Enlarge / FX/Hulu's Shōgun is a stunning new adaptation of the bestselling 1975 novel by James Clavell. (credit: FX/Hulu)

FX/Hulu's new historical epic series, Shōgun, based on the bestselling 1975 novel by James Clavell, has met with both popular and critical acclaim since its February premiere, drawing over 9 million views across all platforms in the first six days alone. The storytelling, the characters, the stellar performances, the expert pacing all contribute to that success. But it's also a visually stunning achievement that brings 17th-century feudal Japan to vivid life, thanks to masterful special effects that have been woven in so seamlessly, it can be challenging to distinguish between the CGI and the real footage.

The novel is a fictionalized account of the key players and events in 17th-century feudal Japan that ultimately led to the naming of a new shōgun (central ruler), Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the advent of the Edo period. The climactic event was the October 21, 1600, Battle of Sekigahara, in which Tokugawa defeated a coalition of clans led by Ishida Mitsunari. Clavell's novel also includes a fictionalized version of an English navigator named William Adams, aka Miura Anjiin ("the pilot of Miura"), who was the first of his nation to reach Japan in 1600, eventually becoming a samurai and one of Tokugawa's key advisers.

Clavell's epic saga was a blockbuster success, selling over 6 million copies by 1980. The author changed the names of all the main characters, purportedly to "add narrative deniability," and despite some inevitable inaccuracies and authorial liberties, the novel is breathtaking in scope, chock-full of encyclopedic period details. In fact, Shōgun is often credited with introducing an entire generation of Western readers to Japanese history and culture. "In sheer quantity, Shōgun has probably conveyed more information about Japan to more people than all the combined writings of scholars, journalists, and novelists since the Pacific War," an editor named Henry Smith wrote in 1980.

It was also just a cracking good read and perfect fodder for the miniseries craze that hit broadcast TV in the late 1970s and early 1980s, driven by the runaway success of 1977's Roots. A nine-hour miniseries adaptation of Shōgun ran over five nights in September 1980, starring Richard Chamberlain as John Blackthorne and Toshiro Mifune as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, the fictional characters based on Adams and Tokugawa, respectively. It, too, was a massive success, driving even more sales of Clavell's novel, although the reception in Japan was far more negative.

Hiroyuki Sanada stars as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, a character based on the historical figure Tokugawa Ieyasu. (credit: FX/Hulu)

Fast-forward to 2018, when FX announced that it had made a straight-to-series order for a new adaptation of the novel, created by Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo. This time around, Cosmo Jarvis (Peaky Blinders, Raised by Wolves) stars as Blackthorne, while Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai, John Wick: Chapter 4) plays Toranaga. It's been described as "a Game of Thrones set in 17th century Japan," although calling it a 17th century Japanese Godfather also captures the essence of the new series.

This new incarnation of Shōgun opens in 1600. Japan's Taikō died the year before, leaving five regents equally responsible for protecting his heir until the child comes of age. Toranaga is one such regent, but his rival, Lord Ishido (Takehiro Hira), conspires with the other three to have Toranaga impeached, with the ultimate goal of double-crossing his co-conspirators, killing the child, and ruling himself. Meanwhile, Blackthorne's ship, Erasmus, wrecks on the shore of the coastal village Ajiiro, where Portuguese Catholic priests try to turn the local samurai against the Protestant survivors.

Blackthorne finds himself embroiled in this hotbed of political intrigue when Toranaga takes a shine to him, envisioning a key role for the English pilot in Toranaga's own secret machinations. There is a scheming local lord, Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) trying to play both sides; a charming Spanish sailor named Vasco Rodrigues (Nestor Carbonell, Lost) who befriends Blackthorne; and the alluring translator, Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), who finds herself torn between her loyalty to Toranaga and her Catholic faith—not to mention a growing attraction to the foreign Anjin.

The responsibility for putting together all those seamless special effects fell to VFX supervisor Michael Cliett, whose extensive credits include Falling Skies, iZombie, Arrow, The 100, and Serenity. Cliett and his team spent a grueling three years agonizing over every historical detail. "It was all worth it, all the blood, sweat, and tears," Cliett told Ars. "I'm so proud of the show and I'm so grateful at the reception that it's gotten, the recognition of our hard work. I'm grateful to have been part of it."

