short yet powerful limbs gave them a slight vibe of…

Brazilian turtles.

Actually, their way of life closely resembled "Brazilian turtles"; they enjoyed digging burrows near riverbanks and relied on decent swimming skills to hunt small fish in streams or rivers.

You could call them the Mesozoic era’s little otters.

Seems spinosaurus wasn’t the only dinosaur that took to water—here was the ornithischian Strange Liaoning Dragon too.

"Hmm…"

"They had no trouble handling these fish."

"Though the Strange Liaoning Dragon usually only managed small prey like little wolf fish."

"Outsmarting a fish just one-third smaller than itself…"

"Would still take some time."

"In that case, they’d probably leave some for me…"

"Buzz—!"

Trilobite longed to taste little fish again after so long.

He once again used the "Shape-Shifter" mask to swap his head for that of a Megapnosaurus…

That extremely narrow beak allowed them to dive into water easily and quickly suck up little fish.

But due to their narrow and fragile skulls, they couldn’t catch larger fish and could only struggle with small fish half a meter to a meter long in shallow water.

Megapnosaurus and Giganotosaurus were like the great cranes of the Mesozoic era; they were true wading birds.

However, when Trilobite approached, he realized something was wrong…

"Wow!?"

"What is this!?"

"How did the beak-like whole pipe fish suddenly fail!?"

He saw some beak-like whole pipe fish convulsing, their mouths foaming.

Their bodies trembled in pain, their caudal fins and pectoral fins wildly thrashing as if having a seizure.

Although only a few little fish showed severe symptoms, those with less severe issues like abnormal body temperature, general weakness, and difficulty breathing became a death sentence in this chaotic battlefield!

The Strange Liaoning Dragons didn’t care about martial ethics.

For foraging or hunting, who cared about martial ethics?

Or rather, predators specifically targeted the weak and sick; this helped control disease spread and stopped aging genes from passing on, keeping herbivore populations healthy.

Martial ethics were not only unnecessary in nature but harmful too.

Moreover, the Strange Liaoning Dragons were tortured by the deadly Hunger from the mark of the Giant God—who had time to worry about that?

They just caught and ate!

"Ga—!"

These clever little fellows knew that killing the armored beak-like whole pipe fish was tough, especially in their home turf—the water.

But there was an easy fix.

They could just drag them away from their home turf!

"Ah-woo—!"

A Strange Liaoning Dragon bit down on a beak-like whole pipe fish’s tail.

The head and chest were covered in sturdy armor, making it hard to bite; but the tail, though densely scaled and smooth, was firmly gripped by the Strange Liaoning Dragon’s beak.

It dragged the fish, suffering from pain and losing most resistance, struggling to swim upstream to the riverbank.

"Bang—!"

With its short powerful limbs, it pinned down the armored fish; its head moved toward the fish’s tail.

"Rip—!"

This creature copied hyenas, biting at the underside of the beak-like whole pipe fish; no matter how armored the shield fish was, it couldn’t seal off that spot.

Starting from the weakest point, it hit the perfect target!

"Hiss…"

Soon, the beak-like whole pipe fish was torn open from the inside, ripped apart.

Fresh fish blood gushed out.

This made Trilobite even hungrier!

"I can’t hold back any longer!"

"Should I snatch food from the customer’s mouth?"

Just as he considered it, his system vision halted this impulse.

Trilobite discovered those "sickly" fish contained numerous "Blue Dots" within their reddish bodies!

Clearly, his microorganisms spawn had invaded the fish bodies.

This fish…

was inedible.

"Darn!"

"I’m a majestic Beautiful Nodosaurus bearing a Megapnosaurus head, once the dominant ruler of Jurassic islands!"

"Even the early Jurassic champion in both swimming and running!"

"How…"

"Could catching one little fish be so difficult for my noble status!?"

Trilobite raged!

Fortunately, heaven never seals off all dining options!

His system vision revealed some active beak-like whole pipe fish remained in the pond, appearing far from sickly.

—

"Damn it!"

"Blast it! Blast it!"

"Cough… cough…"

Barbatos forcibly overdrew his strength, pushing his power beyond the Fantasy Tree of Subspace.

Normally, such magic would be impossible for him.

He couldn’t even monitor activities outside the Fantasy Tree of Subspace’s core area.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have resorted to miserably hiring those "Outer Predators" for inefficient intelligence gathering after the Outer Gods from the Void joined Gimmerly.

Fortunately, using "secondary demon gods" as vessels at great cost—expending massive magic power and severing his own Soul—Barbatos could control their bodies and sync with their senses.

Yet this spell had limited duration, and the excised "Soul fragments" were lost forever.

After the magic faded, the vessels would absorb these fragments, inheriting part of the First Demon God’s power.

This reward motivated many secondary demon gods to accept temporary control—gambling on turning bicycles into motorcycles!

But amidst this dire battle, the stakes seemed increasingly perilous!

"No matter!"

"All deities implanted with my Soul fragments, assemble!"

Previously, under Barbatos’s direct command, these secondary demon gods recognized the mortals’ strangeness after initial setbacks. They surfaced from the Ether Sea’s depths to evade the "boarding" mortals.

But endless evasion solved nothing.

"No more scattered resistance!"

"Prepare to counterattack!"

"First…"

"We deal with you mortals!"