Ben Garrod - Trilobite

Hallucigenia

Dunkleosteus

Trilobite

Lisowicia (October 2021)

Tyrannosaurus rex (October 2021)

Megalodon (February 2022)

Thylacine (February 2022)

Hainan gibbon (May 2022)

The Chimpanzee and Me

So You Think You Know About Dinosaurs? series:

Diplodocus

Triceratops

Spinosaurus

Tyrannosaurus rex

Stegosaurus

Velociraptor

Ben Garrod

Illustrated by Gabriel Ugueto

AN IMPRINT OF HEAD OF ZEUS

www.headofzeus.com

This is a Zephyr book, first published in the UK in 2021 by Head of Zeus Ltd

Text copyright Ben Garrod, 2021

Artwork copyright Gabriel Ugueto, 2021

The moral right of Ben Garrod to be identified as the author and of Gabriel Ugueto to be identified as the artist of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN (HB): 9781838935320

ISBN (E): 9781838935344

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Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

The Bhagavad-Gita

For as long as there has been life on Earth, there has been extinction, and given enough time, all species will one day go extinct. It is all too easy to think extinction is terrible and that we should do all we can to stop a species from going extinct. That makes complete sense, doesnt it? Right now, around one million species of plants, animals and other organisms are at real risk of going extinct because of our actions and we should do all we can to save as many of these wonderful species as possible.

But as bad and as sad as some extinctions are, the process of extinction itself is a natural one, and it is something that helps drive evolution and the development of more species.

*

Im an evolutionary biologist and Ive worked with some of the strangest, most beautiful, iconic and heartbreakingly threatened animals on our planet, from majestic tiger sharks and beautiful walruses to our own closest living relatives, the chimpanzee. We talk about extinction a lot but how much do you really know about it?

I wanted to write this series to explain whats at stake if we carry on pushing so many other species into extinction. I want to explore extinction as a biological process and investigate why it can sometimes be a positive thing for evolution, as well as, at times, natures most destructive force. Lets put it under the microscope and find out everything there is to know about it. Extinction is an incredible process and understanding it enables us to understand the world that little bit better and to make a difference.

When a species goes extinct, we place a dagger symbol () next to its name when its listed or mentioned in a scientific manner. So, if you do see the name of a species with a little dagger after it, youll know why. Its extinct. In this series, I have written about eight fantastic species. Starting with Hallucigenia (), then Dunkleosteus () and trilobites (), through to Lisowicia (), Tyrannosaurus rex () and megalodon (), before finishing on thylacine () and lastly, the Hainan gibbon. Of these, only the Hainan gibbon does not have a dagger next to its scientific name, meaning it is the only one we still have a chance of saving from extinction.

Professor Ben Garrod

THERE ARE LOTS of forces and processes in nature. Some make us think of positive things, such as birth and growth; some are neutral, such as photosynthesis and seasons; and others make us think negative things. Death and extinction are definitely on that last list. But species evolve they change and adapt to their environments and eventually, they go extinct. Its all a part of the natural life cycle of every species. The problem with extinction is that some are natural and are to be expected, while others are because of us and can (and should) be stopped.

*

Before investigating when we should try to tackle extinction, we first need to understand it as a natural process. What drives extinction, and what makes some species go extinct more easily than others? When we hear the words extinct or extinction, we usually think two things. First, we always seem to imagine the same few species. I bet you thought of a dodo, a mammoth and probably a dinosaur, maybe Tyrannosaurus rex ? Second, you might be forgiven for thinking that an extinct animal almost deserved it somehow. Maybe they werent quite as well adapted as they could be or they simply didnt try hard enough.

*

Well, both ideas are wrong. First, dinosaurs and dodos arent the only animals to have gone extinct. And second, as Ive already mentioned, going extinct is natural and happens to pretty much every type of animal, plant, fungi, bacteria and other life form that has ever existed or is ever likely to, and has nothing to do with how good or bad a species is.

Even a quick look at extinction shows us how widespread, devastating and yet important it is. But before we understand all that, what exactly do we mean by the word extinct? We may have a general idea that its something to do with a species not being alive anymore. Something is extinct when the last individual of that species or group dies and there are absolutely no more to replace it. Because extinction has been present since the first life on Earth popped into existence, this must mean that loads and loads of species have gone extinct.

Its hard to get your head around how many species this has happened to already. Scientists predict that as many as 99 per cent of the species that have ever lived have gone extinct and if youre wondering how many species that might actually be, then, if their calculations are correct, it means we have already lost an almost unbelievable five billion species from our planet.

Its nearly impossible to be certain because many of these extinctions stretch back millions (or even hundreds of millions) of years and, because there wasnt a scientist standing there with a camera or a notebook, we shall never know about many of these species. Even today, scientists believe that there may be 1014 million different species (although some scientists think this figure might even be as high as one trillion) but of those, only 1.2 million have been documented and recorded in a proper scientific way.This means that we dont know about 90 per cent of life on planet Earth right now.