Troodon – “Wounding Tooth”
Travelling back to the Mesozoic Era, I would want to be a Troodon.
As being a fellow Troodon, I would have lived among the streams and deltas of coastal plains on the island continent of Laramidia. Laramidia was an island continent that existed during the Late Cretaceous period, when the Western Interior Seaway split North America into two.
Troodon was a small bird-like dinosaur with long, slender hind limbs. It had grasping hands. The creature had rotatable forearms with three grasping fingered hands, likely aided it to hunt prowess. As well, it had two large retractable claws on the second toe of each foot therefore allowing it to run very fast with its specialized feet. Troodon had very large eyes that faced mostly forward, so that granted it keen vision for hunting, especially during the night. Troodon's eyes faced forwards which would have given it excellent stereoscopic vision and depth perception - essential when hunting. Troodon had huge eyes which would have enabled it to hunt at night or during the long, dark polar winters.
Some Troodon fossils are found far north in Alaska, which would have been positioned within the Arctic Circle during the Cretaceous. It is thought that Troodons were well adapted for enduring long polar winters. Troodon teeth are serrated - a feature often seen in animals eating a significant amount of plant food. Troodon is therefore thought to have been omnivorous. The teeth of Troodons are serrated, which is often a characteristic of herbivores. But because of their ability to run fast, have excellent stereoscopic vision, grasping hands and sharp claws, they were thought to have been carnivorous. Some palaeontologists believe it might have been omnivorous. Troodon may have eaten small mammals, lizards, but also insects, eggs, and even plants.
Troodons had a large brain for its relatively small size among the smartest dinosaurs. Its EQ - 'encephalisation quotient' - (a measure of brain size compared to body size) was six times higher than the dinosaur average. Its brain is proportionally larger than those found in living reptiles, so the animal may have been as intelligent as modern birds, which are more similar in brain size.