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Description
"The kind of life this dinosaur has was probably very painful, given the number of infections in its feet, and in its hand... the injuries in its ribcage and other problems throughout its skeleton."
- Rebecca Hanna

Big Al is the name given to a sub-adult Allosaurus jimmadseni that was 95% complete, making it the most complete Allosaurus skeleton ever found. It was excavated by a joint team from the Museum of the Rockies in Montana and the University of Wyoming Geological Museum in 1991 in the Howe Quarry near Shell, Wyoming in the Morrison Formation dating around 152 million years in the Early Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic period. Al is 26 feet long and he is only 60 to 70% of its adult size. The completeness, preservation, and scientific importance of the skeleton is what gave this dinosaur the name Big Al. The fossil of the animal shows that it had around 19 injuries and infections. These included damaged ribs, vertebrae, thumb, and middle toe bone, not just breaks but also subsequent bone infection known as Osteomylitis, which is where microorganisms infect a bone that has been damaged by some kind of trauma that has been resulted in a break, which in turn are attacked by the body's immune system. The results include blood vessels in the bone becoming blocked by pus,‭ ‬in turn resulting in bone tissue dying‭ (‬a process called necrosis‭) ‬and the body then attempting to grow new bone around the dead tissue. This shows that despite its fearsome reputation, Big Al must've had a rather tough and cruel life that's brutal. But why?

The Story of Big Al begins in Wyoming 152 million BC during the Late Jurassic period in like all dinosaurs, in an egg.

It is the end of the dry season and there are signs of life. Inside the nest made of a mound of earth and twigs are eggs from a female Allosaurus. Then the eggs are beginning to hatch. Each baby allosaur including one named Big Al covered in proto-feathers breaks through the egg shells using a tiny structure called an egg tooth. Once Al and his siblings hatch, the young make loud squeaking noises. This was their first attempt to struggle to survive. After hearing the sounds, the mother Allosaurus arrives at the nest and smells her young. It is important for the Allosaurus and the moment mother and hatchling smell each other, they form a bond that is crucial for the hatchlings early survival. Carefully she digs them out. This is Big Al's first day and for now can rely on his mother's protection. Once he and his siblings get out of the eggs, they have trouble walking. They have a lot to learn about standing on their feet in weeks. The mother lies down and carries Al and a few of his siblings in her mouth like a crocodile. In another 15 years, Al will one day become a gigantic predator just like his mother, but he is oblivious that the chances of making that age are low.

Al and his siblings were gathering around with their mother. It is a daunting prospect of brood young and they will have to learn very fast. Fighting and playing among themselves is a good to start to perfect their hunting strategies. But however, at this size, the baby allosaurs are vulnerable and are an easy meal to predators. Watching the young nearby is a pair of hungry Tanycolagreus topwilsoni waiting for a chance to strike and kill, but the mother Allosaurus senses the danger and defends her young. But unfortunately the smell of her young attracts other predators including other Allosaurus's and so the mother dinosaur decided to lead her unruly brood away to find a safer place.
A year has passed and the mother Allosaurus guides Al and his siblings who are now a year old to the river on a floodplain of conifers, bennettites, and tree-ferns teeming with life, in what will one day be Wyoming. While a Barosaurus comes by for a drink, a lone Stegosaurus and a family of Camarasaurus lentus forages on the other side. Basking on the shores nearby were large goniopholids (an extinct family of crocodyloforms similar to modern-day crocodiles) such as Eutretauranosuchus, Amphicotylus, and Diplosaurus, while some of them scurry to the water, hunting for food. Then a three-horned theropod, Ceratosaurus nasicornis swims through the water using his tail to propel itself through the water and catches and kills a Eutretauranosuchus, then heads to shore to feed on it. Pterosaurs such as Mesadactylus and Harpactognathus flies through the air catching some insects. Swimming through the waters were fish, as well as amphibians such as primitive frogs.