Ars caught up with Cliett to learn more.

(WARNING: Some spoilers below.)

John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) is based on 17th-century English navigator William Adams. (credit: FX/Hulu)

Ars Technica: Hiroyuki Sanada is both a lead actor and producer on Shōgun and has stressed how important it was to him for the series to be authentic to Japanese history. How did that impact the VFX?  

Michael Cliett: Everything had to be accurate from a historical standpoint. The buildings and the environments we built had to be accurate, down to the tile work, the patterns, down to the last detail. It was a tremendous collaboration effort between us and numerous Japanese historians and advisers that we brought over.

That carried into even the crowds and the armies—the digital people that we built and the animation cycles we had to do for the armies. In Episode Five, Toranaga comes to the beach with 100,000 soldiers; we had 100 real people there. The army, the townspeople for the set extensions through the cities and the towns, they walked differently than the peasants in Ajiro, the little village. We did motion capture shoots with Japanese people and experts in the gestures of it all. We really strove to present an authentic version of the feudal Sengoku era in Japan. And I think we achieved that. I hope that our audience is fully immersed in that world.

Ars Technica:  What was your guiding philosophy behind the VFX? 

Michael Cliett: We wanted the visual effects to be as invisible and as seamless as possible, all in service of the story and in an effort to fully immerse our audience into 1600 feudal Japan. For me, there's no greater compliment when you're able to watch a show and you know that there must have been visual effects, but you're immersed in the story, and you're not thinking about whether they are bad or good special effects. You shouldn't be thinking about the fact that those are visual effects.

Anna Sawai plays Toda Mariko, torn between her loyalty to Toranaga and her Catholic faith. (credit: FX/Hulu)

When we did the earthquake sequence in Episode Five, for instance, we had our immediate practical location right there. Everything around that immediate practical location became a full 3D environment, and I don't think you can tell. In Episode Four when they're doing the cannon training, we filmed that out in a place with no mountains. It's supposed to be in a field near Ajiro, surrounded by a mountainous region, because that's the same field that Toranaga is going to put his army and build their encampment. It's the same field that the landslides happen in Episode Five, when there is an earthquake; all the mountains collapse and bury the army. So any of those mountains you see in Episode Four, around that training field, those were added by visual effects.

When we did the storm sequence in Episode One, with the ship going from shot to shot, we had to make sure that the boat's orientation matched where it was going from the CG shot to the practical shot on deck. The ocean, the waves, that had to match from cut to cut. So great care was taken to make sure that everything was as invisible and as seamless as possible.

Ars Technica: This was a brutal period, and the series doesn't shy away from occasionally depicting violence, whether it's beheadings, seppuku, or one memorable scene in the pilot in which a sailor is quite literally boiled alive. How did you handle those elements?

Michael Cliett: Visual effects had a big hand in all of that, even the one shot of the poor guy getting boiled in the pot. That was the full digital head, even the hair. There was an actor there, but we replaced the actor with a digital double, completely CG. It gets hard to a degree if you're emotionally attached to what's happening. You have to detach from it a little bit and focus more on the technical aspects and think about that rather than the horror of what's actually happening in the moment. Later you can sit back and be like, "Oh, wow."

We'll spare you a closer look at that poor sailor being boiled alive. (credit: FX/Hulu)

Case in point, the beheading in Episode One. That's a perfect example of what I mean by having the VFX be in service of the story. That was a really important shot for us, because that moment was meant to show the audience that Blackthorne might as well be on an alien planet—a shocking moment to show how much of a fish out of water he is. What is this world he has stepped into? I remember going down to LA in early February and sitting in the Academy Theater with 1,000 other people watching the premiere. That moment happened and there was a collective gasp. I was, like, "Yes!"

But when we were working on it, we were thinking about, okay, the average weight of a human head is 10 pounds. Once it's separated from the body, that inertia will carry it so far. Once the blade hits, it's going to spin fast and then gravity is going to take over. We probably went through 100 iterations of that animation of the head coming off before we said, "Okay, that looks real. That's right."

