Tristan S. Rapp is a biologist, essayist and amateur prehistorian, occasionally graced with insights among his purple prose

It is always difficult to figure what exactly to say about oneself in such a section as this—that I am a biologist by education, yes, that is true—specialised in megafauna and the Pleistocene extinctions—also true, so far as it goes. That I write essays, scientific analyses and (in dark secrecy) even the occasional piece of verse, all true as well. Since 2021 I have run the website theextinctions.com with a long-time friend and fellow biologist, dedicated to the exploration and investigation of extinctions, past and present, of landscape change and the advent of today’s denuded nature. It has been a fair success, garnering a wide scholarly readership, and I am quite proud of it.

My fundamental motive, however, is nothing so specific as a targeted focus on ecology or the murky past: I am interested in the world as such, in all its depth and all its mystery. I write and read widely, on history, anthropology, philosophy and theology; I have travelled widely, in Africa and elsewhere—I hope one day to publish an anthology on the oral folklore of the Maasai, and other African matters besides. Time will tell. This blog, beyond its service as a portfolio of sorts, is an outlet for that passion. Naturally, the result will be quite eclectic.