New Book on Paleontology's Frontier: Microfossils and chemicals

 Dake W. Greenwalt

Remnants of Ancient Life: The New Science of Old Fossils

Princeton, 2022. 278pp.

Like DNA, this book folds a great deal of information into a compact space (228 pages of text plus a good reference section). Greenwalt is a scientist at the Smithsonian, specializing in fossil insects, and here he covers the highlights of the new frontier of paleontology: retrieving chemical signatures, proteins, and biomolecules from fossils. There are chapters on pigments, biometals, and the indicators of fibers and feathers on our friends the dinosaurs.

Greenwalt became famous for a paper reporting the presence of hemoglobin in a mosquito 46 million years old. What animal it fed on can’t be determined, though Greenwalt suspects it was a bird. Greenwalt takes us back to the beginnings of life: a claim of isotopic evidence 4.2 billion years (BY) old, stromatolites 3.7 BY, and then the great leap to the first known multicellular animals at 1.6BY. A singular moment in detecting biomolecules came later: Dr, Kliti Grice isolated molecules including a “cholesterol-like” one in a crustacean 380 million years old. Chlorophyll? Found in still-green fossil leaves in the stomach of a German mammal fossil 46MY old.

Greenwalt explains the function of individual molecules and why we find them in the creatures we do. Melanin is not just a skin pigment: it evolved as an antioxidant and is used in many places in nature, including serving as a clotting factor for an injured insect. It   turns up in a dizzying array of creatures up to 300 MY old. Phosphorus molecules are markers showing the presence of bones that rotted away before fossilization. Copper can help us determine the color of an ancient creature.

Greenwalt examines the use of molecular clocks, a useful if imperfect way of using changes in the genes of a protein tracing relationships and estimates the time a group emerged. He offers an example everyone has heard of, the enormous ape Gigantopithecus. He describes the work of Chinese anthropologist Wei Wang in excavating wonderfully preserved Giganto molars 1.9 MY old, whose enamel yielded partial sequences from six proteins. This was matched with other evidence to prove the theory Giganto was a hominid closely related to the orangutan (sorry, Bigfoot fans.)

He celebrates the countless recent discoveries, including thought-impossible finds like collagen sequences from a T. rex, which some scientists argue are impossible: other labs reported they could not replicate it and there must have been contamination. We revisit the iceman, Otzi, and learn what we know so far of prehistoric humans and our close relations. Greenwalt explores the mechanics and limits of preservation in amber and goes into the oft-overlooked topic of molecular clues in plants.

It’s all clearly explained: I’ve no chemistry background, but I understood everything.

Greenwalt tackles two side topics. He sees no chance for bringing back dinosaurs, On the mammals, he asks whether the effort to create something resembling a mammoth, if possible, would be the best use of the enormous resources involved. He also takes a look at the quest for biosignatures on Mars. Based on the finds at the time of publication, he doesn’t think we have the evidence but offers hope we may yet find it. He mixes in stories of discoveries and fieldwork that make the topic about scientists as well as science. Onne section walks us through the exhaustive efforts needed in a laboratory to isolate the desired clues while avoiding contamination. The illustrations (photographs and drawings, like phylogenetic trees) are good, but I wanted more diagrams of the structures and molecules he was writing about.

An interesting idea I’d never read elsewhere is using extant creatures including “living fossils” to gain some insight into elements of a long-vanished common ancestor’s genome. As an aficionado of Dunkleosteus terrelli, I wondered if we could “triangulate” genetic information bony fishes (the placoderms’ descendants), and coelacanths: that’s likely a step too far, but it shows the kind of imagination this book sparks in readers taking a new look at a lost world.

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction.

Impressive Orca Exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

On the 18th, with my daughter Corey and her girlfriend Samantha as company and support staff, I visited the Orca exhibit currently showing at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  I love orcas, and it was sort of Orca Week, with my friend Dr. Mithriel MacKay appearing with humpbacks and orcas on the new Nat Geo series OceanXplorer.  (Another post on that will follow).'

Orcas: Our Shared Future was created by the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, Canada and MuseumsPartner in Austria. It fills a huge exhibit space, nicely set off with curtain screens to create an immersive space divided into several large rooms. The initial attention-grabbers are three Southern Resident Killer Whales (J pod, to be exact), sculpted life size.  There's an outstanding section on the science of orcas: evolution, ecotypes, the growth of our knowledge, instruments created to study them, and so much more. The ecotypes and populations are presented on screens in illustrations and text: the recent paper naming a second species is not mentioned, but otherwise it's very up-to-date. There's an interactive light-table exhibit (I'm not sure if that's the right term) where visitors can move through views of the orca's body systems and anatomy. There's even a display of models of inner-ear bones of whales and their ancestors, although it needed more labeling about how important these are to scientists.  Static screens and video also depict the complex, long-lasting family bonds of orcas. 

