Age of Reptiles is a series of comics written by Ricardo Delgado published by Dark Horse Comics.
The series originally consisted of two comics, which are set in the Mesozoic era: Tribal Warfare, from 1993, and The Hunt, from 1997. Both are very violent stories about the daily lives of carnivorous dinosaurs. A third series, The Journey, began in November 2009, with a fourth, "Ancient Egyptians", debuting in June 2015. Tribal Warfare, The Hunt, and The Journey have been collected in Age of Reptiles Omnibus, Volume 1.
The Hunt received an Eisner award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition in 1997.
Tribal Warfare
A pack of Deinonychus get revenge on Blue Back, a Tyrannosaurus who stole their well-earned meal, by stealing all of his family's eggs but one.
A group of four Deinonychus successfully stalk and kill a small sauropod out on the savannah. However, they are soon chased off their kill by the Tyrannosaur Blue Back, who kills one of the Deinonychus in the process. The pack retreats back to their lair and family group, as does Blue Back. One of Blue Back's young tries to hunt an early mammal but is unable to catch it.
That night the nest is raided by a pair of Deinonychus, who successfully carry off (and presumably eat) or break the eggs. Blue Back pursues them, but they manage to escape by leaping across a gorge. The chapter ends with Blue Back roaring his grief to the sky.
The second chapter begins with another Tyrannosaur hunting down and killing a hadrosaur. It then cuts to the trio of Deinonychus going out on another hunting patrol. At the side of a river one of the Deinonychus spots a primitive fish (similar to a mudskipper) wriggling its way along the bank to try and get back into the water. The hungry predator prepares to make a meal out of the fish, only to be ambushed and devoured itself by a massive crocodile that had been lurking nearby. The remaining two Deinonychus continue on, avoiding a hunting Tyrannosaur in the process. The Tyrannosaur prepares to attack a herd of Triceratops, but loses the element of surprise and in face of a prepared enemy withdraws.
The two Deinonychus return to their lair only to find that Blue Back has tracked them back to it and slaughtered four of their number; he escapes the same way they had, by leaping across a gorge, and leaves the Deinonychus in the same position he had been.
Chapter Three sees a group of Deinonychus attack an Ankylosaur; however, the herbivore drives them off by bashing one of their number with its tail club. The Tyrannosaurs, seeing that there is only one intact egg left, become determined not to fall victim to egg thieves again. The three Deinonychus, meanwhile, stumble upon a nest full of turtle eggs high in the cliffs above a sea and feast upon them. As they try to leave, they are ambushed by the Tyrannosaurs; one of the Deinonychus is knocked over the cliff into the sea, where it is devoured by a large ichthyosaur. The other two are likewise knocked over the cliff as well, but onto dry land; one of them is killed in the fall, but the other one survives.
The Tyrannosaurs begin to teach the juvenile how to hunt, stalking a kentrosaurus, but Deinonychus lures the juvenile away from the safety of its parent and into an ambush, where it is attacked by a large pack of Deinonychus. The adult tyrannosaur, realizing the danger too late, tries to track the juvenile down, only to find it dead, the leg of a dead Deinonychus still clamped firmly in its jaws.
Chapter Four sees a pack of Deinonychus stalking an old and dying sauropod; when it collapses, and dies, they move into to try and begin feasting, only to be confronted by a large group of other predators, including a Carnotaurus and an Oviraptor. The Deinonychus pack is split, as one of the raptors wants to fight the other group while the other insists on retreat. This leads to a battle for leadership. The surviving raptors return to their lair in the middle of a rainstorm, only to find the Tyrannosaurs waiting; the larger predators attack, and a massive battle ensues. The fighting causes the cliffside the raptor's lair is perched on to collapse, sending all of the animals plunging into the gorge. A single Tyrannosaur manages to survive the fall and returns to its own lair, only to find that the early mammal the juvenile Tyrannosaur had tried to hunt earlier had eaten the last remaining egg....with the story ending there.
The story can best be described as a sort of "gang war" between the two species, and while many of the animals depicted in Delgado's story did not exist at the same time period or place, their inclusion was added for familiarity and dramatic effect.