Sharks are older than trees. The world is weirder than school had time to tell you. Go find the rest.

A timetable has to leave out almost everything. What you get in class is a thin, orderly selection, and it can leave the impression that the world has been fully described and filed. Then you find out that sharks were swimming around before the first tree existed, and the whole subject reopens.

Follow one piece of weirdness this month until you understand why it is true. Deep sea animals, how old some fungi are, what happened before the dinosaurs. Pick the fact that makes you say that cannot be right, and go and find out why it is.