Dedicated to my wife ‘S’, who has put up with my urge to learn for many years.

By Andrew Klein

I. The Beetle, the Flower, and the Underestimated World

Seventy million years ago, in what is now central Spain, the carcass of a titanosaur—one of the largest creatures ever to walk the Earth—was not quickly buried. Its bones lay exposed long enough for scavenging beetles to bore pouch-shaped holes into them. Research published in 2026 revealed that this dinosaur was exposed for far longer than previously believed, indicating that the ecosystem already contained highly specialised scavenging insects capable of thriving on the remains of large vertebrates.

At the same time, in New Mexico, a volcanic eruption buried a forest—a forest 74.6 million years old. This site, described as a “botanical Pompeii,” revealed a mature, flowering-plant-dominated forest, with many plants producing fruits comparable in size to modern blueberries. For years, science had assumed that flowering plants only flourished after the dinosaurs were wiped out.

These two discoveries—the beetle and the flower—tell us more than just about beetles and flowers. They reveal a deeper pattern: science has systematically underestimated the complexity of the past.

II. Why the Fossil Record Underestimates Past Life

The fossil record is the primary window through which science views the past. But that window is cracked.

1. Inherent Bias

The fossil record is naturally biased—certain life forms are more likely to be preserved than others. Estimates of biodiversity often underestimate the true situation due to stratigraphic range limitations. Fossil samples are geographically uneven, with most known fossils from historical periods coming from temperate regions, reflecting largely where the digging has been done.

2. Survivorship Bias

We are more likely to discover species that were widespread and long-lived. Those that lived in specific habitats, were rare, or were small—they are often invisible to the fossil record. For a species to appear in the fossil record, it must not only exist but also happen to die in the right place and not be destroyed by subsequent geological processes.

3. Cryptic Species: The Hidden Diversity

Even today, we are still discovering how much we have missed. A 2026 meta-analysis of 373 studies found that for every morphologically recognised vertebrate species, there are, on average, about two “cryptic species” hidden within it. This suggests that the total number of vertebrate species on Earth may be twice what we thought. Lead author Yin Peng Zhang noted that since 2011, many taxonomic papers have found “cryptic species that look identical but are genetically distinct.”

If we are still today underestimating biodiversity, how much have we missed in the fossil record?

4. Hyperdiversity in Early Pleistocene Australia

A 2013 study published in PNAS found that southeastern Australia once supported a hyperdiverse sclerophyll flora under a high-rainfall, summer-wet climate—conditions very different from the Mediterranean climates we associate with such diversity today. This region must have lost diversity through subsequent extinctions. The past was not simpler—it was more complex, and much of that complexity has been lost to time.

III. The Same Pattern: Underestimating the Complexity of Human Societies

This bias does not only shape paleontology. It also shapes how we view human history.

1. History Written by the Victors

History is written by the victors—a phrase repeated across archaeological circles. Written records reflect the perspective of elites. Record-keeping in ancient Egypt, Sumer, and classical civilisations reflected the perspectives of those who could write and preserve records. The voices of the conquered remain largely silent.

As a result, the past we see is filtered—less colourful, less rich, less human than it actually was.

2. The Underestimated Sustainability of Ancient Civilisations

A growing body of evidence suggests that many ancient civilisations established societies that remained sustainable for centuries, even millennia—without depleting their environment.

· The Maya: Maya farmers in the tropical lowlands practiced sustainable agriculture for 4,000 years without destroying their land. Scholars have noted that Maya wisdom on environmental sustainability holds lessons for modern society.

· The Inca: The Inca and their predecessors created a functioning environment at high altitude, sustaining populations with diverse crops while mitigating erosion and protecting forestry—without large-scale burning.

· The Ancestral Puebloans of Chaco Canyon: Cultivating in an arid environment, the Ancestral Puebloans demonstrated remarkable adaptability and water management.

· Chinese Civilisation: As the only ancient native civilisation that has never been interrupted, China’s continuity is rooted in the stability, inclusiveness, and complementarity of its cultural ecology. The long-term coordination of population, ecology, and economy was a key factor in its sustained development.

These civilisations were not always successful—but they demonstrated long-term resilience that transcends modern “sustainability” discourse.

IV. The Present That Is Disappearing: Why Are We Not Learning?

In 2026, we are still discovering that the past was more complex than we imagined. Yet at the same time, we are depleting the future at an accelerating rate.

1. Extinction Is Accelerating

Current extinction rates are thousands of times higher than the natural background rate. We are creating our own extinction event—one driven by extraction rather than coexistence.

2. “Sustainability” Has Become a Tool for Extraction

The word “sustainability”—meant to describe long-term balance—has been widely used to justify extraction, as long as it happens “slowly enough.” This is a dangerous self-deception.

3. The Forgotten Lessons

The ways ancient civilisations responded to their environments—agricultural practices, water management, land-use systems—are precisely what we need to learn today. If we want to avoid colliding with the extinction event we are creating, these lessons must be learned.

V. Conclusion: The Forgotten Abundance

Seventy million years ago, beetles bored holes in the bones of dinosaurs. Flowering plants flourished 10 million years before they were “supposed” to. Australian forests thrived under more rainfall than today. Ancient civilisations sustained themselves for millennia—without depleting the world they depended on.

The past was not simpler. It was abundant.

This is not an academic question—it is a philosophical one about how we understand our place in the world.

If the past was more complex than we thought, the future could be too—if we choose to make it so.

We cannot survive by digging up fragments of extinction events. We must learn to endure.

Andrew Klein

Dedicated to my wife ‘S’, who has put up with my urge to learn for many years.

References

1. Belaústegui, Z., et al. (2026). The fossil record of insect bone bioerosion: Insights from titanosaur remains at Lo Hueco (Late Cretaceous, Spain) and implications for continental ichnofacies. Earth-Science Reviews, 280, 105561.

2. University of Barcelona. (2026, June 26). New discoveries on titanosaur remains from the Lo Hueco site in Spain. EurekAlert!

3. University of California – Berkeley. (2026, June 25). Fossils upend catastrophist narrative that flowering plants flourished only after dinosaur extinction. EurekAlert!

4. Lee, J., et al. (2026). Botanical Pompeii: Angiosperm dominance in Late Cretaceous forests 10 million years before the K-Pg boundary. UC Berkeley.

5. Zhang, Y., & Wiens, J. J. (2026). Cryptic species are widespread across vertebrates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 293(2064), 20252377.

6. University of Arizona. (2026, March 2). Study finds Earth may have twice as many vertebrate species as previously thought. EurekAlert!

7. Fossil evidence for a hyperdiverse sclerophyll flora under a non–Mediterranean-type climate. (2013). PNAS, 110(9), 3423-3428.

8. Zhang, Y., & Wiens, J. J. (2026). Cryptic species are widespread across vertebrates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

9. Lucero, L. J. (2025). Maya wisdom should guide humanity’s future. University of Illinois Press.

10. Chepstow-Lusty, A., et al. (2025). Trees, terraces and llamas: Resilient watershed management and sustainable agriculture the Inca way. Ambio.

11. Vivian, R. G., & Fladd, S. G. Capturing Water: Puebloan Resilience and Agricultural Sustainability in Chaco Canyon. University of Utah Press.

12. From the characteristics of Chinese civilisation to the resilience of agricultural culture. (2025). People’s Forum.

13. Reasons and lessons from the sustained development of ancient Chinese civilisation. (2006). Environmental Protection.