Hallucigenia

By Ben Garrod and Gabriel Ugueto

TV scientist Ben Garrod presents the biggest extinction events ever, told from the point of view of evolution's superstars, the most incredible animals ever to swim, stalk, slither or walk our planet. Whether you're 9 or 90, his unique exploration of the most destructive, yet most creative, force in nature makes top level science fun.

Here are the superstars of the story of life, from the super-weird to the super-ferocious. Usually a species has 10 million years or so of evolving, eating, chasing, playing, maybe doing homework, or even going to the moon before it goes extinct.

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.

'Eye-opening science with striking artwork' Sunday Times 'Best Children's Books for Summer 2021'

Collect all eight books about animals we have lost in mass extinctions caused by asteroids or mega-volcanoes, clashing continents and climate change. Past brought to full-colour life by paleoartist Gabriel Ugueto.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: May 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781838935283

Ben Garrod

Ben Garrod is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at the University of East Anglia. He broadcasts regularly on TV and radio, most recently the BBC Mammoth Hunters documentary with Sir David Attenborough and BBC This Morning for a new dinosaur discovery, and is trustee and ambassador of a number of key conservation organisations. His previous books include The Chimpanzee and Me and his eight-book series Extinct, The Story of Life on Earth, published by Zephyr. Ben lives in Bristol and Norwich. Find Ben @Ben_garrod on Twitter and Instagram and bengarrod.co.uk

Book preview

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IN THIS SERIES BY BEN GARROD AND GABRIEL UGUETO

Hallucigenia

Dunkleosteus

Trilobite

Lisowicia (October 2021)

Tyrannosaurus rex (October 2021)

Megalodon (February 2022)

Thylacine (February 2022)

Hainan gibbon (May 2022)

ALSO BY BEN GARROD

The Chimpanzee and Me

So You Think You Know About Dinosaurs? series:

Diplodocus

Triceratops

Spinosaurus

Tyrannosaurus rex

Stegosaurus

Velociraptor

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Ben Garrod

Illustrated by Gabriel Ugueto

AN IMPRINT OF HEAD OF ZEUS

www.headofzeus.com

This is a Zephyr book, first published in the UK in 2021 by Head of Zeus Ltd

Text copyright © Ben Garrod, 2021

Artwork copyright © Gabriel Ugueto, 2021

The moral right of Ben Garrod to be identified as the author and of Gabriel Ugueto to be identified as the artist of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN (HB): 9781838935269

ISBN (E): 9781838935283

Head of Zeus Ltd

5–8 Hardwick Street

London EC1R 4RG

WWW.HEADOFZEUS.COM

‘In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.’

Baba Dioum

CONTENTS

Also by Ben Garrod

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

Introduction

img3.jpg What is Extinction?

img4.jpg Why Do Species Go Extinct?

img5.jpg Diseases, Predation and Competition

img6.jpg Coextinction

img7.jpg Genetic Mixing

img8.jpg Habitat Destruction

img9.jpg Climate Change

img10.jpg Timeline

img11.jpg Mass Extinctions

img12.jpg The End Ordovician Mass Extinction

img13.jpg Causes

img14.jpg Effects

img15.jpg Ask the Expert

img16.jpg Hallucigenia

img17.jpg Hallucigenia: Discovery

img18.jpg Hallucigenia: Anatomy

img19.jpg Hallucigenia: Classification

img20.jpg Hallucigenia: Ecology

Glossary

Collect all eight titles in the EXTINCT series

About the Author

About the Illustrator

About Zephyr

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INTRODUCTION

For as long as there has been life on Earth, there has been extinction, and given enough time, all species will one day go extinct. It is too easy to think extinction is terrible and that we should do all we can to stop a species from going extinct. That makes sense, doesn’t it? The loss of a species seems an awful and unnatural process, caused by the effects of humans, right?

The concept of extinction is something many of us are familiar with, although, in fact, it’s one we might not fully understand. Very often, extinction is a sad, unacceptable and disastrous ending for a species, but from the point of view of a biologist, it is a fundamental part of nature. It is as important to a species as moving, feeding and breeding.

*

I’m an evolutionary biologist and I’ve worked with some of the strangest, most beautiful, iconic and heartbreakingly threatened animals on our planet. I understand how species go extinct and why. But it is still a deeply upsetting event for me when I hear that a species (any species) has gone extinct – or worse, is rapidly being pushed into the history books because of us. We are bombarded by endless news reports about species threatened with extinction, habitats being destroyed and the impacts of global climate change.

I wanted to write this series to explain what’s at stake if we carry on as we are. I want to explore extinction as a biological process and investigate why it can sometimes be a positive thing for evolution, as well as, at times, the most destructive force in nature. Let’s put it under the microscope and find out everything there is to know about it. Extinction is an incredible process and understanding it enables us to understand the world that little bit better and to make a difference.

When a species is declared extinct, we place a dagger symbol (†) next to its name when it’s listed or mentioned in a scientific manner. So, if you do see the name of a species with a little dagger