How T-Rex sent me on a journey of enlightenment

Reading time: 3 minutes

Jan 26, 2024

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I spend most evenings innocently flipping through books with my 2.5-year-old son before bedtime. This usually prompts discussions about cars, trucks, lions and hippos - you know, the usual. But then, a few nights ago, we stumbled upon a book about dinosaur discoveries in South Africa which triggered an unexpected cascade of brain explosions.

Let me explain.

Although South Africa has some of the most spectacular wildlife on earth, I’ve never thought about a T-Rex strolling past Table Mountain.

If I think for too long about the concept of gigantic lizards once roaming in my backyard, my brain melts. It’s like trying to wrap your head around the concept of God or the size of the universe. I mean, imagine looking into the sky and seeing this thing:

Like a giraffe with wings, the Quetzalcoatlus northropi ruled the skies for millions of years and had an 11-metre wing span. Nuts.

(Side note: Strictly speaking, the flying reptiles that lived during the time of the dinosaurs are not dinosaurs. The Quetzalcoatlus northropi is what you call a Pterosaur.)

As far as scientists know, the Quetzalcoatlus northropi didn’t roam the skies of South Africa. But here are a few dinosaurs that did.

In 2018, scientists discovered the remains of Ledumahadi Mafube around the quaint town of Clarens. Twice the size of an African elephant, this behemoth weighed 12 tons, stretching about 14 metres.

Massospondylus, another Clarens local (which I’ve come to learn was South Africa’s Jurassic Park), is a smaller but still impressive creature. These guys measured about 4-6 meters and, similar to a buffalo, weighed between 500-1000 kg. (Another side note: my brain melted a second time trying to pronounce and think of the plural form of the word Mass-os-pon-dy-lus. Massospondyli, perhaps? No, the correct answer is Massospondyluses).

On the lighter side is the Nqwebasaurus - a feathery, chicken-sized sprinter once found in the Eastern Cape. This little dynamo was about 1 meter long and weighed 10-15 kg.

My brain melted a third time thinking about the fact that these prehistoric titans lived for millions and millions of years, and all that’s left of them are bones in the ground. Comparatively, homo sapiens have been around for only 300 000 years. Thus, it’s logical that, like the mighty dinosaurs, humankind will one day perish. You, everyone you love, and everyone else will one day die. The human species will cease to exist. Fourth brain melt.

Now, on the face of it, reflecting on my impending demise is morbid. But watching his famous (43m views on YouTube) Commencement Address at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs gave me a different perspective:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

Jobs’s thinking wasn’t novel. Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning “remember you must die”. It is an ancient Stoic philosophical practice of reflecting on mortality. Two thousand years ago, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in his private journal, “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

Appreciating mortality is terrifying, but it creates priority. It also gives perspective, making it easier not to sweat the small stuff. Weirdly, thinking about death is kinda liberating.

And so, a bedtime story about dinosaurs ended up being a gateway to a mind-melting existential rollercoaster.