Monthly Archives: January 2026

Tropes & Other – Top 10 Extinction Events

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Public domain NASA image (artist impression) of the impact event behind my top extinction event

 

 

TOP 10 EXTINCTION EVENTS

 

My Top 10 Geological Time Periods leads me naturally to my Top 10 Extinction Events – the latter being identified by the former

It always intrigues me how the evolution of life on Earth consistently seems to be dragging itself up by its bootstraps, or to mix metaphors, consistently a process of two steps forward and one step back. The steps back are of course extinction events.

These recurring extinction events are so striking as to make me ponder how complex life survived at all, particularly as the evolution of complex life is compressed into the last 10% or so of the planet’s history. If the history of the Earth was scaled to a single year, complex life only emerges in the last couple of months or so of the year (with the dinosaurs in about mid-December and us a few minutes or so before midnight on 31 December).

Sure, simple or microbial life emerged relatively early in the planet’s history, pretty much when the planet had cooled enough for it, but complex life really only took off in the Cambrian Period 541 to 485 million years ago although it had preceded that period. Thereafter however complex life seems to have been regularly hammered with extinction events in the periods after that – hence making one ponder how it survived at all. I suppose once life reached a certain threshold of diverse and complex life, it was a matter of bouncing back – particularly if you have millions of years to do it.

“An extinction event (also known as a mass extinction or biotic crisis) is a widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth. Such an event is identified by a sharp fall in the diversity and abundance of multicellular organisms.”

When it comes to extinction events, the focus of attention is on the so-called Big Five, followed by a proposed sixth such event – so no prizes guessing as to six entries in my top ten. The Big Five originate from “a landmark paper published in 1982”, in which “Jack Sepkoski and David M. Raup identified five particular geological intervals with excessive diversity loss”.

So here are my Top 10 Extinction Events, as a shallow dip top ten.

 

(1) CRETACEOUS–PALEOGENE / K-PG

(66 MILLION YEARS AGO – 75% OF SPECIES)

This is the big one – not the deadliest but the most dramatic and famous of all extinction events, the one that killed the dinosaurs, brought about by the impact of a 10-20 km wide asteroid at Chicxulub in Mexico. Formerly known as the K-T or Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event from the previous name for the Paleogene Period – I still prefer it as catchier.

 

(2) PERMIAN-TRIASSIC

(252 MILLION YEARS AGO – 90-95% SPECIES)

 

This is the real big one – the biggest as in deadliest extinction event in Earth’s history, as indicated by its colloquial name of the Great Dying – estimated to have wiped out 90-95% of all marine species, although land species (which included amphibians and reptiles) may have been luckier. Volcanic eruptions in Siberia are hypothesized as the primary cause, with widespread climate change including ocean acidification and acid rain. Alas, poor trilobites!

 

(3) ORDOVICIAN-SILURIAN

(444 MILLION YEARS AGO – 85% SPECIES)

 

Once I got the most famous extinction event out of the way, I’m ranking the Big Five by order of deadliness in terms of extinction rates. Life had crawled or swam its way up with the Great Ordovician Biodiversity Event – perhaps even with the first arthropods on land – only for the planet to punch it in the guts again, with this extinction event of climate change and glaciation.

 

 

(4) TRIASSIC-JURASSIC

(200-201 MILLION YEARS AGO – 80% OF SPECIES)

 

Well, the dinosaurs can’t complain too much since although they were around beforehand, they got their big break from this extinction event – from climate change (probably volcanic in origin).

 

 

(5) DEVONIAN

(360-375 MILLION YEARS AGO – 75% OF SPECIES)

 

The least deadly of the Big Five extinction events, from global cooling. The Devonian has been dubbed the Age of Fishes, although amphibians were getting started on land, so the saying that there’s more fish in the sea was much less so after this event. It also took aim at the trilobites but they made it through, only to be snagged by the Permian.

