Mating Calls is the eleventh chapter in the Fourth Configuration. Levine further studies dinosaur behavior as he recalls his disagreements with Malcolm.
Plot[]
Richard Levine is standing along in the High Hide while the others have returned to the trailer. He is thankful Ian Malcolm has left as they tend to disagree over dinosaurs. Levine continues to have a strong fascination regarding these prehistoric animals which Malcolm does not. Malcolm tends to have other considerations on his mind and analyses data, not interested in gathering data like Levine. Physics has two groups, experimentalists and the theorists who live in two different worlds. The opening paragraphs detail the history of Levine's and Malcolm's differences, dating back to their time in Santa Fe.
Both academics have continued to express strong interests in evolution and Malcolm approached it from a mathematical perspective. Levine has been fascinated how Malcolm expressed it via "inexorable formulas." This drew them together over noon time meals where Levine taught Malcom palaeontology and in exchange learnt non-linear mathematics. From their exchanges, they drew drawing tentative conclusions then beginning to disagree. This resulted in the pair being expelled from various restaurants and their disagreements continued in the public, boiling even down to their personalities. Malcolm viewed Levine as one who never saw the big picture and never viewed the consequences of his, Levine's own actions. In return, Levine recalled calling Malcolm "imperious and detached, (and) indifferent to details." Levine believes in God while Malcolm was fix on processes.
Back to the present, Levine recalls that line, believing it as what a mathematician would say. He was fixed on details and saw his colleagues unable to pay attention to all details. Levine then recalls the attack on his guide Diego, very troubled by the whole event. He remembers the extreme speed of the attack, recalls the animal as a "basic theropod form-hind legs, stiff tail, large skull." Finally, he identifies the creature as a Carnotaurus sastrei, originally from the Gorro Frigo formation in Argentina. Despite the identification, Levine is still troubled. He now focuses his attention on the Parasaurolophus herd near the Apatosaurus. Listening, he hears their distinctive, low trumpeting sounds and they also emit a "sound of /short duration, a kind of rumbling honk." They honk at once or in an overlapping fashion, an indication to all where the herd is. Next, Levine hears a longer lasting infrequent "more dramatic trumpeting call." It arises from the two largest dinosaurs and he wonders what it means. He cups his mouth and honks, emitting a sound almost similar to the Parasauolophus' honking. After a second try, they notice his honk and answer in return. After he notes the response, he sees the Parasaurolophus moving away from the Apatosaurus, in a single line, heading towards his location. Now very curious, he wonders if he emitted a mating call, not what his envisioned. Wondering if he should call Malcolm, he realizes his imitation had disturbed the Parasaurolophus' environment and remembers that was what he told Thorne not to do. It ends with the Parasaurolophus emitting a trumpeting noise and he searching for his radio to inform Malcolm.
Goof[]
There is no such place in Argentina known as the 'Gorro Frigo formation.' Carnotaurus sastrei were found in the Chubut province of Argentina.
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