Infinite Life by Jules Howard

Author:Jules Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2024-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

I. Female frogs often use this to their advantage: if a female is grasped by a small male, in some species the female will simply carry the apparent ‘weakling’ to an encirclement of larger males, as if encouraging them to relieve her of her burden.

9 NAVEL-GAZING

Jurassic Period, 201.4 million years ago to 145 million years ago

‘Who, my friend, can scale heaven?’

– The Epic of Gilgamesh

Right before sunrise, when the insect chorus is intermittent and stalling, is when the egg thief is most active. It moves through the scrub lightly, deftly, barely casting a shadow on the ground. From low branch to branch, across twigs and around trunks, the urgent predator scampers; its whiskers twitch, its breath is fast and rhythmic. Its large eyes swing in their sockets, momentarily caught by movement above: a dusky silhouette on the upper reaches of a neighbouring cliff face, a nest… prey. Quickly the egg thief takes in as many details as it can. It sees a small pterosaur, crouched, high above, on a rocky outcrop, awaiting the warmth of dawn. The reptile sits upon a nest that is little more than a messy leaf-strewn platform pointing out to the sky. Faeces drip off the leaves and branches below the nest; a black goo rich in partially digested beetle wings. The egg thief has no interest in insects though. It pauses mere metres from the nest, its eyes firmly on the platform. The nest is poorly constructed; it is likely to be the pterosaur’s first attempt. The female’s colony-mates have taken the best spots around here, the tallest cliffs, safest from scurrying egg predators.

Faintly, through the cracks between twigs and leaves, the egg thief can see the pterosaur more clearly now – it is a small insect-eating Anurognathus, barely a match for the predator’s size. The tiny pterosaur begins laying its eggs into its hastily arranged pile of leaves. In time, one, two, three, four soft, mucus-covered eggs fall like marbles onto the platform. The female pterosaur turns and faces each one as if to count them, sniffing and cajoling them so that they are wedged firmly into the detritus-heavy substrate. As the scent of eggs begins to waft down from the canopy, salivary glands in the approaching egg thief activate. Using its tongue, it smears digestive enzymes across the surface of each tooth. The egg thief moves closer; nearer, until it is within striking distance. It pauses, unmoving. The pterosaur mother looks tired; its flesh is stringy with no spare fat. Its small, compact torso, streaked with ligaments and bony tendons, shows little by way of flesh. This is a waiting game now; eventually, once warm enough, the young pterosaur will need to collect insects to stay alive, at which point its nest will be unguarded. By the time it returns to its nest, the eggs will be empty and the mucus-covered shells scattered.

For now, in this prehistoric crime scene, the identity of the assailant remains unknown. It is a mammal, certainly, one whose presence is given off in moments.

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