 

 

(6) HOLOCENE

(PRESENT – ? OF SPECIES)

 

Yes – it’s our present epoch with its ongoing Holocene extinction, the ranked as the sixth big extinction event to add to the Big Five, because of – ahem – us. Hence the proposed Anthropocene Epoch for us screwing the planet.

 

 

(7) GREAT OXIDATION EVENT

(SIDERIAN – RHYACIAN PERIODS 2.60-2.46 BILLION YEARS AGO

 

“The “Big Five” of the Phanerozoic Eon were anciently preceded by the presumed far more extensive mass extinction of microbial life during the Great Oxidation Event (also known as the Oxygen Catastrophe) early in the Proterozoic Eon”. It’s strange to think of more oxygen in the atmosphere – from microbial life that had evolved photosynthesis – as toxic to the life that preceded it even at much lower levels than our own atmosphere but there you are.

As extinction events are measured by the fossil record of complex life, that precludes identifying extinction events prior to the Phanerozoic Era, as by its nature simple or microbial life tends not to leave a fossil record.

 

 

(8) END EDIACARAN

(539 MILLION YEARS AGO)

 

 

“At the end of the Ediacaran and just before the Cambrian Explosion, yet another Proterozoic extinction event (of unknown magnitude) is speculated to have ushered in the Phanerozoic” – that is, our own eon of diverse complex life.

 

 

(9) CAMBRIAN & CAMBRIAN-ORDOVICIAN

(513-509, 501-497 & 486 MILLION YEARS AGO)

 

“Several events in the Cambrian and early Ordovician meet or exceed the “Big Five” in proportional severity.”

There’s the End-Botomian extinctions in the Cambrian 513 to 509 million years ago, the Dresabachian extinction event in the Late or Upper Cambrian 501-497 million years ago, and the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction event 485 million years ago – that last imploding the Cambrian Explosion back a bit and gunning for the trilobites, although they made it through.

 

 

(10) LATE PLEISTOCENE

(129,000 – 11,700 YEARS AGO)

 

Not quite up there with the big extinction events but notable none the less for the extinction of the majority of megafauna, again probably due to, ahem, us. The Late Pleistocene also saw the extinction of all other human species but our own – as well as the spread of modern humans beyond Africa, including to the Americas and Australasia, mapping closely to megafauna extinction.

 

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (13) Lao Tzu / Laozi

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Lao Tzu as depicted in Judge Dredd (prog 577, “The Sage”). Spoiler alert – the Tao doesn’t do too well against the Law

 

 

(13) LAO TZU / LAOZI

 

The legendary founder of Taoism and the author of its foundational text, the Tao Te Ching.

What I particularly like is that he just jotted down as a literal afterthought or postscript, at the request of a city sentry to record his wisdom for the good of the kingdom before being permitted to pass – before literally riding off into the sunset on a mystical water buffalo because he was that awesome.

Of course, that is probably pure legend in every respect, including the historicity of Laozi himself, but who cares when it’s that cool? And it’s apt enough for the source of Taoism, with its emphases on living in balance, naturalness, spontaneity, simplicity and detachment from desire – particularly living in the moment and wu wei, or the art of doing nothing effectively.

If only there had been some law requiring any foundational religious text be written by its founder like a university exam – within a prescribed time limit of an hour, or two at most.

Surely that would eliminate much of the source of religious conflict, which at heart often seems to be wars of literary interpretation. My book is better than your book. All those long rambling religious texts – really, less is more. Of course, that would also eliminate most, if not almost all religious books.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (12) Mara

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Relief fragment of Mara in Gandhara style, found in Swat Valley – phorograph by Under the Bo in Wikipedia “Mara” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

 

 

(12) MARA

 

Although Mara has origins in Hindu mythology – “He is Yama’s fearsome persona and all beings associated with him, darkness and death, become forces of Mara – he takes his true shape as a “malicious force” in the Buddhist counterpart of the Temptation of Christ.