As the mother dinosaur brings her young to the river's edge, the young begin to go after baby's target is the insects. Born with sharp teeth, Al is ready for his first meal. But even small prey such as insects requires skill to catch, either fly or in the case of a scorpion, fight back. As the he catches the insects with the others, while two of them fights a scorpion and one tries to a tuatara like sphenodont Opisthias rarus, Al accidentally fell into water. The young have a lot to learn about catching prey. By evening, the mother abandons her young in search for food for herself, but she isn't the only predator on the hunt tonight. As Al and her sibling wonder on the water's edge hunting insects, they are oblivious that a large Eutretauranosuchus lurks through the water, towards the defenseless. Then all of a sudden, the Eutretauranosuchus bursts through the water towards Al and two of her sibling, but Al, luckily, narrowly escapes, but the goniopholid snatches at one baby allosaur and drags the squealing baby to its watery doom, while the others flee in fear. The mother Allosaurus arrives carrying a large chunk of Camptosaurus meat from her kill to offer to her young, but she was too late. She has lost one of her young. She then feeds Al and his siblings the fresh meat. These will have a few weeks under their mother's protection before her maturnal instincts wears out.
Another year has passed and Al is now two years old. He is around 10 feet in length and his proto-feathers are starting to disappear. He now hunts alone in a forest of conifers, cycads, and bennettites. He is now on the hunt, not for insects, but instead, dinosaur meat. He finds a group of Nanosaurus feeding on the ferns, but there's a problem. Coming through the cycads and bennettites towards the flock is a male Stegosaurus foraging and feeding on the ferns and wonders off with the Nanosaurus following him, feeding on the trampled vegetation he left and noticed that it was the only way for protection against predators. Noticing how dangerous and aggressive a Stegosaurus is as its 3.3 foot spikes or thagomizors on the end of its tail would deliberately cripple, or even kill him, even if he wonders after the Nanosaurus, Al moves on to find something. He then comes across a mother Tanycolagreus topwilsoni building a nest of eggs and guarding it. But before he can attack it, the mother Tanycolagreus was more aggressive than Al and starts barking and shrieking, defending her nest. So Al retreats and focuses on a group of Dryosaurus grazing nearby. He charges at the flock, but he has not yet learned how to ambush so he fails to kill one of the swifter, smaller dinosaurs. He shrieks in agitation and walks away
Later a herd of Brontosaurus excelsus were crashing through the forests of conifers, tree-ferns, and bennettites, while nearby Al finds a Paramacellodus sp. and gulps it. Although not much of a snack, it was enough to satisfy his hunger.

Al heads out into open arid scrub-land dominated by a savanna of ferns. As he wonders around, he see's some buzzing insects, a Harpactognathus flying after them, a sphenodontid Opisthias rarus feeding nearby, and a small Laolestes scurrying nearby. As evening draws Al lies in the shade next to a bennettite. Once he lies down, he looks up in the distance. As the sun sets and slips down to the horizon behind the mountains, a herd of Camarasaurus lentus roamed across the plains while nearby is a pair of Stegosaurus and a small group of Camptosaurus grazing. On the far right is a mother and young Barosaurus wonders. In the middle ground, an armored ankylosaur Gargoyleosaurus feeds on the cycads, while in the foreground, a small group of Coelurus are on the hunt for small animals with glowing eyes showing. As the sun slips down into the horizon and evening gives way to darkness, Al lays down, closes his eyes, and sleeps.
Out in the middle of Western Laurasia lies a giant salt lake formed by the retreat of an ancient seaway known as the Sundance Sea that once covers most of North America's interior as an arm of the Arctic Ocean during the Late Callovian to Oxfordian. Back then this was once teemed with marine life filled with bivalves (Gryphaea), crinoids, ammonites, belemnites, sharks, fish, and large marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs (Ophthalmosaurus), cryptoclidid plesiosaurs (Pantosaurus), and giant carnivorous pliosaurs (Megalneusaurus), while pterosaurs flew around, catching unwary fish, and dinosaurs thrived along the coastline, leaving footprints on the sand. But when the highlands to the west begin to rise, the seaway begins to gradually retreat, giving way to not only the salt lake, but the wide open plain across western North America that make up the Morrison Formation, home to many types of dinosaurs, both predator and prey, ranging in size and shape.

Out in the salt lake, a herd of Diplodocus are out heading south to a nesting and feeding ground ground. It is a difficult and dangerous journey as the heat and lack of water weads out the weaker animals and this attracts predators. One of them is Al who now follows the sauropod herd. He is now 5 years old and although he is not fully-grown, he is only 25 feet in length and most of his proto-feather have almost disappeared. His ridges through the snout and brow is now starting to turn a faded light pink, as as the quills on his tail, arms, and even his head. Al is now an experienced hunter, but the herd itself prevents a formidable barrier. At around 12 tons in weight, a healthy full-grown Diplodocus would've been to big and dangerous for even a full-grown Allosaurus to take down, not just by its size, but also being able to rear up on its hindlegs in order to crush it, or even used its long, whip-like tail to cripple or kill it. But Al is not alone. Other allosaurs join the hunt as they sense one of the members of the herd is old and sick. Impatient, the Allosaurus separate the sick Diplodocus from the rest of the herd which after an intense chase, the succeeded and the sick sauropod gets left behind. The lone sick Diplodocus is surrounded by the hungry allosaurs and despite being a weakened member, the sauropod is still dangerous to them. Al makes an unnecessary mistake by lunging at the Diplodocus with his wide-open gape in order to ram at his victim's flesh, but he is no match against the angry Diplodocus's size and whip-like tail. Al gets struck by the Diplodocus's neck and tumbles on the salt flat. This leads him getting an injury with his tail vertebrae being damaged. As he gets up from being hit and recovers, Al and the other allosaurs must wait for the Diplodocus to weaken from illness and heat exhaustian and dies. After many hours of being surrounded by the Allosaurus, the overheated and sickened Diplodocus finally collapses on the salt flat and never moves. Once their prey is down, Al and the other allosaurs begin to close in, tearing huge chunks of flesh with their sharp, serrated-teeth as they feed. But for Al, this feast wasn't to last much longer. The smell of blood and death is attracting other predators for miles around. An hour later, a fully grown female Allosaurus joins in for the feast. She is much larger than the other allosaurs and heavier. She quickly establishes her dominance and the younger ones that took down the sauropod let her has some of it. When predators get to her size, they rarely have to bring down her own food. They'd just scavenged. In order to find a safer place, Al takes some remnant of the carcass and leaves.
A year has passed and Al is now six years of age and most of his proto-feathers have now disappeared, leaving only tiny remnants of it and display filaments in its head and quills in his arms and tail, which were dark pink, along with his brow ridges and ridges on the snout. In just 9 years, Al will reach full sexual maturity and become a large predatory Allosaurus, with his display features being bright red. But he is unaware that the chances of reaching puberty is futile.