The original shot was just the actor standing there. When we cued him, he slumped down and dropped to his knees out of frame. We did a digital scan of his head, and then we made a CG version of it. The moment the CG blade comes through and separates his head, in one frame and the next, it's swapped with the CG head that starts spinning. The blood is added, and then we have that head drop out of frame with a headless digital prosthetic body. The physics are always important, just like with the chain cannon shots going through Jozen and his men at the end of Episode Four. We ran multiple physics simulations on all of that to see what would really happen, in order to get that right before we even started the actual shots.

Blackthorne trains Toranaga's men in the art of the English cannon. (credit: FX/Hulu)

Ars Technica: What were the biggest challenges for the VFX team? 

Michael Cliett: Ensuring the authenticity factor throughout the process was easily the most challenging thing. Everything we did, there had to be a story behind it as far as why. We couldn't just do something because it looked cool. That scene in Episode Seven with Saeki bringing his ships in to surround Ajiro, to block all the exits off—we did a tremendous amount of research around those ships. Those were actually the ships used by General Ishida, the real Ishida, not our [fictional] Ishido. He invaded Korea with those boats in 1597, three years before our story takes place. So that's where we got all those designs.

In Episode Three, for the ship race out of Osaka, we didn't really have that story figured out when we shot it. We still shot a bunch of things, and I had a good idea myself of what we needed to do as far as specific shots. But it wasn't until we really got into the post end that everything came together. I went down to LA for three months trying to lock down that edit, and I think it worked pretty well in the end. But that was the biggest specific challenge.

Ars Technica: The special effects here are so much better than what was available for the 1980 adaptation of Clavell's novel. How has the attitude toward VFX changed in the era of streaming television? 

Michael Cliett: Certainly, the access to the technology has changed. You used to need computers half the size of a house to run some of the software that we have, and now, anybody's personal computer can do it. And I think there's more money in some of these TV shows now than there was prior. There's been a big investment into streaming, and they've recognized that the budgets need to be bigger for the visual effects as well. It's always been a very labor-intensive process. You don't just press some buttons. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of people to get it right. It doesn't just happen; it's an art. Studios have come to understand that better. The technology's always evolving and getting better. And I think in the future, we'll be able to do more with less.

Historical accuracy was a top priority for everyone, from the writers and set designers to the VFX team. (credit: FX/Hulu)

Ars Technica: Do you envision AI being used in VFX in the future?

Michael Cliett: I think there's a small conglomerate that hopes AI can replace a lot of jobs. I think it'll enable studios to do more and to take on more work. There's going to be a bit of a consolidation of visual effects houses, which I think is going to be good for the business. There's a lot of visual effects houses competing for a lot of work and undercutting each other. It's like a race to the bottom. So AI is going to force some level of consolidation across the board. We'll have to wait around and see what happens.

I don't think AI is going to replace the need for artists. If people start producing things strictly using AI, eventually society will be turned off by that. People are going to want to see human-created art and entertainment, with AI-assisted, because AI is just echoing humans anyway. For me, when these AI images first started coming out, I was like, "Whoa, those look really good. That's cool." When I look into it now, the shine's wearing thin. Yeah, it might look good, but I would much rather go to a museum and stare at a Van Gogh for three hours. There's so much more meaning behind that, and there's nothing behind that AI image.

I hope we, as a society, demand that things continue to be created by humans. There's so much more value and interest in that. For me, I always want to know how things were created. What was in the writer's head, what was in the cinematographer's head? And I'm not the only one. There are a lot of people interested in the behind-the-scenes process. If it's just AI, there's not going to be any of that, and it's just going to be hollow and empty. So I think AI will be a tool that will enable us to get better and faster and more productive and more streamlined, but it will never replace people.

All episodes of Shōgun are now streaming on Hulu.

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Enlarge (credit: Razer)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week a proposed settlement [PDF] against Razer that would see the tech company pay $1,171,254.33 for its misleading claims about the Zephyr RGB face mask. Razer marketed the device as offering capabilities similar to those of an N95 respirator.

On October 21, 2021, Razer began selling the Zephyr and its replacement filters. Razer continued to sell the mask until January 2022 and kept pushing the filters until July 2022, according to the FTC's complaint [PDF].

