Re: Evolution in Science Fiction

[Allen Hazen <allenph@unimelb.edu.au>]

Special category: Science fiction by an actual paleontologist, incorporating
an idea (a "scenario") felt to be too speculative for a technical paper.

That's roughly the reason Bjorn Kurtén gave for writing his "Dance of the
Tiger" (about how the replacement of Neandertals by "Moderns" might have
taken place).  Lots of fun.  The sequel, "Singletusk," incorporates the
famous mammoths stabbing each other in the eye, falling over and crushing a
coyote, find into one scene.

... I've thought about trying to write a short story about a flint peddlar,
a guy who hikes through late Ice Age France, selling good quality chipping
stone to both Modern and Neandertal bands, and in the last paragraph
reflects that both races are good people, not much to choose between them,
though the moderns seem on average to have larger families...

Allen Hazen
Philosophy Department
University of Melbourne