It is now the end of the wet season and with the flood water still receding, it is a time of plenty for the local dinosaurs. After recently making a kill on a Camptosaurus, Al comes to the river for a drink. As he drinks, little does he know that the blood stain from his kill is causing panic and rage among the other animals. Nearby drinking is a herd of Camptosaurus and a displaying pair of Stegosaurus, but once they sense blood and see's Al, they'd start panicking. The Camptosaurus cries in alarm and flees, while the stegosaurs became agitated, shaked their diamond-shaped red plates in a frightening display, and swinged their spiked tails sideways towards Al. The blood also attracts other predators across the river. Among the predators were a group of Eutretauranosuchus swimming towards the blood, while wondering on the shore on the other side is a Ceratosaurus nasicornis sniffing. In order to avoid getting killed by the sharp thagomizors of the angry Stegosaurus, Al reluctantly leaves the river.

Once he leaves the river, Al see's a mating pair of fully-grown Allosaurus. Al becomes curious and comes close. Then the adult male Allosaurus senses Al and comes close. He growls and starts advancing towards him. Little does Al know that he is entering the territory of the adult male and female Allosaurus. Large theropods like Allosaurus roamed over vast areas of land that they would violently defend if necessary. Territories could have been important in attracting and keeping mates, maintaining safe nesting sites, and even in protecting hatchlings and juveniles from danger, but the reason to establishing a territory would be to ensure they had enough food to survive, especially in harsh environments during seasonal change. As Al enters his territory, the adult male Allosaurus attacks him, bites his neck, but Al shakes off. Then the angry adult pushes him and starts attacking him. Al tries to get up, but he was pinned to the ground hard by the angry adult male and already its injuring him. The adult's foot claws puncture deep into his ribs hard on his right side, while the adult bites Al's right thumb, ripping and twisting it. During it, Al shrieks in pain and agony as the pain increases. The female watches the fight nearby. After a series of attacks, Al quickly gets and gets driven off by the adult male. Despite such a lucky narrow escape, Al has deep puncture holes on the right side with smashed ribs, along with a torn arm, a ripped right thumb claw, and a torn throat, already bleeding. After having such a brutal, bad day, Al lies down in the shade next to a bennettite and rests with his mouth open. A small pterosaur Kepodactylus flies and feeds the few scraps of meat in Al's opened jaw.
5 months has passed and the dry season begins to bite. There has been no rain for a while and vast bodies of water ranging rivers to ponds were beginning to dry up, leaving only pools. With very few water available, the animals must struggle to survive, or die. The sick and old begin weaded and it good news for scavengers. Nearby a drying carcass of a Coelurus, a Mesadactylus flies down eating an insect that it caught. But before the pterosaur can fly away, Al ambushes, kills it, and gulps it down. But unfortunately, it wasn't enough of a meal for the Allosaurus, nor was their any fresh meat on the Coelurus carcass. So he must go out and hunt for even better prey. He has recovered from the fight, but one arm isn't functioning propperly and still retains the deep puncture wounds on his side.

Al heads to a small stagnant pool of water, which is the only sources of water available. There, he see's a lone, juvenile Camarasaurus who has been separated from its herd while searching for water. Once its done drinking, the young sauropod starts to call for its member of the herd, with no response. Al continues to stalk the Camarasaurus, ready to attack. But before he can, the camarasaur senses danger, but its not Al. Lurking through the bennettites behind the sauropod is a giant hungry Torvosaurus tanneri. At 33 feet from head to tail and weighing around 5 tons, this giant, bulky megalosaurid is one of the largest predators of the region and one of the top predators. Like the ceratosaurs, Torvosaurus preferred to be active around waterways, and had lower, more sinuous, bodies that would have given them an advantage in forest and underbrush terrains, whereas Allosaurus had shorter bodies, longer legs, were faster but less maneuverable, and preferred dry floodplains. Al watches as the young Camarasaurus begins to flee, but it was too late. The Torvosaurus bursts through the vegetation, lunges, and attacks the sauropod, bringing him down with ease. Once his prey is down, the Torvosaurus closes in on his kill. He hasn't eaten for several days as since its watery way homeland is drying up, there was less prey to feed on. Al watches and must wait for the Torvosaurus to have his fill and leave, so he can finish the remaining carcass. But all of a sudden, the Torvosaurus senses Al and when he see's the Allosaurus, he charges and attacks. Frightened, Al flees with the Torvosaurus in pursuit, snapping his jaws at him. But Al luckily manages to escape the torvosaur's wrath as the Torvosaurus stops and returns to his kill. Al stops and looks back and then heads to find easier prey.

