When Dinosaurs
Ruled the Earth
by Nick Allen
Scene
– An ancient landscape circa 65 million
years BC
Rex: So how many O’ Levels did your little
Ty get?
Bronte: What
the heck are you on about? What’s an O’
Level?
Rex: Precisely!!
There isn’t any such thing is there?
We’ve been around for 165 million years and
what have we got to show for it – bugger all!
No art, no technology, no great buildings to be
proud of.
Bronte: I
don’t know what you’re worrying about
– we rule the earth!
Rex: Mmm,
I’m not really sure we so much
‘rule’ it as, well, inhabit it. I mean,
are you really master of all you survey? I know
you eat lots of grass, but I’m not convinced
that counts.
Bronte: But
look at how big we are!
Rex: Yes, but
what about our brains? They're as small as...
here we go, we haven’t invented any kind of
measurements so I can’t say.
Bronte: As
small as a small rock?
Rex: Not the
finest simile I’ve ever heard, Bronte.
Doesn’t that tell you something?
Bronte: That
I’m thick?
Rex: Not just
you, but all of us! I’m no expert, but
I’d say that any half-decent phylum would
manage to produce a radio signal within 5 million
years of evolving.
Bronte:
What’s a ‘radio signal’?
Rex: No idea
– we’ve never invented one have we?
Bronte: And a
‘phylum’?
Rex: Something
not dissimilar to the periodic table. In-as-much
as it’s something else we never ever thought
of.
Bronte: What
are you suggesting?
Rex: Well why
don’t we, as a species, get our act together
and try evolving a bit.
Bronte: You
mean the opposable thumb thing again? Is that
what this has all been about, you and your bloody
opposable thumb obsession?
Rex: Okay, I
know I go on about it, but I’m sure
it’s a good idea. If we’d ever come up
with the concept of a ‘Patent Office’,
I’d be down there like a shot!
Bronte: Wha...?
Rex: Look, all
I’m asking is we try. We could be great one
day with philosophers and teachers and academics
showing us the way to a better world.
Bronte: You
know, I think you have something Rex. Let’s
become better, let’s build a society to be
proud of, let’s strive to be great! You know
I think we should start by giving names to things.
Rex, you’re smart – what would you call
that huge mass of fire streaking across the sky?
Rex: Ha ha, I
like games like this. How about we call it either
a ‘Meteorite’ or a ‘Fluffy
Ball’. You choose.
Bronte: Good
options Rex, let me think...
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