For most of Earth’s story
Where were the dinosaurs?
A long middle age of microbes · Mats, shallows, and open water · Drawing. Not a photograph.
Generated interpretation of a microbial world. For most of Earth history there were no dinosaurs, and no animals at all.
First look
Where were the dinosaurs?
Wonder. Then look. This is not a test.
For most of Earth’s story, there were no dinosaurs.
There were no animals at all.
Life was still here. It was small. It was busy. It was enough to change rock and air.
First look is enough. Keep looking is if you want more.
Keep looking
How would we know? Open only if you want the evidence.
Keep looking · This is not a gap
It is easy to think of Earth’s story as empty until interesting animals arrive. That is a trick of attention. Microbial Earth is most of the book.