Per the FTC, when Razer.com listed the Zephyr in 2021, it said that the mask offered "replaceable N95 Grade filters" and that Zephyr was "FDA-registered and lab-tested for 99 percent BFE [bacterial filtration efficiency]" and offered "greater protection compared to standard disposable/cloth masks, and filters air both inhaled and exhaled to safeguard you and others around you." Razer's site also reportedly said that the mask was "not tested specifically against the COVID-19 virus, but offers the same functionality and adequate protection due to its 99 percent BFE rating.”

The FTC's complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, contains examples—from online statements from Razer's CEO to posts on Razer's social media accounts and website—describing the Zephyr as offering N95 or N95 grade capabilities since at least January 2021.

However, the FTC said that Razer never got the Zephyr tested by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health or the US Food and Drug Administration and that the Zephyr never received N95 certification.

“[Razer] falsely claimed, in the midst of a global pandemic, that their face mask was the equivalent of an N95 certified respirator,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

FTC says Razer knew Zephyr wasn’t N95 equivalent

The "99 percent BFE rating" that Razer touted only referred to the mask's filters, however, and per the FTC's complaint: "Razer had no evidence that the mask as a whole would offer adequate protection against the COVID-19 virus based solely on the BFE characteristic of the filter material."

It continues:

In fact, Razer knew from testing the PFE [Particulate Filtration Efficiency] performance of the Zephyr that the mask as a whole performed worse with respect to filtering out foreign material than the filter material did on its own.

In the months before the Zephyr's release, a third party, Intertek, tested the mask. The best results for the device showed it reaching a maximum PFE level "of 83.2 percent with the fans off and 86.3 percent with the fans on" and that the mask "frequently tested much lower," per FTC's complaint. The figures are notably lower than the minimum PFE level of 95 percent required for an N95 respirator.

Razer kept pushing Zephyr despite warnings

The FTC's complaint against Razer, which is best known for high-priced, RGB-riddled PC gaming peripherals, claimed that Razer continued promoting the Zephyr despite consultants highlighting the mask's lack of certification and protection.

“Their use of deceptive advertising and misinformation posed a risk to public health and safety," the FTC's complaint said.

According to the FTC, in March 2021, Intertek warned Razer via email against saying that the Zephyr uses an N95 grade filter because N95 "is not relevant to this product, and the claim will cause confusion."

Still, on August 20, 2021, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan said via Facebook: "One of our beta tests of the Razer Zephyr pinged me and said, 'Isn't this just an N95, but a lot more comfortable and reusable?' Well, that's really the point. For us to achieve N95 grade 99 percent BFE filters and ensure it's reusable, all other features are secondary."

The FTC also accused Razer's senior director of regulator and compliance of deciding in September 2021 to remove disclaimer text on the Zephyr's packaging that employee testers proposed, namely that the mask "is not a medical device, respirator [or] surgical mask" and that the "product is not FDA-approved." Razer's ultimate disclaimer noted that the mask is not personal protective equipment and is only intended for use with Zephyr Filters, though.

In November 2021, the Justice and Consumer Protection Agency of Hamburg, Germany sent Razer a letter telling the firm that it opened an inquiry about the Zephyr's health claims, the FTC said. Razer stopped selling the mask in the European Union on December 13, 2021, after receiving a follow-up letter, but continued selling the device in the US.

Fewer than 6 percent of US customers refunded ... so far

On January 13, 2022, after pressure from reviewers and Razer's global PR director, Razer publicly backtracked on its claims. In an email to customers, Razer said that while the Zephyr's filters were "tested for 95 percent Particulate Filtration Efficiency (PFE) and 99 percent Bacterial Filtration Efficiency (BFE) ... the wearable by itself is not a medical device nor certified as an N95 mask." Razer also said it would remove all references to "N95 Grade Filter" from marketing materials. However, the FTC said that only customers who bought the mask from Razer's website or provided their emails to physical Razer stores when buying a mask received the email.

Further, Razer's email reportedly failed to mention that the company offered full refunds. Due to Razer declining refunds for users outside the 14-day purchase window or who had used or opened the mask and/or filters, Razer reportedly refunded fewer than 6 percent of Zephyr purchases in the US.

However, the proposed settlement against Razer includes a $100,000 civil penalty, plus $1,071,254.33, which the FTC said is equal to the amount of revenue Razer made from the Zephyr and will go toward refunding "defrauded consumers."

Razer didn't respond to Ars' request for comment before this story's publication. We'll update if we hear back.