While the range of the species (if it is one species) is vast, orcas are especially deeply entwined with the Indigenous cultures of Northwestern North America. That link is explored in carvings, objects like a canoe-sized cedar gift-serving dish for a potlatch ceremony, dance, paintings, and oral history. There are dozens of such objects all tolled in this room and throughout the exhibit.

The exhibit lays out how humans have viewed and learned about orcas through the ages.

The recent history of orcas and humans, again focused on North America, fills two rooms, one on captivity and one mainly on conservation. We "met" the celebrity orcas like Namu, Shamu (a name applied to many captive orcas), and Keiko. I explained how I'd seen Lolita (Tokitae) in the Miami Seaquarium when I was a kid in the 1970s, when I didn't realize how small and miserable her tank must be to her and tankmate Hugo.  I'd been startled to learn some 30 years later she was still there.  I wonder if she was sane when she died in 2023: Hugo had basically killed himself in 1980. 

Corey Bille and Samantha Weiss explore marine hotspots.

Tilikum and Blackfish are covered, as is the case of Morgan, rescued for rehab and supposed release but kept as a new bloodline for the captive market. Scientist Lori Marino, who I know slightly, is featured in a video arguing for Morgan's personhood, a complex matter on which not much has been decided. Objects like marine debris, maps, and a game table explore the threats to orcas and marine life in general. There's another interactive spot where visitors can see how thew sounds of different ships affect the whales' world. That's an item of special interest to me: I made a presentation on satellite tracking to the  Conference on Small Satellites in 2018 where we used new software to display sound clouds around vessels.  There's a poll where visitors can express ideas on matters like the most important steps to take to safeguard the species.

It's a memorable exhibit. The level of the text and other information is nicely chosen for a broad audience without talking down to anyone. The detail is thorough but won't overwhelm any but the youngest schoolchildren. Everyone will leave with newly-acquired knowledge, and very few will leave unchanged.

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction.

New Ocean Exploration Series Looks Awesome

 I’ve always been fascinated by marine life, and we have so much still to learn about the ocean realm. National Geographic is presenting a new series, OceanExplorers. My friend Dr. Mithriel MacKay of the Florida-based Marine and Coastal Ecology Research Center has an important role concerning one of my favorite topics, cetaceans, in the premiere episode on August 18. 

The show’s Instagram page says, “OCEANXPLORERS premieres Aug. 18 on @natgeotv and streams Aug. 19 on @disneyplus and @hulu. This thrilling six-part adventure takes viewers on board the OceanXplorer, OceanX’s cutting-edge scientific research and exploration vessel, to explore the farthest reaches of the world’s oceans.” James Cameron is one of the executive producers, and the BBC joins OceanX for this endeavor. The trailer features sharks, cephalopods, polar bears, and other creatures along with the whales and dolphins. For us tech fans, the ship comes with its own helicopter, submersible, and holographic visualization lab. For more on the show, see the home page. 

Dr. MacKay (PhD, Marine Biology) founded and runs the MCERC, a nonprofit focused on research, education, and outreach on marine and coastal biodiversity. It includes degreed scientists, educators, interns, citizen scientists, and students. 

MCERC's Humpback Whale study team (copyright MCERC)

On the first episode of the Nat Geo show, MacKay, as the marine mammal behaviorist, and acoustic specialist Dr Kerri Seger study humpback whales and their unwanted (by the humpbacks) companions, the killer whales.

Each expedition followed on the show includes two guest scientists in addition to a crew made up of three teams – operations, science, and media. MacKay says of the crew, “They are great guys. The people made the expedition.”

What did they learn? Tune in to find out!

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction.

New Squid Species

 We have no idea how many species of squid there are. The giant and colossal squids top 13 meters (allegedly a lot more - unproven, but fun to imagine), and more are discovered all the time. This one drew attention because, according to cephalopod author extraordinaire Danna Staaf, the eggs are twice the size of those in known species.   

THE classic giant squid drawing by Prof. A. E. Verrill.  

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction.

Shark Movies Good and Bad

 It's Shark Week!

Most of the stuff on TV this week isn't much more realistic than shark movies tend to be. Especially when you get to Megalodon, which of course they immediately do.  SPOILER: It's extinct.

A couple of movies I saw lately:

One of the better entries (or entrees?) is The Shallows. I don't know how realistic the shark's persistence is (it has a decaying whale carcass to munch on, why stalk Blake Lively?) and the final battle is REALLY silly. 

