TheCretaceous Period is the third era of when dinosaurs ruled theearth, and is whereMs. Frizzleand her class travel back in time to inThe Magic School Bus episode,The Busasaurus.
It's also one of the three dinosaur eras that game players could choose to time travel to in the PC game,The Magic School Bus Explores in the Age of Dinosaurs.
Contents
- 1 Plot
- 1.1 The Busasaurus
- 1.2 The Land Before Tim
- 1.3 The Magic School Bus Explores in the Age of Dinosaurs
Plot[]
The Busasaurus[]
After looking at a Tyrannosaurus Rex Skeleton being dug up at theDinosaur Dig Site,Ms. Frizzletakes her students back onthe bus. AfterDr. Carmina SkeledonletsArnoldhold a fossilized dinosaur egg Ms. Frizzle found and gave to her, one of the paleontologists calls Skeledon to come quick and she leaves the bus, forgetting to take he egg with her. After the bus' door closes, Ms. Frizzle tells Arnold he'll have plenty of time to give the egg back to Skeledon when they get back. Ms. Frizzle then turns the bus into a time machine and they start to travel back in time. They watch the paleontologists undig the dinosaur skeleton and walk backwards into their jeeps and drive backwards away, and then watch everything moving backwards going through the Ice Age and then stopping in the Cretaceous Period. When they reach the third era, Arnold gets shocked noticing Skeledon's egg unfossilized, but Ms. Frizzle tells him to not worry since he's got plenty of time, millions of years in fact.
When they get off the bus, Ms. Frizzle tells her class they're gone back 67 million years, much to their shock. The ground then suddenly shakes and they suddenly encounter a family of Alamosaurus. The kids at first get terrified and run off, causing Arnold to trip on a rock causing the egg to go flying, butLizmanaged to catch it in time. When Arnold let'sPhoebesee it, an Ornithomimus suddenly appears out of some bushes an steals it from her, causing Arnold and Phoebe to chase after it. When encountering the Alamosaurus, they learn that they're herbivores so there's no need to fear them eating them. When Liz runs up to Ms. Frizzle, she poses as Arnold, Phoebe and the Ornithomimus they started to run after, causingCarlosto fear Arnold and Phoebe might have gotten eaten.
When searching for Arnold and Phoebe, they encounter a heard ofParasaurolophusat a river and Carlos accuses them for eating Arnold and Phoebe. But they then learn that like the Alamosaurus, the Parasaurolophus are herbivores too, and not blood thirsty killers. After spotting Arnold and Phoebe through a pair of binoculars, Ms. Frizzle turns the bus into a Parasaurolophus and they ride in it across the river as she blows a horn making the Parasaurolophus sound effect making the Parasaurolophus movie out of the way. But one of them then jumps onto a log flipping it making the bus go flying into the air making the kids, Ms. Frizzle and Liz fly out of it and land in a nesting ground where they encounter a family of Edmontosaurus. There, they learn the mother Edmontosaurus feed it's babies pre-chewed berries, but Carlos kept fearing the dinosaurs were going to eat them alive.
They next go to a field and encounter a heard of Triceratops, and find the bus in the form of one. Just when Carlos was about to say they had to find Arnold and Phoebe before the dinosaurs ate them,Dorothy Anntells him to not say it, showing him the Triceratops won't hurt them because they're herbivores, just like the Alamosaurus, Parasaurolophus and Edmontosaurus. Just whenKeeshafeeds a baby Triceratops a leaf, a pack of Troodon suddenly show up and chase after one of the baby Triceratops to eat it. Just when the Troodon were about to eat the baby Triceratops, the big ones get in their way and protect their babies. However, the Troodon then spot the kids and then start to chase after them. But just before the Troodon could eat the kids, Ms. Frizzle quickly protects her class by giving them Tricera-Shields, which they use to scare them away.
Meanwhile, as Arnold and Phoebe chased after the Ornithomimus to get Skeledon's egg back from it, the Ornithomimus gets scared and drops the egg and runs off cause it saw a sleeping Tyrannosaurus Rex nearby and the egg rolls underneath it. Arnold then finds the egg under the T. rex and pulls hard to get the egg out. But as soon as Arnold and Phoebe pull the egg out, they land on the ground loudly which wakes the T. rex up. The T. rex then spots Arnold and Phoebe and roars and starts to chase after them. On the field, the Triceratops hear the T. rex coming and they run away, starting a stampede causing the class to run back onto the bus. Arnold and Phoebe then run towards the field with the T. rex not too far behind them. But as they head towards the bus, Arnold trips and drops Skeledon's egg into the mud puddle. As Phoebe runs back onto the bus, Arnold crawls underneath it and the T. rex breaths it smelly breath into the bus. The T. rex then attacks the bus making the kids all scream in fright. As the T. rex grabs the bus in it's mouth, Arnold yells out to it to leave his class alone. In determined to save her and her class, Ms. Frizzle pushes a button and grows Arnold to a 20 foot tall human. When Arnold is an enormous size, he makes the T. rex drop the bus and he fights it with special moves. When he fights it, Arnold scares the T. rex away making it run off. Arnold's friends then cheer for him for saving their lives and Arnold has become the hero of the field trip. The class has then learned that there are more herbivores then carnivores, and carnivores aren't really blood thirsty monsters, they just want quick meals without getting hurt. Arnold then picks up Skeledon's egg out of the mud puddle and Ms. Frizzle shrinks him back down to his normal size. They then get back onto the bus and Ms. Frizzle turns it back into it's time machine form and they time travel back home to the present.
When they're back in the present at the Dinosaur Dig Site, Arnold gets off the bus and returns Skeledon her egg fossilized again. The other paleontologists then discover something and the kids, Ms. Frizzle, Liz and Skeledon notice a big footprint that was accidentally left behind by Arnold when he was enormous. Carlos then jokes saying, "I'd say it was a sneakersaurus!", causing everyone to laugh.
The Land Before Tim[]
In this episode, the Bus travels back in time to when Pangæa was still around. One of these periods was the Cretaceous, where Tim, Jyoti, and Dorothy Ann transformed into dinosaurs.
The Magic School Bus Explores in the Age of Dinosaurs[]
The Cretaceous Period could be one of the three dinosaur eras that game players could choose to time travel too. In the Cretaceous Period, the bus turns into a Pteranodon and they could visit two areas in that era, Cretaceous Alberta and Cretaceous Mongolia. Players could also play fun games in both areas in that era too, Dino Quartet, Name Game and Nest Watch. Occasionally, the bus will malfunction and will take the player to one of two different cut scenes in the Cretaceous Period. In both cut scenes, the bus is in it's Pteranodon form. In one cut scene, a Tyrannosaurus Rex appears and he tries to chew the bus, making an "X" sign fall out so the player can skip the cut scene if they want to. The T. rex tries to chew down everything except the "X" sign. In the other cut scene, Ms. Frizzle, Liz and her class are in the bus watching meteors shower down where the dinosaurs face extinction.