He finds some dryosaurs grazing in the blistering heat. It will take skills to attack, but he has done this hundreds of times before. As the Dryosaurus group continues feeding, Al slowly stalks through dried up cycads and bennittites and then ambush and charges. Once the Dryosaurus see's him approaching, they flee, but one of them is being chased down by Al. He was so focused on the target, that he wasn't paying attention to any of the surrounding dangers around. Al was about to attack and kill the Dryosaurus as he opens his mouth in a wide open gape and pepare to used his neck muscles to ram at his victim and by impact, the sharp serrated cut through the flesh and causing prey to weaken from blood loss and dies. Then all of a sudden, Al felt a big, hard impact on his right middle, feeling a sharp, increasing pain from as it twists and cracks and then he falls on the ground. The Dryosaurus escaped and fled to the underbrush.hunt was a disaster as Al has accidentally tripped on a fallen log and badly fell, and his right middle has severely been broken, already bleeding. He shrieks and cries in pain and agony and gets up slowly. He limps off. With prey getting scarcer and scarcer, his future is now bleak as the chances of survival look remote. He whimpers in pain as he limps off.

2 months have passed. The dry season is now at its height as the drought continues to be longer than usual. There was very little water to and once flowing rivers and meanders are now dried up beds. Food is becoming scarce as vegetation withers and the animals must struggle to survive. Herds of Brontosaurus are facing the dry season as they continue to migrate to find traces of food and water. Some such as a pair of Stegosaurus digs underground to search for water. However, some animals weren't so lucky and the landscape is littered with their white skeletal remains. Limping badly across the arid landscape towards a Camarasaurus skeleton is Big Al. The drought has cost him dear and if anything the limp has gotten worse. Due to his poor conditions, Al wasn't recovering very well and he is unable to hunt. The right middle toe that was broken from the fall is now swollen and oozes with puss. The pain from it increases badly. The middle toe is not only broken, but it is badly infected as a result of Osteomylitis, which is where microorganisms infect a bone that has been damaged by some kind of trauma that has been resulted in a break, which in turn are attacked by the body's immune system. ‬The results include blood vessels in the bone becoming blocked by pus,‭ ‬in turn resulting in bone tissue dying‭ (‬a process called necrosis‭) ‬and the body then attempting to grow new bone around the dead tissue. But despite all this, Al can still live a bit longer as the drought continues.

3 months pass and Al is suffering heat exhaustion, starvation, and dehydration as the drought continues its heavy toll. Still unable to hunt as result of his injured foot and still highly painful, he has eaten very little amounts of food. But now he is weakened and dehydrated as he hasn't had any water. He stops at a dried up river bed and looks around for any water. But there was none at all, not even a pool of water. Too weakened and in pain to travel and search for water, Al lies down the dried up river bed, hoping that water will be floating down available to drink. As time flies by, Al becomes weakened and dehydrated while waiting for the flowing river to come. He makes one last look at the sun and landscape before his eyes slowly closes and never opens.

2 months later, two Allosaurus chicks are hunting for insects across the sand dues. But instead, they find something bigger - the dead body of Big Al in a dried-up riverbed, dessicated by the hot sun. The muscles, tendens, and other soft tissue dried and the animal's head pulled back over its tail in a sort of "death pose". Al was never reached full-sized, dying as a mature adolescent. Then after several months of drought, a rumble thunder coming from the distance is finally heard and dark clouds rose from the horizon. The long dry season has given away to the wet season as the rains arrived and once again, there will be plenty of water and food available for both predator and prey across the Jurassic landscape. As the dark clouds arrived, thunder roared, lightning bursts and flashes across the sky, and a torrential downpour hits hard. This created a huge flash flood that bursts across the dry river bed where Big Al's body lied and the current of the recently formed flowing river deposited sediments, burying the Allosaurus's body for 152 million years, marking the start of his fossilization.

The process of his fossilization was so perfect it preserved even the injuries and diseases he sustained in his lifetime including -among others- lumps where his ribs healed after their break and the raging infection on his middle toe. In death, Big Al represents a frozen moment in the fast and furious life of a carnivorous theropod dinosaur.

Note: Based on mostly as well as the skeleton of Big Al itself. This whole story and description is based on the original Walking with Dinosaurs special, The Ballad of Big Al which tells the coming of age story and death of Big Al, but with many changes and new animal species depending on the age and region. One example of it is that in the original program, its stated that Big Al died 145 million BC, while in 1999, stratigraphic work by Turner and Peterson suggests that the "Big Al" and Howe quarries may be roughly 152 million years old, which kind makes more sense since most of the animals that appeared here were already extinct by 145 million BC.