Indeed, I prefer the Buddhist version of the Temptation under the Bo Tree. The Temptation of Christ worked best in the more effective brief version of it in the Gospel of Mark but otherwise can come across as a dry rabbinical debate. In the Temptation of Buddha, Mara cuts to the chase with the more elemental forces of s€x and violence – something echoed in the version of the Temptation of Christ in the the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis.

“In the story of the Awakening of Prince Siddhartha, Mara appears as a powerful deva trying to seduce him with his celestial army and a vision of beautiful maidens…who, in various legends, are often said to be Mara’s daughters”.

His daughters are hot, though.

 

RATING:

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Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (12) Aeneas & Romulus

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The most famous image of Roman mythology or legendary history – Lupa Capitolina suckling the twins Romulus and Remus, here depicted in a bronze sculpture in the Capitoline Museum debated as to its age and origin as either 5th century BC Etruscan sculpture or medieval (with the twins added later)

 

 

(12) AENEAS & ROMULUS

 

All roads lead to Rome – Rome leads back to Romulus and Aeneas.

My previous special mention for Hector leads naturally to special mention for Aeneas, similarly a Trojan hero – less prominent in Greek mythology or the Iliad but one that rose to prominence as the ancestral hero of Rome in Roman mythology and the subject of the Aeneid, epic poem by Virgil intended as a sequel to the Iliad and Odyssey as well as foundational legend for Rome (and the imperial cult of Augustus).

I particularly like that Aeneas is the son of the goddess Aphrodite, which effectively makes her Roman equivalent Venus the founding mother and patron goddess of Rome.

Aeneas may well have been the founding father of Rome but he didn’t found the city itself – hence he shares special mention with Romulus. Famously, Romulus was one of two twin brothers – and as famously, he and his twin Remus were suckled by a she-wolf, known as Lupa Capitolina or the Capitoline wolf, in their infancy. Also as famously (or infamously), Romulus had a falling out of fratricidal degree with his brother as he went on to found the city (and kingdom) of Rome – just as well because the city of Reme just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

 

RATING:

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Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Children’s Fantasy Books (Special Mention) (8) Richard Harland – Ferren Trilogy

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Covers of the 2023-2025 Ferren trilogy published by IFWG Publishing International (and as featured on the author’s website)

 

 

(8) RICHARD HARLAND –

FERREN TRILOGY (2023-2025 – rewritten version of his Heaven and Earth trilogy 2000-2003)

 

Another of my better than Potter entries, this Australian post-apocalyptic fantasy trilogy combines two of my favorite fantasy tropes – a post-apocalyptic setting, particularly in its rarer fantasy version as opposed to the more common science fiction version, as well as the rage against the heavens or war on heaven trope. The latter is the source of the apocalypse.

The premise is straightforward. It turned out that space wasn’t the final frontier, but heaven was – as human technology turned to the exploration of the afterlife. So, like all frontiers, exploration led to invasion, as humanity’s celestial astronauts – psychonauts – trampled the sacred fields of Heaven.

Of course you know, that meant war – and it didn’t go too well for us. Eurasia is still burning – the Burning Continents – from the portions of Heavenly ether that fell on it from the Great Collapse, while much of north America is frozen under an angelic ice sheet.

And we’re still fighting the war against Heaven – except that by we, I only loosely mean humanity. Most of actual humanity that has survived the war, at least in Australia, have been reduced to so-called Residuals living in tribes. The war is waged by the possibly posthuman and certainly inhuman Humen, led by the technocratic Doctors, although they seem to use that title in the same sense supervillains do – or Doctor Josef Mengele, who seems to be invoked by the name of two Doctors who led the war against Heaven from South America.

The Residuals are nominally allies with the Humen against Heaven and its angels but are used more as cannon fodder – in perhaps the most literal way possible. All this changes when the titular young male Residual happens across a stray angel left behind after being wounded in battle…

As I said, it’s Australian post-apocalyptic fantasy – both in its setting, and perhaps not surprisingly given that setting, fantasy written by an Australian author (albeit originally from Britain). Forget Harry Potter – with Garth Nix in my top ten and Richard Harland in my special mentions, it seems all the best young adult fantasy is from Australia.

