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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
And Life Goes On..., March 8, 2004
This review is from: The Future is Wild (Paperback)
Following After Man and The New Dinosaurs, Dougal Dixon and several biologists take a look at how the course of evolution might go over the next 200 million years if man left the earth. Made to follow a television mini-series, this lavishly illustrated book features commentaries from leading biologists and a wonderful introduction to evolution and continental drift. All the animals featured are smoothly done in CG art, but there are pictures of modern animals that are similar or even related to these hypothetical beasties. Incidentally, each chapter features certain clips that were not featured on the show the first time it aired, so if you saw the tv special you may have missed certain parts of the book. The book opens up in the next Ice Age 5 million years into the future (a very real possibility btw), and actually matches up closely with Dixon's book "After Man". In this period, northern Europe is covered in ice sheets, where giant rodents and semi-aquatic birds are hunted by gigantic wolverines. The Mediterranean has dried up into a salt desert inhabited by lizards and wild boars (which was not featured on the show). In the Americas, the Midwest has become a sweeping desert/plain where gigantic predatory bats swoop across the sky and quails tunnel underground. And the Amazon has become an endless savannah where giant ground dwelling birds of prey hunt down the last few primates. Jump to 100 million years from now, when the Ice Age ends. A great sea covers much of the earth, and it is warmer and more humid. Giant jellfish and sea slugs lurk in the warm shallow oceans, while India/South Asia has become a large swamp where elephant sized turles, land octopi and giant angler fish live. Antarctica is a tropical forest, inhabited by colorful birds and monsterous insects (this part wasn't in the tv series originally). Meanwhile Australia crashed into Asia forming huge mountains, in which giant spiders harvest rodents while dodging high altitude birds (which BTW feature anatomical adaptations recently discovered in prehistoric birds; victory for Dixon's views!) Then 200 million years in the future a mass extinction eliminated most of the life on earth and the continents have reformed into Pangea II. A colossal inland desert occupies much of Pangea II and in it highly specialized termites co-exist with a variety of worms (not in the original airing). In the oceans the ultimate predators, sharks, have become even more adapted for hunting and prey upon colossal squid while flying fish have adapted to take the niche of birds. A rainshow desert exists beyond coastal mountains, and in it can be found hopping snails and scavenging insects. And in the humid northern forests, fish-birds and predatory fungi can be found, along with terrestrial squid which may one day evolve into intelligent life. All in all, I found this to be a wonderful book. If you enjoyed Dougal Dixon's previous works or saw the television special, you know what to expect. If you have an interest in natural history, evolution or even just sci-fi, then I really suggest checking this book out (along with Dixon's other books like "The New Dinosuars" and "After Man"). Its really a great read and it gets your thoughts going too. So check it out.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Old forms, new faces, September 15, 2003
This review is from: The Future is Wild (Paperback)
Triceratops and rhinos, fish and dolphins, flying bugs, birds and bats: examples of convergent evolution, whereby animals of different phyla and genera take on similar forms. Our Earth's ecosystems have changed, yet many remain similar to their ancient formations. As animals evolve, they take on the properties that allow survival in these ecosystems; with enough similar properties, similar forms arise, each marked by the phylum's unique characteristics (e.g. dolphins breathe air, fish extract oxygen from water). The Future is Wild casts the process of `convergent evolution' into the future. Its playful, yet scientifically informed, speculation on future species is delightful. Familiar faces, such as squid and snails, take on the forms of the jungle and ocean. While many of the illustrations are beautifully done, others suffer from a poorer, cut-and-paste quality. Nonetheless, this makes a conversation-provoking coffee table book. The real strength of this book is its illustration of the naturalist vision, and how this differs from a creationist view, whence humanity is the pinnacle of creation. This book shows that evolution is a continual, i.e. past, present, and future, phenomenon. Life is not a pyramid with humanity at its peak, but a tree with many branches. If humans disappear from the Earth's, life will move on.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
commentary about the future, November 13, 2004
This review is from: The Future is Wild (Paperback)
It is very interesting the presentation of a possible future of our planet. According to the DVD, a group of scientists from different universities gathered to describe a possible vision of out future. We could say, of course, that scientists are better qualified than the rest of us to present this type of scenario. They have studied about this.
But we should remember that scientists are also human beings, and as such, they can be fallible.
As one of them says: "Will this really happen ?"
No one knows. We will not be there to see what really happens.
Some people wrote saying that what they say is NOT POSSIBLE. They are very emphatic. But that attitude is very risky, because whenever new things have been reported, people refuse to believe them.
The giraffe, well known nowadays, a century ago some people said that such an animal could not exist. The celacanth, a fish that lived together with the dinosaurs, was supposed to be extinct until it was caught last century, alive.
In the XVIII century people in England refused to believe that some central African tribes ate raw meat.
The okapi, a strange kind of antelope, was said to be a fantasy.
According to some ancient Phoenician documents, when some mariners described the ice in the northern seas, the listeners laughed and told them that they were insane.
Arthur Conan Doyle said once, by means of his very famous character, Sherlock Holmes:"Life is much stranger than anything that human imagination can conceive."
I would say that some things are unlikely, but impossible is a very strong word.
That is my own experience as well.
Thank you very much for your attention
The English
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