Since we've been talking about time travel this week, and I'm outlining a new book with time travel, I thought this subject was apt. Resurrection ecology is the time travel package for genetic material (if you're plankton).
Scientists have found various species that bury their eggs and leave them to hatch centuries in the future. So even if the entire species goes extinct, the eggs could hatch when the climate has returned to something that favors their species.
While it's unlikely that any dormant species is going to take over the planet (it's unlikely most species could survive current toxin levels), there is a whole world of possibilities along the Plague Range to play with. A dormant species of virus starting a plague, maybe?
Maybe the stone balls of Costa Rica or the Klerksorp Spheres will prove to be alien eggs waiting for the right time to hatch?
The fun part of fiction is that we can weave the unlikely into compelling What If's. No, giant pottery in South America isn't going to hatch the guy from Alien, but What If it did?
The "what ifs?" are the best part about writing.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...giant pottery...alien eggs...re-populating a species...one of those may end up in my next book...