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Enlarge / Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao arrives at federal court in Seattle for sentencing on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (credit: Getty Images | Changpeng Zhao)

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced today to four months in prison after pleading guilty to failing to take effective measures against money laundering. The billionaire who formerly ran the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange previously agreed to a plea deal that also required him to pay a $50 million fine.

The US government's sentencing request asked for three years in prison. Zhao's sentencing memorandum asked for probation without any prison time.

Forbes estimates Zhao's net worth at $33 billion. He pleaded guilty to failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.

Zhao's cooperation with law enforcement was cited by US District Judge Richard Jones as a reason for imposing a significantly lower sentence than was requested by prosecutors, according to The Verge.

"Before handing down the sentence, Jones faulted Zhao for putting growth and profits before complying with US laws," Reuters wrote. The sentencing hearing was in federal court in Seattle.

Jones was quoted as saying to Zhao that "you had the wherewithal, the finance capabilities, and the people power to make sure that every single regulation had to be complied with, and so you failed at that opportunity."

US: Zhao willfully violated law

The government's sentencing recommendation said that "Zhao's willful violation of US law was no accident or oversight. He made a business decision that violating US law was the best way to attract users, build his company, and line his pockets."

The US said Zhao bragged that if Binance complied with US law, it would not be "as big as we are today."

"Despite knowing Binance was required to comply with US law, Zhao chose not to register the company with US regulators; he chose not to comply with fundamental US anti-money-laundering (AML) requirements; he chose not to implement and maintain an effective know-your-customer (KYC) system, which prevented effective transaction monitoring and allowed suspicious and criminal users to transact through Binance," the US said.

Zhao also "directed Binance employees in a sophisticated scheme to disguise their customers' locations in an effort to deceive regulators about Binance's client base," the US told the court.

Zhao's sentencing memorandum denied criminal intent. "Generalized knowledge that the Company's compliance program did not eliminate all risk of criminal activity does not mean that Mr. Zhao knew or intended for any funds to be criminally derived (he manifestly did not)," the filing said.

Zhao traveled to the US from his home in the United Arab Emirates to take responsibility, his legal team's filing said. "He is a first-time, non-violent offender who committed an offense with no intention to harm anyone. He presents no risk of recidivism. He has appeared in this country voluntarily to accept responsibility," the plea for lenience said.

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  Weird Al's Rambo parody was a drop in the bucket amidst all the other jokes in the film, but it's among the most memorable. [credit: Shout Factory ]

Believe it or not, it's been 35 years since Weird Al's quotable cult classic UHF first came out. Right on time for that anniversary, Shout Factory will release an UltraHD Blu-ray of the movie. This will be the first time it has ever been available in 4K.

Releasing July 2 but pre-ordering now, the disc will include a new 4K scan of the original 35mm negative, along with audio commentary from Weird Al and Jay Levy, the film's director.

It will also come bundled with a standard HD Blu-ray that includes the film in that older format along with a bunch of special features, including video of a 2014 Comic-Con panel on the movie, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes videos, and some other assets. Some of those return from the movie's last physical edition, which was a 25th anniversary HD Blu-ray, but not 4K.

There will be deluxe editions that include some physical collectibles, including an 18×24-inch poster of the "original theatrical artwork," as well as a new, same-sized poster of new poster art made for this edition. You'll also find 10 scratch-and-sniff stickers alongside a guide with time prompts for using them, plus some stickers "designed to replicate vintage vending machine prism stickers from the late '80s and early '90s" and a Spatula City fridge magnet. Add to that a 6-inch "UHF Remote Control Stress Relief Collectible." All that stuff is limited to 1,000 units.

For an even smaller number of units of the collector's edition (500), there will be five UHF-themed hard enamel pins.

The set is available in four tiers priced at $40, $53, $76, and $130, which is a mess, but if you're not interested in collecting all the physical doohickies, it's that first price for just the movie that you need to know.

UHF was released in 1989, and it was parody musician Weird Al's first movie starring role and writing credit. Conceived as a series of bits that would allow him to satirize films in the same way he was known for satirizing songs, it, unfortunately, was a box office flop. It gained a small and passionate cult following on VHS throughout the '90s.

