Novel set in time-space, Nuremberg and USA
Introducing Evolutions Superstars with Professor Ben Garrod
1st October 2021
Hallucigenia. Dunkleosteus. Trilobite. Lisowicia. Tyrannosaurus Rex. Megalodon. Thylacine. Meet evolution’s superstars – the most incredible animals ever to swim, stalk, slither or walk our planet! Across eight thrilling books, TV scientist and professor Ben Garrod and palaeoartist Gabriel Ugueto present the biggest extinction events ever. Here in this quick fire interview, Ben Garrod tells Tiny TripFiction all about this favourite facts, seasons and countries.
HALLUCIGENIA (EXTINCT #1)
Hallucigenia was a super-weird, spiky, armoured worm that lived 450 million years ago. Scientists were, at first, unsure of which way round it went, and which way up. But here you will discover all Hallucigenia‘s secrets: where it lived, what it ate, why it was so weird and why it is so important in the story of life.
DUNKLEOSTEUS (EXTINCT #2)
Dunkleosteus was super-snappy. With a bite 10 times stronger than a great white shark, it could snap its jaws 5 times faster than you can blink! Discover its habitat, what it ate and what it was like to live in the shadow of this one-tonne predator until it went extinct at the end of the Age of Fishes.
TRILOBITE (EXTINCT #3)
Trilobite was a super-invader with its stomach in its head. 20,000 species of them survived over millions of years and even through two mass extinctions. Discover the secrets of these successful super-invaders and the Great Dying event which finally eliminated them 250 million years ago.
LISOWICIA (EXTINCT #4)
Lisowicia was super-sized. Weighing in at 9 tonnes, it was one of the largest animals roaming the planet during the Late Triassic. It was a kind of cross between a reptile and a mammal, but not quite either! What did Lisowicia eat, how and where did it live and what caused the complete disappearance of this animal which lay undiscovered for over 200 million years?
TYRANNOSAURUS REX (EXTINCT #5)
Tyrannosaurus Rex, the most famous and the most misunderstood superstar in the story life! This mightiest of dinosaurs – massive, green and scaly – or, as we now know, massive and partially feathered, with a keen sense of hearing, smell and great vision dominated the Cretaceous landscape.
MEGALODON (EXTINCT #6)
Megalodon, the super-predator, had the most powerful bite force ever measured! Terrorizing the oceans, it hunted with stealth and skill, but even Megalodon died out, along with 50 percent of marine mammals, 2.5 million years ago.
THYLACINE (EXTINCT #7)
Thylacine was super-hunted. Wiped out by humans. The last wild thylacine was shot in 1930, and the last captive one died in 1936. We humans are the only species with the power to eliminate other species from the story of life. But who are the winners and losers?
Tiny TripFiction chats with Professor Ben Garrod
What are your top five favourite animals?
This is such a HARD one to answer. Can I have extinct animals? What about my dog Jack or my favourite chicken Rosy? If I can’t have my animal friends and won’t include extinct animals, then it’s:
1) Chimpanzee
2) Humpback whale
3) Octopus
4) Magnificent frigatebird
5) Lumpsucker
Illustrated by Gabriel Ugueto
Where is the last country you visited?
The last country I visited was Scotland. I love it there and spend a few weeks each year up on the western isles. I went for a swim in the sea last year up there and it was amazing. Too cold for my dog Jack to jump in, but I enjoyed it anyway. The last ‘big’ trip was to Liberia in western Africa, where I was filming a BBC Two series on orphaned chimpanzees. I love travelling to see new places, meet new people, experience new cultures and hopefully see some new animals.
Sunshine or snow?
That’s a tough one. I’ve lived right on the equator and have worked up in the Arctic and I love both types of environment. I think I’m a little weird (and weird is okay remember) because winter is my favourite season. I do like to feel a good cold wind on a wintry walk. It reminds me a lot of where I grew up.
If you could take a walk during any period from prehistoric history, when would it be and why?
