No, this wasn't alive.
At first, Lin thought that the fungus was alive, but after dissecting it, she found that its internal structure had hardened, just like a fossil.
That was interesting. How did it harden? Lin tested it inside her body. If water entered the internal structure of the fungus, it would be melted into powder. It was not a threat. The internal structure was also different from the fungus of plague fungi. It was more like a normal fungus.
That was more reassuring. The skeleton dragon's flesh did not have this fungus.
Tucker was cutting up the skeleton dragon's flesh. He used the old method of wrapping the cut meat in salt. There was no sun here, so it could not be dried, but a lot of salt was enough to kill a lot of scavenger fungi.
Lin felt that Tucker and the skeleton dragon might not be the same species. This skeleton dragon did not have the skeletal stripes, and its internal structure was different. Was that why Tucker was so happy to kill it? Otherwise, it would want to communicate with its kind in this place.
Tucker also seemed to be quite calculative. He brought enough meat that would not affect his movement, but would still be enough to eat. After they were done, Lin and Tucker continued to move forward. Lin became more and more curious about this underground salt cave. The main creature here was Mao Yu, but occasionally, they would see some small lakes. These lakes were, without exception, extremely salty. If it was not filtered, any creature that fell in here would probably die of thirst.
Other than that, there were all kinds of fossils and skeletons. Not only were there fungi, but there were also skeletons of other creatures. For example, in the open space in front of them, the light of the pterosaur shone on the ground and revealed a huge object …
It was the rib of a creature.
The rib was quite large. It was more than ten meters long. Vertebrates grew such structures to protect their hearts and other organs. Although there were no other bones around, Lin speculated that it might belong to a large long-necked dinosaur.
Long-necked dinosaurs were the largest species of dinosaur Lin had seen recently. They were usually much larger than large carnivores, and their skeletons were often used by other creatures after they died, like this one.
Under the rib, Lin found a lot of small stones, Mao Yu carcasses and other things, which might have been left behind by the skeleton dragon.
Tucker went inside the rib and rummaged through the various things here. Lin noticed that it had found a stone with a strange pattern engraved on it.
Although Humerus Dragons could not draw, they could carve some simple patterns. The meaning of these patterns was unknown, and they did not use them to communicate.
"Kukuta." Looking at the strangely carved stone in his hand, Tucker uttered a word, which meant hostility in their language.
Perhaps this Humerus Dragon was its enemy?
However, Lin was more concerned about the ground beneath the ribs. It appeared to be covered in sand, but it wasn't sand, but … bacterial dust. They spread out a thick layer, softening the originally hard ground.
The Skeleton Dragon probably always slept on it. That's why her scales were covered in a lot of bacterial dust, which spread from outside her rib cage. Lin followed the traces of the bacterial dust and found the origin three meters away from her rib cage. Lin then had the pterosaur dig a few times on the ground and quickly discovered a large fossil buried under the sand.
This was also a fossilized mushroom, but it was different from the previous ones. Its structure was thicker, and its head was like a sphere. There were many small holes on it, and the large amount of dust was obviously emitted by it.
"Squawk!" Suddenly, Tucker screamed. Lin turned to look at him and found that there was a hole under Tucker's body in the rib cage, and the hole was full of cracks.
This cave was not there earlier, so it was obviously new and was still expanding!
Boom! As soon as this thought crossed Lin's mind, the ground suddenly exploded and collapsed. Tucker and Lin's pterodactyl, as well as everything around them, fell to the ground as they didn't have time to escape.
Lin had the pterosaur spread its wings and flew up in the air. Lin saw that they were about ten meters from the ground. This height was not a problem, but there were other dangers …
Tucker was the first to land on the ground because the ground under his feet was the first to collapse. He immediately rolled forward when he landed, and half a second later, there was a loud bang behind him. A huge rib cage hit the ground, and the bones shattered under the impact and scattered in all directions. One of the sharp pieces of bone directly pierced Tucker's shoulder.
Tucker screamed. He immediately pulled out the bone from his shoulder. Blood slowly flowed down from his shoulder.
Looks like I'll have to heal him again.
The pterosaur flew to Tucker's side and sprayed a large amount of mucus on his wound. This mucus could speed up the repair of his damaged structure.
Right, I'll teach them to heal next time. Humerosaurs are not very good at healing their companions. Healing should be an ability that social creatures should have, and many creatures can do it.
Lin had done this kind of healing many times, but every time, Tucker would be very excited. Lin's healing method was a little special. She used all kinds of small creatures, and basically, as long as they were not dead, she could heal them.
After dealing with Tucker, Lin paid attention to the surrounding environment. Obviously, Lin and Tucker had fallen to a deeper level of the cave, and here, everything around them seemed to be quite strange.
Huge protruding marks were everywhere on the cave walls. Most of them were mushrooms, and there were also structures like mycelium and corals. Lin knew that these were all fossils of fungi … This place could be said to be a huge fungal fossil farm!
This obviously showed that there used to be a large number of fungi living here … How long had they been dead?
'Crack …'
Tucker took a step on the ground, and suddenly there was a sound of something shattering. Lin looked down and saw that the ground was covered with a large number of skeletons! These skeletons were all of the same creatures …
Humerosaurs.
Tucker did not have much of a reaction to seeing so many skeletons of his own kind. Lin guessed that they might not have seen many skeletons of their own kind. They usually left the bodies of their dead in the wild, and the bodies would soon be dragged away by other dinosaurs. As for where they were taken to, it might never be found.
Lin flew down and had the pterosaur eat some of the skeletons on the ground and decompose them …