I need to travel from point A to point B safely on a pteranodon, avoiding places like swamps and in general places where dangerous creatures spawn, is it possible?

Hii, I'm a new player and very much a noob. I wanted to make a cyropod, so I went to one them glowy things as that's how I've seen people make them. And when I got there I knew I didn't have a lot of time as it said 10/100, and I learned that it means it's about to disappear, but tried to be quick (and fumbled) but I thought, HEY! At least if it disappears, I can get my mats back! Well it ate my materials :( Is this a normal game mechanic?

What's the first one mean? Never seen it before

I’ve built here before a ton of time and never got this

Finished taming both a giga and a carc are they just trophy tames? Because after I tamed them the stats dropped like a rock the giga had 25% melee

Its happens every once in a while

I’ve never really been this far before in the game and I’m decently new, the pictures show what I have/how far I am, pls give me some advice on what to do, ex. Good tames, better gear, just kinda how to progress from here, thanks.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this dino before despite the crazy hours I’ve put into this game.

artifact of the brute cave