You are in the forests of South Africa, 248 million years ago.

The air in the Triassic Karoo Basin was warm and humid, with the scent of pine-like ferns thick around you. You were scanning the forest floor when a sudden motion caught your eye—a small creature, roughly two feet long, darting from the shade of a large horsetail.

It was a Euparkeria, and it looked like a cross between a swift lizard and a tiny bipedal dinosaur. Its skin was mottled greenish-brown, helping it blend into the fallen, dry foliage. It froze, eyeing you with intelligent, bead-like eyes, its head boxy and alert.