When foraging for tinder in a wet 
sandy flat, I frequently stumbled 
across a wonderful sight: 
sleeping aetosaurs! They were 
studded with wide smooth bony 
plates and spikes, in beautiful 
green and white colors. The ones 
I discovered were Typothorax, 
smaller relatives of the 
Desmatosuchus I'd spotted 
before. I was late to come home, 
and crossing the area in the night 
I found that the Typothorax had 
awoken! Observing behind a stand 
of otozamites, I noticed they dug 
through the sand and silt with 
their hands and rummaged through 
the loose soil with their shovel-
shaped noses, grabbing out 
mushrooms to eat. I considered 
taking the fruits of their labor 
for my own dinner but the 
spikes helped to dissuade me! 
Interestingly, some of these bony 
spikes formed a ring around the 
cloaca, a feature I had never 
seen in any other animal before! I 
struggle to grasp an explanation 
for such a unique adaptation. To 
test my hypotheses, I will return 
to the drying lake bed soon in 
hopes of watching them.