Also, yes I've heard of Big Al Two

Information: www.nature.nps.gov/geology/pal…
www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_l…

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Walking with Dinosaurs and the Ballad of Big Al is owned by BBC

Description
"The kind of life this dinosaur has was probably very painful, given the number of infections in its feet, and in its hand... the injuries in its ribcage and other problems throughout its skeleton."
- Rebecca Hanna

Big Al is the name given to a sub-adult Allosaurus jimmadseni that was 95% complete, making it the most complete Allosaurus skeleton ever found. It was excavated by a joint team from the Museum of the Rockies in Montana and the University of Wyoming Geological Museum in 1991 in the Howe Quarry near Shell, Wyoming in the Morrison Formation dating around 152 million years in the Early Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic period. Al is 26 feet long and he is only 60 to 70% of its adult size. The completeness, preservation, and scientific importance of the skeleton is what gave this dinosaur the name Big Al. The fossil of the animal shows that it had around 19 injuries and infections. These included damaged ribs, vertebrae, thumb, and middle toe bone, not just breaks but also subsequent bone infection known as Osteomylitis, which is where microorganisms infect a bone that has been damaged by some kind of trauma that has been resulted in a break, which in turn are attacked by the body's immune system. The results include blood vessels in the bone becoming blocked by pus,‭ ‬in turn resulting in bone tissue dying‭ (‬a process called necrosis‭) ‬and the body then attempting to grow new bone around the dead tissue. This shows that despite its fearsome reputation, Big Al must've had a rather tough and cruel life that's brutal. But why?

The Story of Big Al begins in Wyoming 152 million BC during the Late Jurassic period in like all dinosaurs, in an egg.

It is the end of the dry season and there are signs of life. Inside the nest made of a mound of earth and twigs are eggs from a female Allosaurus. Then the eggs are beginning to hatch. Each baby allosaur including one named Big Al covered in proto-feathers breaks through the egg shells using a tiny structure called an egg tooth. Once Al and his siblings hatch, the young make loud squeaking noises. This was their first attempt to struggle to survive. After hearing the sounds, the mother Allosaurus arrives at the nest and smells her young. It is important for the Allosaurus and the moment mother and hatchling smell each other, they form a bond that is crucial for the hatchlings early survival. Carefully she digs them out. This is Big Al's first day and for now can rely on his mother's protection. Once he and his siblings get out of the eggs, they have trouble walking. They have a lot to learn about standing on their feet in weeks. The mother lies down and carries Al and a few of his siblings in her mouth like a crocodile. In another 15 years, Al will one day become a gigantic predator just like his mother, but he is oblivious that the chances of making that age are low.

Al and his siblings were gathering around with their mother. It is a daunting prospect of brood young and they will have to learn very fast. Fighting and playing among themselves is a good to start to perfect their hunting strategies. But however, at this size, the baby allosaurs are vulnerable and are an easy meal to predators. Watching the young nearby is a pair of hungry Tanycolagreus topwilsoni waiting for a chance to strike and kill, but the mother Allosaurus senses the danger and defends her young. But unfortunately the smell of her young attracts other predators including other Allosaurus's and so the mother dinosaur decided to lead her unruly brood away to find a safer place.
A year has passed and the mother Allosaurus guides Al and his siblings who are now a year old to the river on a floodplain of conifers, bennettites, and tree-ferns teeming with life, in what will one day be Wyoming. While a Barosaurus comes by for a drink, a lone Stegosaurus and a family of Camarasaurus lentus forages on the other side. Basking on the shores nearby were large goniopholids (an extinct family of crocodyloforms similar to modern-day crocodiles) such as Eutretauranosuchus, Amphicotylus, and Diplosaurus, while some of them scurry to the water, hunting for food. Then a three-horned theropod, Ceratosaurus nasicornis swims through the water using his tail to propel itself through the water and catches and kills a Eutretauranosuchus, then heads to shore to feed on it. Pterosaurs such as Mesadactylus and Harpactognathus flies through the air catching some insects. Swimming through the waters were fish, as well as amphibians such as primitive frogs.