That out of the way, it's a terrific movie, with unrelenting tension and a superb performance by Lively. The director did something unusual in Hollywood but very smart here by keeping it to 80 minutes: he knew he couldn't stretch the confrontation out forever. 

One critic called it a Sports Illustrated photo shoot with a shark, but she did Lively a disservice. Sure the camera spends a lot of time focused on a lovely woman in a swimsuit, but she gets less sexy as the film goes on: unlike some stars who don't look convincing when they are "dirtied up" for a role, Lively (with help from the makeup artist) sells it: she's miserable and beat up and bloodied and sunburned and at one point near despair. 

Also, once she decides to fight, her McGuyvering with the few objects she can reach is fun to watch. It's not Jaws, but it ain't bad.

Then we have Under Paris. Another shark B movie, but you can't hate it, because it commits 100% to its idiotic premise, tossing off science-y explanations for everything in a relentless drive toward a furious feeding frenzy of an over the top finale. Everyone plays it straight and earnest and you root for both sides. This probably is not original with me, but why not call it "Chomps-Elysees?"

Just keep swimming...

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction.

Review: "A Hunt for Justice" against wildlife poaching

 A Hunt for Justice: The True Story of an Undercover Wildlife Agent

Lucinda Delaney Schroeder

Lyons Press, 2006, 270pp

 A compelling account from a law enforcement branch most of us know little about. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has its own agents who often go undercover as hunters to bust poachers. This book centers on the author’s time in Alaska, with no way to call for help and an unreliable civilian informant partner, as she gathers evidence on a major poaching operation. The poachers are hunting guides who assure their clients a kill, even from a protected area or species, by any means necessary. That includes illegally exhausting and herding prey with airplanes and even doing the shooting and giving the client the credit.

We know, since she wrote the book, that Lucinda survives, but it’s VERY chancy, and the author’s unadorned but very effective writing keeps the tension up at all times. Lucinda's toughness, hunting skills, and ability to translate for disgruntled Spanish clients get her in the good graces of the ringleader, who she knows will kill her if she's discovered. The danger rises with the arrival of a new client - a man she once fined for poaching and who will recognize her if they meet.  She finally gets enough evidence and gets out of the hunting camp alive, elated: only to learn she has to get statements from Spanish and German clients of the illegal operation. They are back in Europe, with no reason to cooperate except she’s holding their trophies in the US. We get many more tense moments as Lucinda, who seems to exaggerate her authority a good bit to get the job done, wheedles and presses until she obtains the needed statements in Spain (Germany will not cooperate.)

She closes with a list of the jail time, fines, forfeited equipment, and forfeited trophies meted out as she – and the animals – finally get justice. It’s a very good book, still relevant today, by an incredibly courageous woman who gives us a window into the scale of poaching and the underfunded, outnumbered agents who try to police it.

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction.

Watch for Matt's cryptozoological horror novel Death by Legend, coming soon from Hangar 1!

Book Review: Meet the first American spacewomen in THE SIX

Loren Grush

The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts

Scribner, 2023, 422pp.

 There’s a lot of history and intrigue surrounding the first American women to break the space barrier, and Grush’s book provides an outstanding exploration of it all. Grush deftly balances the astronauts' personal lives and professional achievements, never losing sight of either. I learned more about Sally Ride’s life in particular, both before and after her historic space flight and her nine years at NASA. While there are small errors like calling the T-38 trainer a “fighter,” or women in WWII flying "jets," they are few. Grush covers the astronauts’ selection, their often-surprised reaction to being picked, the sexism they encountered (not as bad as might have been expected from a fraternity made up mostly of fighter pilots, but it still existed and had to be faced down), and encounters with a press corps that sometime asked idiotic questions. Grush follows each woman through her first spaceflight, with little-remembered highlights like surgeon Rhea Seddon “operating” with a bone saw to make a “flyswatter” to trip a switch on a recalcitrant satellite. The women prepared for space in Apollo-era suits that didn’t fit, in a buoyancy lab building with no private changing area, and with a gaggle of press and NASA handlers that swarmed around them like Texas mosquitos. One item I'd not read was the engineer who became so enamored of Judy Resnick that he ran out to chock the wheels of her T-38 after a trip. (That sounds humorous, but it got to the stalking level and official action was needed.) The women were acutely aware that they were the pioneers, and the options for women coming after them depended on their performance. They drove themselves hard for perfection and volunteered for duties they thought would advance their progress toward flights.

Then came the Challenger accident, which killed one of the Six, Judy Resnick, and changed all their lives. Especially altered was Sally Ride’s, as she served on the Rogers Commission, helped bring the O-ring problem to light, and was, incredibly, “as a woman,” asked to pick the color for the cover of the final report. She went on to helm the Ride Report about NASA’s future and turn down requests to be NASA Administrator before leaving the agency for good.

