Fossil Hunter - Musings of The Watcher

Musings of The Watcher

Also complementing the main plot are the "Musings of the Watcher", interspersed through the book and told in flashback from the first person perspective of a god-like entity whose consciousness has survived from the previous cycle of creation.

The Watcher was originally an extraterrestrial being that existed in the universe prior to the birth of the current one. Its consciousness survived into the current universe, which has different physical laws that place harsher constrictions on the ability for life to flourish. Life originated in this universe on "The crucible"; The Watcher, knowing that only a few species would survive on this world, transported some creatures to other worlds using dark matter funnels, to try to seed as much life throughout the universe as possible.

Millions of years later, a sentient species called the Jijaki evolved from a transplanted population of Opabinia. The Watcher learned their language by observing broadcasts of Kijititatak Gikta, an educational animated program for Jijaki children, and established contact by writing "Howdy boys and girls and little neuters!" in the sky, (this being the catch phrase of Tilk, the cartoon's protagonist.) A religion worshipping The Watcher quickly arose.

Meanwhile, on the Crucible, dinosaurs and mammals had long been evolving alongside one another. Both showed potential for evolving into sentient races, but only one could possibly arise on this world, due to the dinosaurs' ecological stranglehold on the planet. The Watcher sent his Jijaki, in spacecraft made from the blue material, to gather life forms from earth (sans mammals) to populate another world set aside for them. Introducing these dinosaurs to a moon orbiting a gas giant, The Watcher flung a meteorite at The Crucible, wiping out the remaining dinosaurs so that the mammals could inherit the earth.

In order to nudge the evolution of the dinosaurs towards intelligence, The Watcher and the Jijaki chose to resort to genetic engineering. The Jijaki wished to use Troodon as the base, but The Watcher saw more potential in the Tyrannosaurs due to their long and successful history as a group. The only problem was that Tyrannosaur arms were far too reduced. The Jijaki modified the genetic code of a sample of Nanotyrannus to bring back the five ancestral digits buried in their junk DNA. With more capable forelimbs and enough time, Nanotyrannus eventually evolved into the Quintaglios.

Meanwhile, on the Jijaki homeworld, nuclear war broke out, wiping out all Jijaki except for those on the Space Arks. The last Ark crashed on the Quintaglio homeworld, rendering the species extinct, and The Watcher with no means to seed further life throughout the universe. With the Quintaglios' moon orbit spiraling in towards the Gas Giant, The Watcher can do nothing except wait and hope the Quintaglios figure out their perilous situation before it's too late.