 

RATING:

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Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (11) Set

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Set as he appears in his standard design from the Smite 2 video game

 

 

(11) SET

 

And ass-headed Set brayed in the desert…

Set often strikes me as similar to Loki, except more loyal when in balance or harmony with the rest of the Egyptian pantheon, until he was transformed into their antagonist. For example, he had a positive role where he accompanied Ra on the solar barque to repel Apep or Apophis, the serpent of chaos who would otherwise be the foremost villain of Egyptian mythology but for Set’s infamy.

However, with a divine brief as the god of the desert – lord of the Red Land as opposed to Horus as Lord of the Black Land or fertile land of the Nile – it was perhaps inevitable that Set would assume an antagonistic role, again as opposed to Horus, infamously by killing the father of Horus and husband of Isis, Osiris.

That ass-headed reference might not be accurate – “in art, Set is usually depicted as an enigmatic creature referred to by Egyptologists as the Set animal, a beast not identified with any known animal, although it could be seen as resembling a Saluki, an aardvark, an African wild dog, a donkey, a jackal, a hyena, a pig, an antelope, a giraffe or a fennec fox”. Of course, I prefer the ass version.

Interestingly, it may not have been so much his role as god of the desert that cast him as villainous but his role as god of foreigners, with the foreign conquests of Egypt – “Set’s negative aspects were emphasized during this period. Set was the killer of Osiris, having hacked Osiris’ body into pieces and dispersed it so that he could not be resurrected. The Greeks would later associate Set with Typhon and Yahweh”(!) – “a monstrous and evil force of raging nature (being the three of them depicted as donkey-like creatures).”

 

RATING:

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Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Children’s Fantasy Books (Special Mention) (7) Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson & the Olympians

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Cover 2006 Disney-Hyperion paperback edition of the first book in the series

 

 

(7) RICK RIORDAN –

PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS (2005 – PRESENT)

 

Yes – it’s another one of my entries that are better than Potter.

In my eyes, the Percy Jackson series has a similar core concept to that of Harry Potter – a magical world that exists in hidden masquerade within our own but I just like Percy Jackson better because it’s magical world is that of classical mythology.

I also prefer the ingenuity with which the Percy Jackson applies that core concept – such as that mythic geography moves with the human psyche, such that Mount Olympus has moved with the seat of western civilization to the United States or that the “Sea of Monsters” in the Odyssey has moved to the Caribbean (hence the Bermuda Triangle).

As for the series, it revolves around the titular protagonist Percy Jackson as a son of Poseidon and hence superpowered demigod facing a literal clash of the Titans in our contemporary world. It’s a nice personal touch that the idea for it started with Rick Riordan telling his son bedtime stories – and he adapted his son’s dyslexia and ADHD to traits of the protagonist (because the latter’s mind is hardwired for Greek rather than English).

 

RATING:

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Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (11) Hector

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Illustration of Hector, albeit in his duel with Ajax rather than Achilles, from The Story of the Iliad published in 1892

 

 

(11) HECTOR

 

Troy’s greatest warrior and the classical archetype of heroic antagonist, worthy adversary to Achilles in the Iliad.

It just goes to show you can have heroes on both sides. Indeed, there’s been a consistent tendency to see Hector as more heroic, or at least more sympathetic, than Achilles – a tendency that dates back potentially to the Iliad itself and certainly through to the modern reader.

“Hector is still the hero who forever captures the affection of the modern reader, far more strongly than his conqueror has ever done”.