As a space historian myself, I also appreciated Grush’s discussion at the end about the primary and secondary sources used in the book.

This is a first-rate book about a critical chapter in the history of space exploration.

Matt Bille is a historian and writer in Colorado Springs. His 2004 book The First Space Race chronicled the Sputnik-Explorer-Vanguard competition of the 1950s.

www.mattbilleauthor.com

Space Exploration: An Epic Week

Even by the standards of an Apollo kid, this was a memorable week. 

We had two groundbreaking missions, the loss of an Apollo hero and an announcement of an upcoming film project. And that’s just the stuff connected to human flight. 

It kicked off with the delayed flight of Boeing’s Starliner on June 5. There was a lot of prelaunch discussion about taking off with a leak of helium (used to pressurize thrusters) but the redundant systems made everyone feel the safety margins were satisfied. Still, it got a bit sticky when more leak and thruster problems developed.  Starliner had to hold outside the ISS’s 200m keep out zone until the system was deemed go for docking. Once in, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams got to work on further troubleshooting the Starliner and running experiments.

Then Thursday brought the second launch of the week was another milestone.  On the fourth launch of SpaceX’s experimental Starship, intended to revolutionize space travel in the next great Earth-to-orbit leap since the Falcon 9 made reusable launchers routine, achieved more of its test objectives than any previous mission, by far: indeed, it orbited, reentered, demonstrated essentially everything except landing on a platform, dropping the booster and spacecraft into the sea at the end of controlled landing sequences that involved flip maneuvers, engine relights, and essentially all the technical steps short of touchdown.  

With a week of triumph came a very hard moment. William “Bill” Anders of Apollo 8 was piloting his T-34A (a vintage trainer) when he crashed into the sea for reasons unknown. 

Anders will forever be remembered for his quick reaction when he saw the stunning 

(Images NASA)

Earthrise over the lunar horizon and grabbed a 35mm camera for one of the iconic photographs of the Space Age, one used ever since to remind humans we are all passengers on Spaceship Earth. He said of the photograph, “We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.”

Anders graduated from the Naval Academy in 1955 and served as a fighter pilot in the Air Force. In 1996 he founded the Heritage Flight Museum. Anders became a major general is n the USAF Reserve, held numerous government aerospace leadership posts, and eventually became chair of General Dynamics, retiring in 1994. 

Anders was 90. (The Beechcraft plane entered service as a USAF trainer in 1950: it was also used by the Navy and internationally.)  There will undoubtedly be criticism about whether he should have been flying the acrobatics recorded on video in the 225hp aircraft, at that age, even on a lovely day off Jones Island in San Juan Washington state, but I think Charles Lindbergh has the last word here:

“Any coward can sit at home and criticize a pilot for flying into a mountain in a fog. But I would rather by far die on a mountainside than in bed. What kind of man would live where there is no daring? And is life so dear that we should blame men for dying in adventure? Is there a better way to die?”

A last note of the week was the announcement of an upcoming streaming-service film on Sally Ride. Spielberg’s Amblin Partners will co-produce the Amazon film, and Kristin Stewart will star. The film is based on Meredith E. Bagby’s book The New Guys. It’s a good book, with potential for a great film (and an pic casting challenge, with so many well-known historical figures at NASA and on the Rogers midsession). I do wonder if they will make a serious film or a soap opera. Bagby is involved, not just as seller of the rights but in coproduction, so that's good, but...Fingers crossed. 

Matt Bille is a historian and writer in Colorado Springs. His 2004 book The First Space Race chronicled the Sputnik-Explorer-Vanguard competition of the 1950s.

www.mattbilleauthor.com

Review: Space War epic Alpha Wave

Alpha Wave (The Sleepers War Book 1) 

Blackstone Publishing; 2023. 764pp.

Jonathan Maberry and the late Weston Ochse take the space war epic in new directions - out into the universe and into the heart - in this gripping tale of resistance.   

Some the elements here, like forgotten or cast-aside supersoldiers and a battle that will remind you of the end of Star Wars: A New Hope, are familiar, if very well done. But there are surprise twists every time things start to look familiar, and cutting through it all is the human element that makes this novel something special. When historian Lexie Chow (a historian hero - I'm on board already) and her handful of Resistance fighters steal an old ship and leave occupied Earth on a desperate, longshot effort to find and wake the Sleepers, they know the entire Flock fleet is looking for them. It's not a spoiler to say the cloak of secrecy shrouding their mission is not as seamless as they think, although I guessed wrong about the source of the threat.