Another movie written in part by Weird Al, Weird: The Al Yankovich Story, was released on Roku's streaming channel in 2022. It was a very different kind of movie. Instead of rapid-fire spoofing numerous films like UHF did, it spoofed the musical biopic genre, with Daniel Radcliffe playing Weird Al in a heavily fictionalized account of his life.

The limited-run nature of this UHF release suggests that while the film still has its cult following, it remains outside the mainstream. Its fans probably like it that way, though.

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anexperimentallife:

A Chinook salmon cuts through the clear, cold waters of the Deschutes River of Central Oregon, his iridescent red scales glinting in the sunlight. And he’s not alone. He is just one of thousands of salmon returning to the spawning grounds where they were born.

Today, Chinook are the largest living species within Oncorhynchus, the salmon genus, reaching up to five feet in length. But seven million years ago, a now-extinct species of salmon in the Pacific Northwest, O. rastrosus, would have dwarfed their modern relatives. The fish could grow up to nearly nine feet long—and that’s not even the most intimidating thing about them.

Previous research described the fearsome fish as having two enlarged teeth, earning them the nickname “sabertooth salmon.” Now, a new paper in the journal PLOS ONE shows that these teeth were more like tusks, protruding straight out to the sides from the tip of their jaws, earning them a new moniker: the spike-toothed salmon.

“I'm a little bit over six feet tall and that salmon is broader than I can reach from head to tail,” says University of Oregon paleobiologist and coauthor Edward Davis. “It's an impressive animal. Thinking about trying to wrestle one of those on a fishing line is a difficult proposition.”

In the 1970s, researchers found the first fossil of the giant salmon species in eastern Oregon. To their dismay, the skull was crushed. The team made an educated guess, based on the anatomy of modern salmon, about how the ancient fish pieces fit together, including a “saber tooth” reconstruction for two fang-like fragments.

In 2011, Davis was approached by members of the North American Research Group (NARG), a collection of fossil hunters and amateur paleontologists. At the time, the site where the fossils had been found decades earlier was privately owned and off limits. But NARG members peeking through a fence believed that they’d spotted additional fossils at the site, and enlisted Davis to help them get a closer look. “That’s the benefit of all those volunteers and amateur paleontologists who are keeping their eyes peeled,” says Davis.

The club’s hunch was right. With the property owner’s permission, Davis and his team found additional bones in 2011 and 2014, including their holy grail.

Davis remembers the day in the lab that volunteer Pat Ward, going through the 2014 material, came running up to him, excited about what he’d just found: not one but two nearly complete skulls.

“We ran downstairs and sure enough, we had two skulls and they both had these sideways teeth,” says Davis. “Neither one of us had expected that. That was the moment when we realized that we had something special.”

The unique, tusk-like teeth protrude from the sides of the snout tip, curving slightly, like a weaponized mustache. They would have been useful for defense when making the perilous journey upstream, says Davis, but he thinks there may be more to the salmon's story.

Among several modern salmon and related species, at sexual maturity only males experience structural changes to their jaws, an adaptation used for fighting competitors and defending females during spawning. However, Davis and his team found the unique, tusk-like features on both male and female giant spike-toothed salmon.

“Whatever explanation we can come up with for the teeth has to be something that would be useful for both males and females,” says Davis.

He suspects the salmon could have used the spikes “like elbows to clear out the space around them and get to the best spots.” Modern salmon behavior includes females digging nests, or redds, by pushing their snouts into the sand—if the ancient salmon did the same thing, Davis says, “By having these spike teeth, they'd actually be able to bulldoze out a wider furrow.”

Alas, the reign of these giants wouldn’t last. While modern salmon are typically considered diet generalists, these ancient fish were specialized filter feeders. It's possible that, as oceans cooled, the spike-toothed salmon were outcompeted by other, larger filter feeders, such as baleen whales. The last giant salmon disappeared five million years ago and, even as oceans warm once more, we won’t see their like again.

“Just because it warms up a bit, I don't think we're going to see spike-toothed salmon swimming around,” says University of British Columbia zoologist Eric Taylor, who was not involved in the study but is writing a book on salmon. The evolutionary processes that led to these wondrous “tusked” giants were complex and occurred over millions of years, and are unlikely to reoccur. But, adds Taylor, “There'll be something else that none of us are going to be around to see.”