The descendants of dinosaurs are leaving us, and we don’t know how to register the loss.

I. IT DAWNS

Imagine you awake early one morning to hear about the disappearance of 100 million people from North America. That’s right. A hundred million people removed from the continent’s population over a 50-year period.

Oh my, you might say over your coffee. How catastrophic. “I live here. And why didn’t anyone notice?”

And that news is followed by another tidbit that says 400 million citizens have also disappeared in Europe in less than two decades.

Oh no, you might add. “I have relatives there.”

Then you look for the causes. The researchers share what they know.

The majority of the disappeared, they say, simply lost their homes and never recovered from the trauma, like Australians overwhelmed by bushfires. Others died in accidents or were systematically poisoned.

So what do you make of this information?

Is it fake news? Do you sit mortified in your chair? Do you scream? Do you reach for an opioid? Do you put on augmented reality glasses?