[.ca] Future Is Wild (ISBN 1405309040)

Very informative book.:
Any fan of "The Future is Wild" and other speculative future evolutionary theories would be pleased by this great coffee table book. Not only does it have large, splendid full-color pictures of all the animals from the documentary's episodes, but it explains in-depth the evolution of each creature: what it looks like, what its lifestyle is, and why. Dougal Dixon is quite good at predicting based on science what life will be like millions of years in the future. After all, billions of years ago, who would have guessed that humans would have evolved, or any of the other amazing creatures of today? When you consider some of the weird animals the crawl the earth right now as we speak, this book seems much more credible than you might originally think. There are definite scientific reasons behind these predictions; they're not the work of crazy science fiction authors who are just trying to be as "far out" as possible.

Unscientific:
Lots of pretty pictures, but there is no evidence that any of these creatures will exist in the future. The concepts of things like the Ocean Phantom have no relation to fact, it's just pure speculation on the part of these "biologists"; and they seem to have gone back in time with the Toraton. The animals today are far more interesting, and they're real.

The Future Is Wild:
How wonderful it would be if we could only peek out of our windows and see how the world would be 200 million years from now! What kind of creatures, birds, mammals, flowers, organisms, and humans, would inhabit planet earth? Authors Dougal Dixon and John Adams with the support of several scientists specializing in Geology, Zoology, Paleontology, Biology, Marine Biology, Herpetology, and other inter-related disciplines, have authored a fascinating book entitled The Future Is Wild. Testing our imagination to its limits, the authors have been able to give us a glimpse into what life will be on planet earth 200 million years from now. As indicated in the introduction, "the organisms you'll encounter in this book are based on fundamental biological and evolutionary principles. They could, and may yet, exist." The organisation of this magnificent book is divided into five sections each giving the reader a broad perspective of what has transpired in the past and what can be expected in millions of years from today. In order to imagine how the future of planet earth will appear, it is necessary to have some basic knowledge of what transpired during the past millions of years. The first section of the book presents a brief resumé of earth's history illustrating the recurring patterns of evolution. The next three sections devote themselves to showing earth 5, 100 and 200 million years from today. If we were to return 5 million years from now we would notice that Earth is at the peak of an Ice Age that has been going on for million of years. According to the authors, the glacial cycle of an Ice age lasts somewhere in the order of 100,000 years. During this time frame, 90,000 years consists of a cold spell while 10,000 years consists of a warm spell, known as interglacial. Our era, or as it is termed in the book, the Human era, took place during one of these warm spells. As a result of the destruction of habitats and ecosystems, as well as the extinction of so many plants and animals, various new animals take over. Among them would be rodents called shagrats filling the ecological niches left vacant. They are the largest animals in the North European region. One hundred million years from now earth is seen as moist and warm; the average temperatures would be four or five degrees higher than what they are today. The ice has melted, sea levels have risen and the world is a global hothouse. Organisms begin to diversify and adapting to their stable environment. The ecosystem will be very vigorous and dynamic. Two hundred million years we can visualize a changing planet. There is a single, huge super continent that shares Earth with a vast, warm ocean. A globe of extremes has been created. One million years have elapsed since 95 percent of species on Earth were extinguished. Science- fiction you might say-however, did we not say the same about the space age, or many of the other inventions during the past century? This is an extraordinary imaginative book that is all the more convincing when you view 100 breath taking computer-generated color photographs of such creatures as ocean fish that fly, grim worms emerging from bumble beetles, forest fish and birds with four wings. Upon examining these spectacular images, we can easily be convinced that the authors have presented a very credible and convincing scenario. Unfortunately, I do not think we will be around to see if their predictions were accurate! Not only is this book educational, it is also a fun read. ...

Hightly authentic yet weird...:
Unlike the 1981 book After Man, this was not as much of a field guide. However, in a sense, it did much better as regards its animals. Many of the animals in After Man (e.g. the Flightless Guinea Fowl, Hawkbower, Trevel, the Rabbucks etc.)looked very similar to modern animals. In The Future is Wild, however, animals have much more differences. Although this book was well written, I would probably recommend After Man.

And Life Goes On...:
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.