On Black Wings
Xenofiction Short StoryThe second book in the Milestones of Evolution series turned to the evolution of early birds, by far a messier development than the one of the first land vertebrates. The problem for science is that by all appearances, feathers were extremely widespread among dinosaurs, especially the mainly predatory group called theropods including the birds themselves. The story opening the book was written to show the diversity of feathered dinosaurs, making Eastern China 120 million years ago the perfect setting.
This is the one point in earth's history where all kinds of feathered creatures could have feasibly met and are known to have coexisted, even if a few of them are not proven to have existed exactly as that same point in time. There was the earliest of birds, feathered raptors, ostrich-like ornithomimosaurs, early ceratopsians with their vaguely feather-like bristles, the first tyrannosaurs, and many others.
Yet, the protagonist is not one of them. To have some kind of story, I chose to use a minor creature of the time, the gliding lizard Xianglong, a confirmed prey animal to one of the most important feathered dinosaurs, Microraptor. The tiny lizard making its way through a forest filled with dinosaurs made the perfect point of view to show as many of its larger and more relevant neighbors as possible.
That said, this is probably the most straightforward of the three prehistoric tales.
August 2014
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How to Sing Butterflies
