across sixty-five million years? Did the Galaxy itself turn, like some huge pinwheel in the night?
But tonight, she thought, the smoke from the volcano would hide any stars.
ONE
Ancestors
CHAPTER 1
Dinosaur Dreams
Montana, North America. Circa 65 million years before present.
I
At the edge of the clearing, Purga crept out of a dense patch of ferns. It was night, but there was plenty of light— not from the Moon, but from the comet whose spectacular tail spread across the cloudless sky, washing out all but the brightest stars.
This scrap of forest lay in a broad, shallow lowland between new volcanic mountains to the west— the mountains that would become the Rockies— and the Appalachian plains to the east. Tonight the damp air was clear; but often mists and fogs blew in from the south, born over the great inland sea that still pushed deep into the heart of North America. The forest was dominated by plants that could extract moisture from the air: Lichen coated the gnarled bark of the araucaria trees, and even the low magnolia shrubs dripped with moss. It was as if the forest had been coated with a layer of thick green paint.
But everywhere the leaves were soured, the moss and ground cover ferns browned. The rains, poisoned by gases from the great volcanic convulsion to the west, had been hard on plants and animals alike. It wasn’t a healthy time.
Still, in the clearing, dinosaurs dreamed.
The thick night dew glistening from their yellow-black armor, ankylosaurs had gathered in a defensive circle, their young at the center. In the gentle Cretaceous air, these cold-blooded giants stood like parked tanks.
In the milky light Purga’s large black eyes had fixed on a moth. The insect sat on a leaf, brown wings folded, fat and complacent. With an efficient lunge Purga caught her prey in her paws. She severed off the wings with a couple of nips of her tiny incisors. Then, with a noise like the crunch of a tiny apple, she began to munch with relish at the moth’s abdomen. For this brief moment, with food in her mouth, Purga found a scrap of contentment in her crowded, difficult life.
The moth quickly died, its sparklike awareness incapable of recording much pain.
The moth consumed, Purga moved on. There was no grass cover here— the grasses had yet to dominate the land— but there was a green covering of low ferns, mosses, ground pine, horsetails, and conifer seedlings, even a few gaudy purple flowers. Through this tangle, scuttling between scraps of cover, she was able to progress almost silently. In the dark, solitary foraging was the best strategy. Predators worked by ambush, exploiting the shadows of the night; no group could have been as invisible as a lone prowler. And so Purga worked alone.
To Purga the world was a plain picked out in black, white, and blue, lit up by the uneasy light of the comet, which shone behind high scattered clouds. Her huge eyes were not as sensitive to color as the best dinosaur designs— some raptors could make out colors beyond anything that would be visible to humans, somber infrareds and sparkling ultraviolets— but Purga’s vision worked well in the low light of night. And besides she had her whiskers, which fanned out before her like a tactile radar sweep.
Purga looked more rodentlike than primate, with whiskers, a pointed snout, and small folded-back ears. She was about the size of a small bush baby. On the ground she walked on all fours, and she carried her long bushy tail behind her, like a squirrel. To human eyes she would have seemed strange, almost reptilian in her stillness and watchfulness, perhaps incomplete.
But, as Joan Useb would one day learn, she was indeed a primate, a progenitor of that great class of animals. Through her brief life flowed a molecular river with its source in the deepest past, its destination the sea of the furthest future. And from that river of genes, widening and modifying as thousands of millennia passed, would one day emerge all of humanity: Every human ever born would be descended from the children of Purga.
She knew none of this. She didn’t give herself a name. She was not conscious like a human— or even like a chimp or monkey; her mind was more like a rat’s or a pigeon’s. Her behavior was made up of fixed patterns, controlled by innate drives that constantly shifted in balance and priority, reaching a new sum each moment. She was like a tiny robot.
Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 1 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 2 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 3 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 4 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 5 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 6 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 7 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 8 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 9 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 10 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 11 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 12 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 13 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 14 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 15 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 16 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 17 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 18 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 19 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 20 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 21 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 22 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 23 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 24 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 25 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 26 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 27 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 28 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 29 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 30 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 31 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 32 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 33 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 34 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 35 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 36 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 37 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 38 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 39 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 40 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 41 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 42 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 43 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 44 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 45 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 46 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 47 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 48 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 49 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 50 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 51 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 52 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 53 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 54 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 55 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 56 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 57 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 58 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 59 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 60 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 61 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 62 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 63 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 64 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 65 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 66 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 67 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 68 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 69 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 70 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 71 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 72 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 73 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 74 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 75 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 76 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 77 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 78 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 79 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 80 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 81 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 82 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 83 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 84 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 85 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 86 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 87 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 88 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 89 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 90 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 91 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 92 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 93 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 94 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 95 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 96 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 97 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 98 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 99 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 100 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 101 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 102 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 103 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 104 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 105 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 106 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 107 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 108 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 109 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 110 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 111 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 112 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 113 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 114 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 115 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 116 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 117 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 118 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 119 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 120 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 121 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 122 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 123 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 124 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 125 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 126 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 127 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 128 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 129 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 130 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 131 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 132 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 133 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 134 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 135 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 136 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 137 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 138 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 139 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 140 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 141 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 142 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 143 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 144 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 145 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 146 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 147 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 148 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 149 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 150 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 151 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 152 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 153 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 154 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 155 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 156 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 157 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 158 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 159 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 160 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 161 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 162 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 163 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 164 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 165 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 166 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 167 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 168 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 169 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 170 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 171 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 172 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 173 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 174 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 175 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 176 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 177 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 178 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 179 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 180 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 181 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 182 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 183 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 184 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 185 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 186 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 187 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 188 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 189 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 190 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 191 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 192 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 193 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 194 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 195 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 196 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 197 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 198 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 199 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 200 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 201 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 202 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 203 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 204 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 205 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 206 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 207 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 208 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 209 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 210 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 211 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 212 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 213 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 214 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 215 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 216 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 217 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 218 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 219 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 220 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 221 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 222 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 223 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 224 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 225 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 226 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 227 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 228 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 229 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 230 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 231 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 232 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 233 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 234 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 235 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 236 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 237 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 238 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 239 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 240 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 241 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 242 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 243 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 244 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 245 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 246 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 247 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 248 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 249 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 250 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 251 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 252 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 253 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 254 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 255 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 256 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 257 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 258 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 259 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 260 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 261 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 262 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 263 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 264 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 265 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 266 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 267 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 268 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 269 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 270 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 271 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 272 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 273 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 274 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 275 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 276 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 277 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 278 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 279 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 280 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 281 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 282 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 283 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 284 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 285 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 286 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 287 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 288 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 289 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 290 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 291 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 292 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 293 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 294 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 295 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 296 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 297 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 298 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 299 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 300 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 301 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 302 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 303 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 304 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 305 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 306 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 307 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 308 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 309 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 310 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 311 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 312 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 313 Evolution: a novel - By Stephen Baxter - Page 314