As the mother dinosaur brings her young to the river's edge, the young begin to go after baby's target is the insects. Born with sharp teeth, Al is ready for his first meal. But even small prey such as insects requires skill to catch, either fly or in the case of a scorpion, fight back. As the he catches the insects with the others, while two of them fights a scorpion and one tries to a tuatara like sphenodont Opisthias rarus, Al accidentally fell into water. The young have a lot to learn about catching prey. By evening, the mother abandons her young in search for food for herself, but she isn't the only predator on the hunt tonight. As Al and her sibling wonder on the water's edge hunting insects, they are oblivious that a large Eutretauranosuchus lurks through the water, towards the defenseless. Then all of a sudden, the Eutretauranosuchus bursts through the water towards Al and two of her sibling, but Al, luckily, narrowly escapes, but the goniopholid snatches at one baby allosaur and drags the squealing baby to its watery doom, while the others flee in fear. The mother Allosaurus arrives carrying a large chunk of Camptosaurus meat from her kill to offer to her young, but she was too late. She has lost one of her young. She then feeds Al and his siblings the fresh meat. These will have a few weeks under their mother's protection before her maturnal instincts wears out.
Another year has passed and Al is now two years old. He is around 10 feet in length and his proto-feathers are starting to disappear. He now hunts alone in a forest of conifers, cycads, and bennettites. He is now on the hunt, not for insects, but instead, dinosaur meat. He finds a group of Nanosaurus feeding on the ferns, but there's a problem. Coming through the cycads and bennettites towards the flock is a male Stegosaurus foraging and feeding on the ferns and wonders off with the Nanosaurus following him, feeding on the trampled vegetation he left and noticed that it was the only way for protection against predators. Noticing how dangerous and aggressive a Stegosaurus is as its 3.3 foot spikes or thagomizors on the end of its tail would deliberately cripple, or even kill him, even if he wonders after the Nanosaurus, Al moves on to find something. He then comes across a mother Tanycolagreus topwilsoni building a nest of eggs and guarding it. But before he can attack it, the mother Tanycolagreus was more aggressive than Al and starts barking and shrieking, defending her nest. So Al retreats and focuses on a group of Dryosaurus grazing nearby. He charges at the flock, but he has not yet learned how to ambush so he fails to kill one of the swifter, smaller dinosaurs. He shrieks in agitation and walks away
Later a herd of Brontosaurus excelsus were crashing through the forests of conifers, tree-ferns, and bennettites, while nearby Al finds a Paramacellodus sp. and gulps it. Although not much of a snack, it was enough to satisfy his hunger.

Al heads out into open arid scrub-land dominated by a savanna of ferns. As he wonders around, he see's some buzzing insects, a Harpactognathus flying after them, a sphenodontid Opisthias rarus feeding nearby, and a small Laolestes scurrying nearby. As evening draws Al lies in the shade next to a bennettite. Once he lies down, he looks up in the distance. As the sun sets and slips down to the horizon behind the mountains, a herd of Camarasaurus lentus roamed across the plains while nearby is a pair of Stegosaurus and a small group of Camptosaurus grazing. On the far right is a mother and young Barosaurus wonders. In the middle ground, an armored ankylosaur Gargoyleosaurus feeds on the cycads, while in the foreground, a small group of Coelurus are on the hunt for small animals with glowing eyes showing. As the sun slips down into the horizon and evening gives way to darkness, Al lays down, closes his eyes, and sleeps.
Out in the middle of Western Laurasia lies a giant salt lake formed by the retreat of an ancient seaway known as the Sundance Sea that once covers most of North America's interior as an arm of the Arctic Ocean during the Late Callovian to Oxfordian. Back then this was once teemed with marine life filled with bivalves (Gryphaea), crinoids, ammonites, belemnites, sharks, fish, and large marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs (Ophthalmosaurus), cryptoclidid plesiosaurs (Pantosaurus), and giant carnivorous pliosaurs (Megalneusaurus), while pterosaurs flew around, catching unwary fish, and dinosaurs thrived along the coastline, leaving footprints on the sand. But when the highlands to the west begin to rise, the seaway begins to gradually retreat, giving way to not only the salt lake, but the wide open plain across western North America that make up the Morrison Formation, home to many types of dinosaurs, both predator and prey, ranging in size and shape.

Out in the salt lake, a herd of Diplodocus are out heading south to a nesting and feeding ground ground. It is a difficult and dangerous journey as the heat and lack of water weads out the weaker animals and this attracts predators. One of them is Al who now follows the sauropod herd. He is now 5 years old and although he is not fully-grown, he is only 25 feet in length and most of his proto-feather have almost disappeared. His ridges through the snout and brow is now starting to turn a faded light pink, as as the quills on his tail, arms, and even his head. Al is now an experienced hunter, but the herd itself prevents a formidable barrier. At around 12 tons in weight, a healthy full-grown Diplodocus would've been to big and dangerous for even a full-grown Allosaurus to take down, not just by its size, but also being able to rear up on its hindlegs in order to crush it, or even used its long, whip-like tail to cripple or kill it. But Al is not alone. Other allosaurs join the hunt as they sense one of the members of the herd is old and sick. Impatient, the Allosaurus separate the sick Diplodocus from the rest of the herd which after an intense chase, the succeeded and the sick sauropod gets left behind. The lone sick Diplodocus is surrounded by the hungry allosaurs and despite being a weakened member, the sauropod is still dangerous to them. Al makes an unnecessary mistake by lunging at the Diplodocus with his wide-open gape in order to ram at his victim's flesh, but he is no match against the angry Diplodocus's size and whip-like tail. Al gets struck by the Diplodocus's neck and tumbles on the salt flat. This leads him getting an injury with his tail vertebrae being damaged. As he gets up from being hit and recovers, Al and the other allosaurs must wait for the Diplodocus to weaken from illness and heat exhaustian and dies. After many hours of being surrounded by the Allosaurus, the overheated and sickened Diplodocus finally collapses on the salt flat and never moves. Once their prey is down, Al and the other allosaurs begin to close in, tearing huge chunks of flesh with their sharp, serrated-teeth as they feed. But for Al, this feast wasn't to last much longer. The smell of blood and death is attracting other predators for miles around. An hour later, a fully grown female Allosaurus joins in for the feast. She is much larger than the other allosaurs and heavier. She quickly establishes her dominance and the younger ones that took down the sauropod let her has some of it. When predators get to her size, they rarely have to bring down her own food. They'd just scavenged. In order to find a safer place, Al takes some remnant of the carcass and leaves.
A year has passed and Al is now six years of age and most of his proto-feathers have now disappeared, leaving only tiny remnants of it and display filaments in its head and quills in his arms and tail, which were dark pink, along with his brow ridges and ridges on the snout. In just 9 years, Al will reach full sexual maturity and become a large predatory Allosaurus, with his display features being bright red. But he is unaware that the chances of reaching puberty is futile.