The buildup is very solid. In an analogy made explicit later in the book, it's clear from the outset the humans have fallen into a version of the trap Western militaries have faced against Asian enemies. The ability of cultures like the Chinese and Vietnamese to think in multi-generational terms and devalue the individual life has befuddled generals and empires. The Flock is the galactic master of this strategy, and their ability to play the humble and contrite peace-seekers at the right time is one reason countless planets live under the harsh rule of their taloned feet. There's a great deal of history-based wisdom in here about how resistance movements and dominant societies unfold, flavored by Ochese's expertise as a military intelligence expert, but it never slows the storytelling. (I don't know how the author partnership was done, and it's not obvious to me, but it works pretty seamlessly.)  They offer an original, plausibly written version of how FTL travel is done. 

Things really gets going when our heroes find the Sleepers lied to and abandoned long ago. The authors don't just assume the old solders will jump into the new war. They have to deal with the strangeness of their resurrection, the unexpected abilities, the knowledge of their betrayal, and the loss of loved ones, not to mention the mind-blowing (literally) discovery that somehow they've been in unconscious psychic contact with others, inspiring many of the acts of the Resistance. There's a lot of anguish before they decide there really isn't anything else to do except suit up and go back in.

Meanwhile, the Flock are watching, and the only plan with a chance of working is a crazy one requiring even more courage from the human crew of the former historic artifact Tin Man than from the supersoldiers. One of the great ideas here is that the Flock, in studying humans to keep them in line, hasn't come out unchanged. What they have learned from us about emotions has made some Flock leaders MORE dangerous, more capable of strategizing against us, and more willing to take any number of casualties to subjugate, capture, and exploit humans and superhumans. A Flock who takes the charming third name ("battle name") of Hell is especially good at learning from us - and despising us. Lexie and Sleeper leader Jason Horse, long connected in dreams, try to navigate their connection in real life, touchingly so, as Tin Man hurtles toward a destiny that Jason suspects will be very different than a simple space battle. There's another interested party in this war, with the highest, most personal stakes imaginable, and the way Jason interacts with them will rule the fate of all.

The end of this novel sets us up for a future that's more cosmically consequential than even humans vs. the vast Flock Empire.

The characters and technology all work well here, as they do in Maberry's thrillers. The stuff stored for 200 years (except the complex Sleeper capsules, many of which have failed) is a bit too reliable for me sometimes. The Flock is described and developed well even if the translation of their speech feels a little too human. Hearing that humans "can't wipe their own assess" is a bit startling from a homicidal ostrich. A few editing mistakes, like saying "two men" in one scene when one is a woman, slipped through. 

The authors write human interaction, from philosophy to agonizing decisions to unexpected love and sex, in a way that pulls the reader along, not just to see what happens but to see what these people - and near-people - do under unimagined circumstances. 

So sign on to the Tin Man and venture forth on a quest that offers humanity's last hope - and perhaps an undreamed-of future if we live to see it. This is a saga with more greatness ahead.

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction.

Watch for Matt's cryptozoological horror novel Death by Legend, coming soon from Hangar 1!

Unique book on conservation, A Tale of Two Cranes

 A Talk of Two Cranes: Lessons Learned from 50 Years of the Endangered Species Act 

Prometheus, 2023, 266pp.

Gronewold’s discussion of the 50 years of the EPA is built around the kind of coincidence scientists dream about. Two species, extremely similar to each other AND with very similar conservation stories, in different countries with different approaches to protecting an endangered species.

Gronewold starts by discussing his time as an environmental reporter (where he says reporting was hindered in 2016-2020, not by the Trump administration, but by editors’ insistence on cramming a Trump angle into every story). He spent extended time in Japan, where he became aware of the story of the Japanese population of the red-crowned crane Grus japonensis (the species also lives on the Asian mainland, where it is under threat) and how closely it paralleled that of the whooping crane (Grus americanus). Both were on the edge of extinction: indeed, most American authors felt the whooper’s disappearance was inevitable. Both are now national symbols of conservation success. What can we learn from this?

Gronewold sets his personal story and professional evaluations in a rich landscape that includes everything from Japanese science fiction poetry to the impacts of World War II.  He goes into the global picture of biodiversity and endangered species, where the whooper and some the other species protected by the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) are lights in a darkening picture. He was surprised when the IUCN declared dragonflies, seemingly ubiquitous, are in a global decline. A study of 362 large carnivores of all types showed exactly 12 were improving in conservation status. 

