“Keep it coming! Keep it coming! And… Stop!” Ellie slapped the back of the transport truck which came to a jolting stop, startling a nearby grazing Triceratops. “Let’s get this old girl back to the herd!”
Grant hopped out the cab, unhooked the restraints and released the ramp of the flatbed. The Triceratops stumbled out the back of the transport, still woozy from the sedative.
A Jeep pulled up on the other side of the fence. Hammond stepped out of the passenger side.
“John, to what do we owe this pleasure?” Ellie sighed. “Checking in on us already?”
“Just dropping by to see how you’re getting on with my animals, Dr. Sattler.” Hammond beamed. “I’m sure it’s spectacular to see them in their full glory unlike last time!”
“That’s the nature of working with living, breathing creatures, John. Not everything can be expected to perform on command. They get sick.”
“And it seems Dr. Harding has yet to get to the bottom of it.” Grant gestured to a slumped Triceratops near the fence. He and Ellie moved over to the sick animal.
“She’ll just be resting” Hammond began.
“No, she’s exhibiting the same symptoms.” confirmed Grant.
Ellie looked around and spotted a low shrub nearby. West Indian Lilac. Ellie noticed a pile of rounded stones beneath the bush. She frowned. Then suddenly her eyes lit up.
“Gizzard Stones!” She threw one of the stones to Grant. They look at each other in amazement.
Grant was ecstatic. “That’s it! It explains the periodicity, the-”
“The undigested state of the berries because it’s-”
“totally incidental or unrelated to the feeding pattern-”
“Doctors, slow down!” Hammond exclaimed.
Ellie took a breath. “Some animals like her, they swallow the stones-”
“and hold them in a muscular sack in their stomachs” Grant continued.
“which is called a gizzard, and it helps them mash their food, but what happens after a while-”
“the stones get smooth, so every six weeks the animal regurgitates them.”
“And when she swallows the stones, she swallows the poison berries too. That's what makes her sick.”
The two hi-fived, the case of the sick Triceratops finally solved.