It is now the end of the wet season and with the flood water still receding, it is a time of plenty for the local dinosaurs. After recently making a kill on a Camptosaurus, Al comes to the river for a drink. As he drinks, little does he know that the blood stain from his kill is causing panic and rage among the other animals. Nearby drinking is a herd of Camptosaurus and a displaying pair of Stegosaurus, but once they sense blood and see's Al, they'd start panicking. The Camptosaurus cries in alarm and flees, while the stegosaurs became agitated, shaked their diamond-shaped red plates in a frightening display, and swinged their spiked tails sideways towards Al. The blood also attracts other predators across the river. Among the predators were a group of Eutretauranosuchus swimming towards the blood, while wondering on the shore on the other side is a Ceratosaurus nasicornis sniffing. In order to avoid getting killed by the sharp thagomizors of the angry Stegosaurus, Al reluctantly leaves the river.

Once he leaves the river, Al see's a mating pair of fully-grown Allosaurus. Al becomes curious and comes close. Then the adult male Allosaurus senses Al and comes close. He growls and starts advancing towards him. Little does Al know that he is entering the territory of the adult male and female Allosaurus. Large theropods like Allosaurus roamed over vast areas of land that they would violently defend if necessary. Territories could have been important in attracting and keeping mates, maintaining safe nesting sites, and even in protecting hatchlings and juveniles from danger, but the reason to establishing a territory would be to ensure they had enough food to survive, especially in harsh environments during seasonal change. As Al enters his territory, the adult male Allosaurus attacks him, bites his neck, but Al shakes off. Then the angry adult pushes him and starts attacking him. Al tries to get up, but he was pinned to the ground hard by the angry adult male and already its injuring him. The adult's foot claws puncture deep into his ribs hard on his right side, while the adult bites Al's right thumb, ripping and twisting it. During it, Al shrieks in pain and agony as the pain increases. The female watches the fight nearby. After a series of attacks, Al quickly gets and gets driven off by the adult male. Despite such a lucky narrow escape, Al has deep puncture holes on the right side with smashed ribs, along with a torn arm, a ripped right thumb claw, and a torn throat, already bleeding. After having such a brutal, bad day, Al lies down in the shade next to a bennettite and rests with his mouth open. A small pterosaur Kepodactylus flies and feeds the few scraps of meat in Al's opened jaw.
5 months has passed and the dry season begins to bite. There has been no rain for a while and vast bodies of water ranging rivers to ponds were beginning to dry up, leaving only pools. With very few water available, the animals must struggle to survive, or die. The sick and old begin weaded and it good news for scavengers. Nearby a drying carcass of a Coelurus, a Mesadactylus flies down eating an insect that it caught. But before the pterosaur can fly away, Al ambushes, kills it, and gulps it down. But unfortunately, it wasn't enough of a meal for the Allosaurus, nor was their any fresh meat on the Coelurus carcass. So he must go out and hunt for even better prey. He has recovered from the fight, but one arm isn't functioning propperly and still retains the deep puncture wounds on his side.

Al heads to a small stagnant pool of water, which is the only sources of water available. There, he see's a lone, juvenile Camarasaurus who has been separated from its herd while searching for water. Once its done drinking, the young sauropod starts to call for its member of the herd, with no response. Al continues to stalk the Camarasaurus, ready to attack. But before he can, the camarasaur senses danger, but its not Al. Lurking through the bennettites behind the sauropod is a giant hungry Torvosaurus tanneri. At 33 feet from head to tail and weighing around 5 tons, this giant, bulky megalosaurid is one of the largest predators of the region and one of the top predators. Like the ceratosaurs, Torvosaurus preferred to be active around waterways, and had lower, more sinuous, bodies that would have given them an advantage in forest and underbrush terrains, whereas Allosaurus had shorter bodies, longer legs, were faster but less maneuverable, and preferred dry floodplains. Al watches as the young Camarasaurus begins to flee, but it was too late. The Torvosaurus bursts through the vegetation, lunges, and attacks the sauropod, bringing him down with ease. Once his prey is down, the Torvosaurus closes in on his kill. He hasn't eaten for several days as since its watery way homeland is drying up, there was less prey to feed on. Al watches and must wait for the Torvosaurus to have his fill and leave, so he can finish the remaining carcass. But all of a sudden, the Torvosaurus senses Al and when he see's the Allosaurus, he charges and attacks. Frightened, Al flees with the Torvosaurus in pursuit, snapping his jaws at him. But Al luckily manages to escape the torvosaur's wrath as the Torvosaurus stops and returns to his kill. Al stops and looks back and then heads to find easier prey.