The ESA, he writes, has had an international impact. Many nations have used it as a model. Japan’s 1992 Act on Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (ACES) is one example. ACES goes into more detail than ESA about what agency has what responsibilities and how its mandates are executed. Canadian legislation modeled on ESA has also played a vital part io the survival of the two cranes. Different philosophies are in play, though. The ESA solutions focus on habitat preservation above all and will not even consider feeding programs, while the Japanese, in part due to loss of wildlands proportionally greater than the US has suffered, are committed to a long-term program of feeding their cranes in winter. Japanese conservationists are trying to restore bits of marsh in the crane’s habitat in eastern Hokkaido, but major expansions are precluded by the cost of buying and repurposing land. Gronewold discusses the interconnectedness of species and habitat, and how actions taken to benefit one species may damage another’s chances. 

The author muses on de-extinction programs. He says the extinct thylacine might be brought back and supports it, although he admits partly for selfish reasons: he wants to see them. Whether broader de-extinction is desired or possible is left unexplored. 

Gronewold doesn’t attempt definitive answers, but he presents the story of ESA and wildlife conservation, through the lens of these two species, in a way that will make readers think and perhaps even give them hope. 

Extinction, a superb scientific thriller

 BOOK REVIEW 

Douglas Preston 

Extinction. (Forge, 2024)

Wow. This is a terrific thriller, and my favorite of Preston’s solo novels. While I’m a faithful reader of everything by Preston and/or Childs, this might be the most fun I’ve had since it all started with Relic. 

Preston knows readers will look at his valley of de-extincted Ice Age mammals and think, “Jurassic Park,” so he has fun by having his characters trash the films at every opportunity. While his wealthy entrepreneur and brilliant and slightly mad scientist didn’t bring back any apex predators, the vividly written mammoths, glyptodonts, Irish elk, and others draw a stream of healthy visitors to this beautiful site in Colorado.

The murder of two guests kicks off the thread of an investigation that runs through the book. Agent Cash and Sheriff Colcord conduct a superbly written, suspenseful series of investigations as things get weirder and deaths continue. The company is up to something even stranger than bringing back mammoths, but the investigators don’t know what is or how it’s connected to the murders. A mix of grieving parents, secretive executives, cultists in the forest, and a movie company using mammoths in a Western (go with it) add to the fun and suspense. And when you think you’ve solved the mystery, you haven’t.  

The characters are excellent. Cash is especially notable because most writers would make her Hollywood pretty, not plain and a bit stout. She has a secret past which implies we’ll see her in another book, and I hope so. She and Colcord’s initially prickly partnership changes to professional respect and friendship, not a throwaway sex scene. 

I guessed the first of two twists - that they are breeding Neanderthals. The scientist in chief teaches the surprisingly intelligent “cave men” not just English, but use computers and other modern technology. What could go wrong? How about “everything?” Preston’s take on this subspecies is original and surprising, though the pale skin doesn't mesh with current thought and a super-researcher like Preston has to know this. 

The second twist doesn’t strike until the last chapters, and I didn’t see it coming. I won’t spoil it, but it’s stunning and adds a great deal of emotional weight to the novel. Finally, an Afterword explains the scientific thinking, some of it controversial Preston put into the novel. You’ll be disquieted about both the past and the future. 

There’s not much to nitpick here. All the animals are at the high end of their real-life sizes, but that’s logical if you’re choosing the genes for animals to exhibit. Preston’s ground sloth is too big, though. A “honey wagon” on a movie set is a portable bathroom, not a star’s trailer (unless the character mentioning it is being sarcastic). 

It's a satisfying read in every possible way.  I stayed up late reading this, You will, too. 

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction. Your search for the world's new and undiscovered animals begins here!

Estes Park Bigfoot Fest, Day 3

 So, that was Estes Park.

I had some side quests, as always. I spotted a used bookstore behind the theater, called Cliffhanger, and of course had to stop in and buy a book of essays by Barry Lopez. I loved the place and promised to say so, so here it is:

 I’d stopped on the way up at The Crossword in Boulder, a place I’d found on my last visit, picking up books on Alaskan wildlife and Colorado legends.

My writer friend from Colorado Springs, Melissa Marie Rolli, was in town for something else and brought her husband and oldest boy over. She and I talked zoology and writing with Ranae Holland while the men did guy stuff. I reconnected with Lija Fisher, who had a booth for her well-written fiction for younger readers, which I call “Jonny Quest does cryptozoology.” She works with Sasquatch Outpost in Bailey, from whose booth I bought some fuzzy gifts.

Obviously, the highlight for me was talking with Ranae Holland, who accepted gifts of my books and looks forward to future chats. She also did a kindness for someone I love: I’ll leave out the details, but I don’t forget such things. So, I’m definitely a fan. She said a lot of things that surprised me and improved my understanding of the Bigfoot world. We didn’t go into it, but her faith and interest in spiritual phenomena must make her a bit of an outsider among skeptics, too. As a Christian, I think, as she does, that there are some things outside science. I tend to tiptoe around that in my science writing, so she gets an extra point for courage in describing how it’s a key part of her worldview.

