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If you had a magical opportunity to see a living example of any extinct creature from the past, which creature would it be? A particular dinosaur? A Neanderthal? A pterodactyl? A woolly mammoth?
I asked myself this question when I was writing Fused: Training Day because I wanted my protagonist, Bobby, to conjure up a really cool animal to scare away some dangerous home intruders.
I decided on a Megalania. Megalania was the largest terrestrial lizard that ever lived. The largest lizard alive today is the Komodo dragon, a type of monitor lizard that grows to 3 meters (10 feet) in length, weighing 135 kilograms (300 pounds). The Megalania, a monitor lizard that roamed Australia until about 50,000 years ago, grew to 7 meters (23 feet) and may have weighed 2,000 kilograms (4,280 pounds). Wow!
Below are a couple of digital renderings of Megalania.
Sure, I'd also love to see any dinosaur, or any one of a slew of other extinct critters I can think of. However, there is something about the Megalania that fascinates me... probably the fact that it is similar to our living Komodo dragons, but SO MUCH HUGER!
If "huger" isn't a word, it should be.
The world is full of humans today, but if there was an extinct species of humans that stood 20 feet tall and weighed 1,000 pounds, wouldn't you want to see one of those? I would. At a safe distance.
Anyway, as you can probably guess, Bobby's conjured Megalania turns out to be a big mistake. In other words, chaos ensues.
If you're curious about what might happen if a Megalania appears in your living room, you really should read Fused: Training Day.
What about you? What extinct animal (or plant) would you most like to see alive today?
Photo Credits:
Both Megalania images - Midjourney