Tyra Ramos went about a fairly normal routine as things continued on in Dino City. A lot of it related to balancing work as a hostess at Dino City's main "club," helping Rex keep their house clean and in order, snuggling with him (among other things), and looking after two young hatchlings that despite being less than a year old were already starting to toddle after her around the house or on various excursions that she and Rex took them on. They'd often chirp when they wanted attention or were drawn to something, and it was something that Tyra could not help but find cute in her new sons, Jonah and Manuel. It also made for fairly cute interactions between them and Jeremy and Heather's hatchlings, along with some of the other new Dinotopian hatchlings, but Tyra was certain that Jonah and Manuel were the cutest.
A chirp and a nuzzle at her ankle then drew her attention down to them, and she could see Jonah there with Manuel not too far behind him. They looked up to her, and Tyra felt they were happy, and it brought back memories of when she'd raised Heather's father. That brought back happy memories as she looked down to the two of them and hoped that raising Jonah and Manuel would bring about happy memories with them. So far, there had been some good ones, but also some interesting ones. One went back to the Easter Egg hunt...
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Ultimately the real "stars" from the announcement for the Easter Egg hunt in Glen Rose and Dino City was young John Tarr and his siblings Kristi and Teddy and mostly coming from when John lost interest in the announcement on the Easter Egg hunt and got up to move, and ultimately knocking Teddy on his back by accident. But Manuel and Jonah were there to, and like William and Candace, Tyra and Rex let them toddle around their feet and it actually brought one set of parents over while some of the rest moved off to start the hunt for the Easter Eggs at the various sites in Glen Rose and Dino City where the "eggs" were buried.
"They're precious," the mother said to Tyra as she looked down to Jonah and Manuel as they toddled over to Kristi and sniffed at the infant Parasaurolophus Dinotopian, "How old are they?"
"They'll be one year old in the fall," Tyra said with pride, "if we're going by when they hatched from their eggs."
"Less than a year old..." the father's eyes widened as he said this, "but... how..."
"A lot of it relates to the physical developments that are different between many animals and Humans," Rex spoke as he approached, "many animals are able to walk pretty soon after being born. And others not so... and this can vary depending on the species and what they need. Animals that move around a lot in herds often can walk fairly quickly and those that may have a more sedentary residence in a given area and a lifestyle that looks for better protection of those offspring may not develop as quickly. Thus, why cattle and deer can walk within minutes of being born, and this can also apply to many ground-dwelling birds, like turkey and quail walking quickly, while some perching birds like robins don't."
"So... this would mean that T Rexes grew up fast?" the son asked as he watched Jonah toddle off for a moment. Tyra also followed him with her eyes.
"Physically, yes," Rex answered, "based on what Tyra and I are learning in raising Jonah and Manuel is that they are physically more stable and active, which we can then put as a possible basis for the mundane animal in the Cretaceous Period, in that because Tyrannosaurs are as large as they are, hiding hatchlings in one stationary area would be difficult as other Tyrannosaurs or other potential predators would find the nest and carry off hatchlings if they were unable to move. Thus, they can mature quickly to move between various "hiding spots" inside the territory of the mated Tyrannosaurs. But that's only going to be a hypothesis based on how things have gone so far for Tyra and me as parents."
Tyra, meanwhile, decided to disengage from the conversation, and moved to follow after Jonah while Manuel moved to nuzzle against Rex's ankle. With Jonah toddling away, it made sense to keep an eye on him. Tyra doubted there would be much that would really be a threat to the Dinotopian hatchling, but that didn't mean she was just going to be a negligent parent. It was also something that let Tyra learn more about what Jonah and Manuel were interested in as children rather than as "Dinotopians." And in many ways, Jonah and Manuel displayed a lot of the curiosity that many Human children would display at an older age. The mental development was on par with Human infants, but the curiosity was there and that often lead to them wandering and chirping at things that caught their attention. And right now, something held Jonah's attention and he was curious about it. Tyra was following to make sure he didn't leave the main city park in Dino City and wander into traffic or something like that.
Jonah ultimately made his way to the southern section of the park and an area where the ground was slightly raised. It wasn't a slope in the sense that it was a hill, but Tyra noted that modest sized area was rather open and raised above the rest of the ground. Jonah began chirping at something a bit more has he moved up to it and then onto it. At first, Tyra wondered if this was in response to an animal in the trees or elsewhere on the park's lawn, but there was no tree immediately over that park area and she couldn't see any bird or other animal that would have attracted Jonah's attention to lead him to this section of the park. Then noted Jonah's approach. He toddled up onto the raised area and then suddenly hopped back and began chirping more fiercely.