To expand on that just a little, me, being Christian means I agree some things are nonphysical in nature.  It doesn't mean any particular things: that is, believing in the Divine does not require me to believe in ghosts or mediums or shapeshifting Sasquatches. It is logical that I accept the possibility, but I need evidence for any particular nonphysical thing, and I've not seen it. Wherever Ranae's answers lie, I hope she finds them: if she tells us what she's found, I'll listen.

And Bigfoot? I didn’t see or hear any new evidence of its existence. I’ve put up my own reward of $5,000 to whoever gets the Bigfoot specimen that results in naming the species in a top journal, and I doubt I will pay out – even though I’d be thrilled to do so. Thankfully, the Estes Park gathering had no hint of the sometimes acrimonious and even dangerous conflicts within the Bigfoot community. It was about trading information, buying stuff, hanging out, and having fun, and by those standards it certainly succeeded.

See you next year.

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction. Your search for the world's new and undiscovered animals begins here!

 

Cryptozoological Fiction Review: Myth Hunter

Myth Hunter: Wendigo Nights

by Shannon Lawrence

Warrior Muse Press, 2024

There's a considerable crossover between straight cryptofiction and urban fantasy. Shannon Lawrence's Myth Hunter: Wendigo Nights adroitly straddles both worlds in a way that offers great characters and plenty of thrills and adventure.

Selina Moonstone is a Myth Hunter, fully human but with some heightened abilities (a little like a Slayer in the Buffyverse, come to think of it). Selina is part-Cherokee, as is the author, who made Selina in her image to avoid trampling on other people’s stories the way many authors do.

Some of Selina's time is spent dealing with “common” cryptids like Bigfoot. Bigfoot here is generally benign, but has to be shooed away from human habitats. She also deals with nasty cryptids like Chupacabras, but they’re hamsters compared to the Wendigo. The Wendigo is a malevolent magical entity that possesses humans. Lawrence’s Wendigo is accurately described as the being of Indigenous legend (here, Cree) not the Bigfoot-y cryptid of pop culture.

Selina’s old mentor and substitute father, Nathan, calls her to Canada for an emergency. He needs her help to deal with a Wendigo – but exactly what help he needs, and why, shakes her to her core. Selina must search desperately for a forgotten ritual no one is even sure exists, dogged by Charles, a cryptozoologist turned cryptid killer. Kudos to Lawrence for dealing with a lot of stuff that gets handwaved by other authors, such as how Selina gets an arsenal of weapons across a national border.

It was a little fuzzy to me how well-known cryptids are - most people don't believe in them, but Selina, needing any help she can get, tells Charles he'll be famous on TV for killing a Wendigo. That’s a quibble, though. The story works, the twists are great, and the big confrontation is a nailbiter. I can visualize the locations easily and immerse myself in the evocative milieu of spirit and myth. Lawrence’s version of an old legend, the Sin Eater, is an original take and adds fun to the story.

I’ve never commented on a sex scene in a book, but this one deserves notice because of its humanity. Short but beautifully written, it's all about touch and emotion, not the frantic gymnastics we're all so sick of.

At the end of the book, Selina’s life has changed in ways I won’t spoil, but we know she has a lot of adventures ahead of her. Readers will be there for it.

Bigfoot Fest in Estes Park: Day 2

Estes Park Bigfoot Days (Part 2 of 3)

Day 2 was the free festival in Bond Park, with presentations in the Park Theater, which we writers are required by law to describe as “historic.” It’s a wonderfully quirky place, a jumble of colorful pieces from different decades, that first opened in 1913.

By the way, I didn’t prep for this event. I didn’t look up previous presentations or interviews with the Bigfooters because I wanted to come in with no preconceptions and report my observations. Concerning Ranae Holland, I should clarify that we never had a sit-down interview. I saw her presentation, and she graciously fit in several short chats over the two days. She readily okayed my using her words in the blog and didn’t ask to review them: I appreciate that kind of trust. Everything here is from my hand-written notes, and any errors are mine alone.

Saturday morning was beautiful, mostly sunny yet decorated with light snow. There was good music on tap: the Celtic band unreeled some infectious foot-stompers. There were kid play areas, an axe-throwing venue (I managed to embed one without hurting myself), and about 30 vendor tents. Maybe half had Bigfoot-related merchandise. The rest offered outdoor-themed goods, food, cannabis products (insert your “Rocky Mountain High” joke here), and gear like knives.