I’d like two stops in my time-travel adventure, if that’s okay. First, I’d stop at around 101 million years ago and head to Argentina to see the mighty long-necked, long-tailed herbivore Patagotitan which, at somewhere between 55-75 tonnes, may have been the largest land animal ever. My other stop would have been in East Africa, around three million years ago. I’m fascinated by our early human ancestors and would love to see what we were like back then. We were at a pivotal moment, where climate change had completely altered the habitats, turning endless forest into much drier grasslands. With that came massive changes our anatomy and behaviour and helped lead us to where we are today.
Illustrated by Gabriel Ugueto
Favourite fact?
Can I have two? One is that if you looked on a timeline, and pinpointed when a Stegosaurus, a T. rex and you were all alive, then the T. rex would be closer to you than it would be to when the Stegosaurus was walking the planet. It shows just how long the dinosaur group dominated the planet. My other favourite fact is that you share about 98.6% of your DNA with a chimpanzee.
The world has experienced several mass extinctions in its history. Do you predict another one any time soon (relatively speaking)?
Just look around you right now. At least one million species are endangered right now…
If you could bring one extinct animal to life, which one would you choose?
Haha that would be a very, very long list. There are so many species I’d like to see walking, swimming, flying or just hanging around, again, from the famous Tyrannosaurus rex to our nearest relatives, the Neanderthals. But if I had to choose just one, right now, it would be the thylacine. Also called the Tasmanian tiger, despite being more related to kangaroos than tigers, these beautifully striped predators were all killed out by us in the 1930’s, because we didn’t understand them and we punished them for that. The last one died in a zoo, when it was accidentally left out in the cold one night. I would love to give the thylacine another chance, in the hope that we had maybe learned a lesson from our mistake.
Who would win, Dunkleosteus or Megalodon?
Ah, that’s easy…
If someone wanted to follow in your footsteps, what advice would you give them?
Be weird, be geeky, be different, and definitely don’t follow in my footsteps. Instead, make your own footprints and have fun on your own journey. I’ll give you the advice my mum gave me when I was much younger. Find yourself a career where you wake up each day and look forward to the day ahead of you, because you love what you do so much. I love what I do but I’ve tried lots of things along the way. I’ve tried different jobs, have lived in different parts of the world and have changed more than a few times now. You only have one life, so take all the time you need to make sure you spend that life doing what you love. Also, don’t be too mature all the time. Remember to be silly!
Who is your hero?
I don’t have a single hero. For me, every young person who has a passion and drive to try and make the world a better place, no matter how small that difference might be, is my hero. It takes a hero to be different or be weird, to not always be part of the crowd but brave enough to stand up for what you believe in, or even just be interested in things that most people don’t care about, like science, conservation and understanding the world around them.
What’s next? More books in the EXTINCT series? A new series? Or something completely different?
The next books in my new EXTINCT series publish in October. Each book tells the amazing story of a mass extinction and one of the animals lost each time, from the largest shark ever to the most successful animals that have ever lived. Books 4 and 5 publish on 14th October and focus on everyone’s favourite Tyrannosaurus Rex and the lesser-known but equally fascinating Lisowicia. Apart from the books, I always have some exciting TV and radio projects in development. I’d love to tell you all about them, but they’re secret and you’ll just have to wait and see what they are.
Meet the creators
Ben Garrod is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at the University of East Anglia. He broadcasts regularly on TV and radio and is trustee and ambassador of a number of key conservation organisations. His previous books include So You Think You Know About… Dinosaurs? and The Chimpanzee and Me, published by Zephyr. Find Ben @Ben_garrod on Twitter and Instagram and bengarrod.co.uk.
Gabriel Ugueto is a scientific illustrator, palaeoartist and herpetologist based in Miami, Florida. His work reflects the latest scientific hypotheses about the animals he reconstructs, and his illustrations have appeared in books, museums, journals, magazines, and TV documentaries. Find Gabriel @serpenillus on Twitter and Instagram and gabrielugueto.com.
Join Team TripFiction on Social Media:
Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction)
Please wait...