He finds some dryosaurs grazing in the blistering heat. It will take skills to attack, but he has done this hundreds of times before. As the Dryosaurus group continues feeding, Al slowly stalks through dried up cycads and bennittites and then ambush and charges. Once the Dryosaurus see's him approaching, they flee, but one of them is being chased down by Al. He was so focused on the target, that he wasn't paying attention to any of the surrounding dangers around. Al was about to attack and kill the Dryosaurus as he opens his mouth in a wide open gape and pepare to used his neck muscles to ram at his victim and by impact, the sharp serrated cut through the flesh and causing prey to weaken from blood loss and dies. Then all of a sudden, Al felt a big, hard impact on his right middle, feeling a sharp, increasing pain from as it twists and cracks and then he falls on the ground. The Dryosaurus escaped and fled to the underbrush.hunt was a disaster as Al has accidentally tripped on a fallen log and badly fell, and his right middle has severely been broken, already bleeding. He shrieks and cries in pain and agony and gets up slowly. He limps off. With prey getting scarcer and scarcer, his future is now bleak as the chances of survival look remote. He whimpers in pain as he limps off.

2 months have passed. The dry season is now at its height as the drought continues to be longer than usual. There was very little water to and once flowing rivers and meanders are now dried up beds. Food is becoming scarce as vegetation withers and the animals must struggle to survive. Herds of Brontosaurus are facing the dry season as they continue to migrate to find traces of food and water. Some such as a pair of Stegosaurus digs underground to search for water. However, some animals weren't so lucky and the landscape is littered with their white skeletal remains. Limping badly across the arid landscape towards a Camarasaurus skeleton is Big Al. The drought has cost him dear and if anything the limp has gotten worse. Due to his poor conditions, Al wasn't recovering very well and he is unable to hunt. The right middle toe that was broken from the fall is now swollen and oozes with puss. The pain from it increases badly. The middle toe is not only broken, but it is badly infected as a result of Osteomylitis, which is where microorganisms infect a bone that has been damaged by some kind of trauma that has been resulted in a break, which in turn are attacked by the body's immune system. ‬The results include blood vessels in the bone becoming blocked by pus,‭ ‬in turn resulting in bone tissue dying‭ (‬a process called necrosis‭) ‬and the body then attempting to grow new bone around the dead tissue. But despite all this, Al can still live a bit longer as the drought continues.

3 months pass and Al is suffering heat exhaustion, starvation, and dehydration as the drought continues its heavy toll. Still unable to hunt as result of his injured foot and still highly painful, he has eaten very little amounts of food. But now he is weakened and dehydrated as he hasn't had any water. He stops at a dried up river bed and looks around for any water. But there was none at all, not even a pool of water. Too weakened and in pain to travel and search for water, Al lies down the dried up river bed, hoping that water will be floating down available to drink. As time flies by, Al becomes weakened and dehydrated while waiting for the flowing river to come. He makes one last look at the sun and landscape before his eyes slowly closes and never opens.

2 months later, two Allosaurus chicks are hunting for insects across the sand dues. But instead, they find something bigger - the dead body of Big Al in a dried-up riverbed, dessicated by the hot sun. The muscles, tendens, and other soft tissue dried and the animal's head pulled back over its tail in a sort of "death pose". Al was never reached full-sized, dying as a mature adolescent. Then after several months of drought, a rumble thunder coming from the distance is finally heard and dark clouds rose from the horizon. The long dry season has given away to the wet season as the rains arrived and once again, there will be plenty of water and food available for both predator and prey across the Jurassic landscape. As the dark clouds arrived, thunder roared, lightning bursts and flashes across the sky, and a torrential downpour hits hard. This created a huge flash flood that bursts across the dry river bed where Big Al's body lied and the current of the recently formed flowing river deposited sediments, burying the Allosaurus's body for 152 million years, marking the start of his fossilization.

The process of his fossilization was so perfect it preserved even the injuries and diseases he sustained in his lifetime including -among others- lumps where his ribs healed after their break and the raging infection on his middle toe. In death, Big Al represents a frozen moment in the fast and furious life of a carnivorous theropod dinosaur.

Note: Based on mostly as well as the skeleton of Big Al itself. This whole story and description is based on the original Walking with Dinosaurs special, The Ballad of Big Al which tells the coming of age story and death of Big Al, but with many changes and new animal species depending on the age and region. One example of it is that in the original program, its stated that Big Al died 145 million BC, while in 1999, stratigraphic work by Turner and Peterson suggests that the "Big Al" and Howe quarries may be roughly 152 million years old, which kind makes more sense since most of the animals that appeared here were already extinct by 145 million BC.

Also, yes I've heard of Big Al Two

Information: www.nature.nps.gov/geology/pal…
www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_l…

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