"What is this?" Tyra asked to Jonah as she picked him up and felt him nuzzle against her but then chirped and pointed his muzzle toward that raised area.
This only puzzled Tyra more and she looked to the area. There she noted that there was actually a section of the grass that was actually dying, which was a surprise. Dino City was fairly young and to Tyra's knowledge, the lawns for parks and personal lawns were actually put in place as the area was built up for the Dinotopians that would be moving in. This meant that all the grass in Dino City was actually rather knew and nothing had been bad enough to kill the grass in the way things had been. That was a surprise, and Jonah kept chirping at it and it soon brought attention from others.
"Is something wrong?" came Rex's voice as he approached carrying Manuel with William Tarr following behind.
"I'm not sure..." Tyra said slowly, "Jonah sort of wandered over here and he appears to have been frustrated over a spot of dead grass."
"Dead grass?" William said with surprise and came forward to then note what Tyra pointed to and that there was area of dead grass in a section of the raised section of the lawn. "This can't be... the grass around this area is healthy."
"Maybe not enough watering coverage," Rex offered.
"No, the sprinklers are reaching other areas in the area, so it can't be an issue with them or the water," William answered, "something in this spot has to be killing the grass. Though... it may take a while to find out what."
"We can wait," Tyra commented, "though... Jonah's curiosity now has mine peaked... so if you could let me know..."
"I'll give you a call," William answered.
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A few days later, that call came, though at a time when Tyra was actually nursing Jonah. But Tyra managed to get the phone and answered it.
"Hello," Tyra answered.
"Hello, Mrs. Ramos," came William Tarr's voice, "I just thought I'd update you on what Jonah essentially discovered."
"What was it?" Tyra asked eagerly.
"It turns out what killed the grass was gasoline," William Tarr, "from a buried car."
"A car?!" Tyra practically bellowed in surprise and getting Jonah to stop his nursing and chirp.
"Yes, a Porsche 550 Spyder," William answered, "we had to check with the boundary maps that Glen Rose had from before Dino City was built, in that the area was originally part of someone's backyard. The Mason family, a Scott and Blair. They agreed to sell in agreement for a free apartment at the Skybax when it was completed."
"And they owned and buried a sports car from the 1950s?" Tyra asked.
"No, from what they told me, they moved into the house in 2000 and what the digging crew and the police chief think, the car was buried in 1955," William answered, "the plates were still with it, and they didn't come back as stolen... but the records are also old enough that we're still trying to see on who might have owned and buried the car. The only clue that was found was an autographed photo of James Dean."
"So... a movie fan buys a French," Tyra began.
"German," William corrected, "Porsche is German. Founded by Ferdinand Porsche in the 30s."
"Whatever," Tyra shrugged, "a movie fan buys a German sports car and buries it because James Dean died?"
"That's the best guess," William answered, "the Masons said the area of grass in that area always seemed to die, regardless of how much they watered or fertilized it. The best guess is that the car was buried with a FULL gas tank and that eventually it leaked, and as people watered the lawn in that spot, the water seeped down to where the car was and collected. It couldn't push the car up, but it did push the gasoline up and the gasoline then killed the grass."
"Strange," Tyra said slowly.
"Yes, but with the car removed, we can filter the dirt when it goes back into the hole to make sure there is no more gasoline there and the grass won't die," William answered, "which is ultimately a win"
"What'll happen to the car?" Tyra wondered.
"Right now, we're looking into finding out who actually owned it," William answered, "as to a great degree, we'd prefer to sell it, BUT if the person who bought it is still alive, any sale would be illegal on our part... at least at this time. We have to find out who owned it, or at least put out official notices that the vehicle has been "found," just in case the owner buried it and intended to come back for it. And that may take a while, depending on what the State government has with regard to the records they have."
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And so far, the owners of the car had not been reached. The Texas department for vehicle registration had records that the plates belonged to a Jamie Diane, but the listed numbers for that registration no longer applied as they had been the number for the residence that was now a part of one the building across the street from the section of the park in Dino City where the car had been found. From there a lot of things had gone cold in trying to track the woman down. Tyra could ultimately live with that to a degree as so far as she knew, burying a car that one bought wasn't a crime. It proved to be something interesting, which could be traced to the curiosity of an infant Dinotopian. A part of Tyra wondered if Jonah had smelled the gasoline that was in the soil, but then, he was still only a baby. And this would make for an interesting story to tell him when he was older.