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furt； buenos aires；mexico city—and what will greet you are antique models； not ancient bones。
the fact is； we don’t really know a great deal about the dinosaurs。 for the whole of the ageof dinosaurs； fewer than a thousand species have been identified （almost half of them knownfrom a single specimen）； which is about a quarter of the number of mammal species alivenow。 dinosaurs； bear in mind； ruled the earth for roughly three times as long as mammalshave； so either dinosaurs were remarkably unproductive of species or we have barelyscratched the surface （to use an irresistibly apt cliché）。
for millions of years through the age of dinosaurs not a single fossil has yet been found。
even for the period of the late cretaceous—the most studied prehistoric period there is；thanks to our long interest in dinosaurs and their extinction—some three quarters of allspecies that lived may yet be undiscovered。 animals bulkier than the diplodocus or moreforbidding than tyrannosaurus may have roamed the earth in the thousands； and we maynever know it。 until very recently everything known about the dinosaurs of this period camefrom only about three hundred specimens representing just sixteen species。 the scantiness ofthe record led to the widespread belief that dinosaurs were on their way out already when thekt impact occurred。
in the late 1980s a paleontologist from the milwaukee public museum； peter sheehan；decided to conduct an experiment。 using two hundred volunteers； he made a painstakingcensus of a well…defined； but also well…picked…over； area of the famous hell creek formationin montana。 sifting meticulously； the volunteers collected every last tooth and vertebra andchip of bone—everything that had been overlooked by previous diggers。 the work took threeyears。 when finished they found that they had more than tripled the global total of dinosaurfossils from the late cretaceous。 the survey established that dinosaurs remained numerousright up to the time of the kt impact。 “there is no reason to believe that the dinosaurs weredying out gradually during the last three million years of the cretaceous；” sheehan reported。
we are so used to the notion of our own inevitability as life’s dominant species that it ishard to grasp that we are here only because of timely extraterrestrial bangs and other randomflukes。 the one thing we have in mon with all other living things is that for nearly fourbillion years our ancestors have managed to slip through a series of closing doors every timewe needed them to。 stephen jay gould expressed it succinctly in a well…known line： “humansare here today because our particular line never fractured—never once at any of the billionpoints that could have erased us from history。”
we started this chapter with three points： life wants to be； life doesn’t always want to bemuch； life from time to time goes extinct。 to this we may add a fourth： life goes on。 andoften； as we shall see； it goes on in ways that are decidedly amazing。
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23THE RICHNESS OF BEING
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here and there in the natural history museum in london； built into recesses along theunderlit corridors or standing between glass cases of minerals and ostrich eggs and a centuryor so of other productive clutter； are secret doors—at least secret in the sense that there isnothing about them to attract the visitor’s notice。 occasionally you might see someone withthe distracted manner and interestingly willful hair that mark the scholar emerge from one ofthe doors and hasten down a corridor； probably to disappear through another door a littlefurther on； but this is a relatively rare event。 for the most part the doors stay shut； giving nohint that beyond them exists another—a parallel—natural history museum as vast as； and inmany ways more wonderful than； the one the public knows and adores。
the natural history museum contains some seventy million objects from every realm oflife and every corner of the planet； with another hundred thousand or so added to thecollection each year； but it is really only behind the scenes that you get a sense of what atreasure house this is。 in cupboards and cabinets and long rooms full of close…packed shelvesare kept tens of thousands of pickled animals in bottles； millions of insects pinned to squaresof card； drawers of shiny mollusks； bones of dinosaurs； skulls of early humans； endlessfolders of neatly pressed plants。 it is a little like wandering through darwin’s brain。 the spiritroom alone holds fifteen miles of shelving containing jar upon jar of animals preserved inmethylated spirit。
back here are specimens collected by joseph banks in australia； alexander von humboldtin amazonia； darwin on the beagle voyage； and much else that is either very rare orhistorically important or both。 many people would love to get their hands on these things。 afew actually have。 in 1954 the museum acquired an outstanding ornithological collection fromthe estate of a devoted collector named richard meinertzhagen； author of birds of arabia；among other scholarly works。 meinertzhagen had been a faithful attendee of the museum foryears； ing almost daily to take notes for the production of his books and monographs。
when the crates arrived； the curators excitedly jimmied them open to see what they had beenleft and were surprised； to put it mildly； to discover that a very large number of specimensbore the museum’s own labels。 mr。 meinertzhagen； it turned out； had been helping himself totheir collections for years。 it also explained his habit of wearing a large overcoat even duringwarm weather。
a few years later a charming old regular in the mollusks department—“quite a distinguishedgentleman；” i was told—was caught inserting valued seashells into the hollow legs of hiszimmer frame。
“i don’t suppose there’s anything in here that somebody somewhere doesn’t covet；”
richard fortey said with a thoughtful air as he gave me a tour of the beguiling world that isthe behind…the…scenes part of the museum。 we wandered through a confusion of departmentswhere people sat at large tables doing intent； investigative things with arthropods and palm fronds and boxes of yellowed bones。 everywhere there was a