I spent some time with a geologist who explained the post-glacial development of the Rocky Mountain National Park’s current contours. He was selling geology tours and trail maps in partnership with the best-known local Bigfooter, Kenny Collins, who leads Bigfoot tours. I kept looking for Collins, only to learn I’d missed him because he was one of several people walking around in a full Bigfoot suit. Estes Park has plenty of local Bigfoot lore, although police officers I asked couldn’t remember anyone making an official report.

I went to Holland’s presentation, which was an eye-opener if you equate “skeptic” with rejection of all Bigfoot claims. Such claims are unproven, but she reiterated that a skeptic is a questioner, not a “cynic” who won’t look at anything connected to the topic.

Holland is a great presenter, with infectious energy and the timing of a standup comic.

Before she went on Finding Bigfoot, she spent over two decades in limnology and biology, with a special focus on conservation of waterways and their wildlife. She was part of the prestigious Alaska Salmon Program and did research at Lake Iliamna, which is cool since I’m setting a novel there. She was acquainted with Bigfooter Matt Moneymaker, who convinced her to shoot the pilot for Finding Bigfoot. Assuming it would vanish like 90+ percent of pilots do; she was headed back to school for her PhD studying “beavers and rainbow trout” when the show was picked up and found her contract did in fact require her to show up. After that, scientific curiosity, travel, and exploration kept her on board.

Calling herself, “Scully with three Mulders,” Holland recounted her good-natured back and forth with costars who brought her what they thought of as good evidence. Those interactions earned her the nickname of “the Renae-sayer,” but she had a lot of fun despite sometimes-rough conditions. She's not impressed with the evidence for an unknown ape stomping around and doubts we'll ever find one, but she remains fascinated by the phenomenon. “What is Bigfoot?” is the question to her, whether the answer is biological, spiritual, or some mix. Seeing a Bigfoot would not change her worldview: it would just give her a new starting point to investigate that question.

A few other highlights from Holland:

    Modern technology is not a shortcut: drones and remote cameras and eDNA don’t obviate the need for patience in fieldwork or analysis,

    People wondering if a cryptid show or video is real should “follow the money: “ Who is paying for it, and why are they presenting or posting it? Discovery, which funded FB, obviously wanted good TV, and the team accommodated them (“we didn’t really need to ride a hot-air balloon to a location,” she said with a grin), but all video of the actual investigation segments, while edited, is genuine.

    She has a deeply spiritual side, calling herself a “woman of faith,” and thinks there’s a lot to learn about Bigfoot beyond the zoological. She’s very interested in Indigenous perspectives on Bigfoot. Holland has had some odd experiences like seeing “orbs” and thinks some things are “outside science.” The skeptical community today leans so heavily toward atheism that her forthrightness about what she believes and is thinking about takes courage.   [I am reminded of Nobel-winning physiologist Charles Richet's statement on some of his experiments that, "I never said it was possible; I only said it was true."] More of my own thoughts, as a Christian who's also a science writer, will appear in Post #3.

    She is not writing her own book. If she eventually does, it will be with an Indigenous coauthor who can help explore the subject from their worldview. She finds her friend Kathy Strain’s work on this topic very useful. [I’ve met Strain and liked her presentation, although I’ve always felt her book tried too hard to reconcile very different creatures/beliefs with the mainstream image of Bigfoot.]

     While she acknowledges there’s plenty of Hollywood stuff in the show, she got the crew to unite to demand there be no faking on the actual investigations: when one crewmember faked noises, they had him removed from the shoot.

     She is curious about other cryptids, having searched for several of the primate types. She believes the likelihood of finding unclassified large aquatic fauna is much greater than that of terrestrial fauna.

    She cautions against cherry-picking evidence, saying the whole body of evidence needs to be considered. I asked her about this later. I said, “Don’t you have to start by deciding which accounts, footprints, etc. are most likely to be valuable”? She replied that that kind of prejudgment steps off the path of the scientific method. Her preferred approach is quantitative as well as qualitative, taking in all the evidence, developing databases, and looking for patterns.

I skipped the day’s documentary film, about a sacred tree near Bailey, CO, that people claimed they’d actually seen Bigfoot emerging from.   

In Part 3: People, Bookstores, Anecdotes, and Observations

Matt Bille is a writer, historian, and naturalist living in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at mattsciwriter@protonmail.com. Website: www.mattbilleauthor.com.

Read Matt's Latest book, Of Books and Beasts: A Cryptozoologist's Library. This unique reference offers a friendly skeptic's 400 reviews of books on cryptozoology, zoology, related sciences, and cryptozoological fiction. Your search for the world's new and undiscovered animals begins here!