measurements, they took, of the footprints.
“But we booked the plane back to London for tomorrow… such a pity.” Pete said sadly. There
was a moment of silence.
“Why is there a bruise on your arm Bob?” Alex asked worriedly.
“I spilled some Smarties and fell on the ground!” Bob replied.
“Well you should go back and clean it up. We have to preserve this place you know. If
everyone litters here, the Gobi desert will be like a rubbish tip in no time,” Pete commented.
Bob sighed deeply. He went back grudgingly, dragging his feet. When he got to the spot, he
found nothing! He scratched his head, wondering, looking further and around, but there was
nothing to be seen besides rocks and sand. Bob shrugged his shoulders. He could not be bothered
to look for the Smarties, and walked back.
“All the Smarties are gone! I couldn’t find anything! It’s so weird!” Bob told everyone.
Pete shook his head in disgust. “Excuses again…” he muttered.
The next day, they arrived at the airport to catch their flight. As they put their bags through the
X-ray machine, a loud beeping noise started to ring. The officers came over to Bob. “Sir, we have
spotted an unidentified object in your bag. Can you please open it to let us check?” asked an officer.
“I always get this. They’re only Smarties!” Bob protested.
“I don’t think so. Please open your bag,” the officer ordered.
Bob hesitated, and then opened his bag. To everyone’s surprise, a strange looking animal was
inside the bag busily munching on Smarties! Everyone around stood rooted to the ground, staring
at it speechless. “Hey! Those are my Smarties!!!” Bob complained, almost reaching out his hand to
snatch them back.
The animal stopped munching and lifted its head up. Dylan leaned over immediately and
zipped up the backpack, leaving a part of it open.
“What was that?” the officer screamed in disgust, backing away.
“Dylan, that’s the dinosaur thing we saw yesterday!!!” Bob whispered.
Dylan nodded in shock. Then they explained, to the officer, what had happened in the desert.
After hearing the explanation, the officer called his boss.
“Very sorry, but I’m afraid that we cannot allow you to bring this animal or whatever it is, on
board,” the boss informed the group, and left.
Bob thought for a while and then turned to his teammates. “I guess we should stay in the
airport then… we can examine it closely over the next few days and if we have solid proof that
this animal is indeed a dinosaur, we can call for a press conference!” he suggested.
“Great idea!” Alex commented. The others nodded.
So for the next few days, everybody was busy examining all aspects of the animal - skin,
teeth, eyes, etc. Bob was in charge of taking care of it. He fed it different bits of food, but to
everybody’s surprise, it loved Smarties! Especially the red coloured ones! Hence, its appearance
in the Smarties container. It must have eaten the Smarties Bob spilled, then followed them, and
somehow crept into Bob’s bag for more! Then through the DNA testing, they found out that this
animal was indeed very ancient. In fact, the DNA was so old, that it dated back to the Triassic
period. The other characteristics about the animal also matched dinosaurs. So it was a Triassic
herbivore, because it had a lot of smooth molars and lack of sharp teeth plus the fact that when
Bob tried feeding it some beef jerky, it refused to eat it.
They also discovered that the reason this dinosaur had never been found, was because it was