It’s not a universal tendency. Some drily point out that the Iliad more tells than shows Hector’s prowess as a warrior – “Many, but not all, scholars of the Iliad see an incongruence between Hector’s in-story reputation and his actual achievements”. On the other hand, others argue Hector should have played it safe, “following his wife’s practical advice to defend Troy from the city wall” rather than “fighting on the frontlines for the sake of glory” – he was Troy’s crown prince after all.

However, Hector was fated to fall in an epic for which the declared subject in its opening line is the wrath of Achilles – which was, after all, targeted on Hector, at least after Achilles’ companion Patroclus is killed by Hector. This time, it’s personal for Achilles – and so he killed Hector, leaving the Trojan king Priam to beg Achilles if the latter could please stop dragging Hector’s dead body behind him while doing victory laps in his chariot.

Still, it’s hard not to see Hector as more heroic or sympathetic to Achilles, particularly as Hector is fighting foremost to defend his city and family.

“Hector throughout the Trojan War brings glory to the Trojans as their best fighter. He is loved by all his people and known for never turning down a fight. He is gracious to all and thus thought of favorably by all but the Achaeans…He turns the tide of battle”.

That consistent tendency to see Hector as more heroic, or at least more sympathetic, than Achilles – has also carried over to the Trojans against the Greeks in general. The Romans traditionally traced their lineage to Troy and hence accordingly took a positive view of Hector, followed by medieval writers who hailed Hector as one of the “Nine Worthies” or nine heroes from Biblical, classical and medieval sources, as well as others since who have favored Hector as the true hero of the Iliad.

 

RATING:

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Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Children’s Fantasy Books (Special Mention) (6) Roald Dahl – Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

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And what else to represent this iconic book than this classic image of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka from the equally iconic 1971 film adaptation – used as a meme in popular culture

 

 

(6) ROALD DAHL –

CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

(1964)

 

“Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination”

Roald Dahl earns special mention in my top literature because of his short stories for adults, but his adult work is eclipsed in popularity by his books or stories for children and it probably isn’t even close – Dahl has been called “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century”.

His short stories for adults excel in that archetypal ingredient of short stories, the twist in the tale at the end of the story. For Dahl, that was usually of a dark or macabre nature, something which carried over into his children’s literature only with fantasy, arguably bordering on horror.

Dahl’s children’s books are known “for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters” as well as championing “the kindhearted” and featuring “an underlying warm sentiment”.

And most of them are classics of children’s fantasy, so much so that they could be the subject of their own top ten – James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Witches just to name a few.

However, there could only be one candidate for Dahl’s most iconic book for children and that is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Of course, a large part of that is the cult classic film adaptation in 1971, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – elevating the eccentric chocolate factory owner to the title instead of Charlie. Director Mel Stuart and even more so Gene Wilder portraying the titular character made Dahl’s book their own, at least in memetic popular culture. In fairness, Dahl’s writing career also extended to screenplays and hence he wrote the screenplay for the film, ensuring its faithfulness to the book.

Sadly, fewer people know of the book’s sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator in 1972, probably because it has never been adapted to film or television as far as I’m aware – and even more sadly, Dahl apparently planned a third book in the series but never finished it.

 

RATING:

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Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Children’s Fantasy Books (Special Mention) (5) Garth Nix – Old Kingdom & Keys to the Kingdom

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*

 

 

(5) GARTH NIX –

OLD KINGDOM & THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM (1995 – 2021)

 

And now we come to a number of entries that I’ll call better than Potter – that is, children’s fantasy series that while reminiscent of or similar to Harry Potter, should have received the same or greater extent of readership, media adaptation, and popular acclaim.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t particularly dislike Harry Potter but I don’t particularly like it either, when there are better books or series of children’s fantasy out there in my opinion.

And foremost among them are those by this Australian writer, notably the cosmic fantasy of his Keys to the Kingdom series and the casual necromancy of his Old Kingdom series. I ranked the former in fourth place in my Top 10 Fantasy Books, but that should not obscure that it and the Old Kingdom series are written for younger and older readers alike – hence my fifth place special mention here.

 

 

RATING:
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