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Title: The Future is Wild by Dougal Dixon, John Adams ISBN: 1-55297-723-4 Publisher: Firefly Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Very informative book.
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Future Is Wild
Comment: 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. ...
Rating: 2
Summary: Cute, but.....
Comment: There are some things to like about this book. Like the TV/DVD series it accompanies, it is certainly colorful and creative, and I thought some of the animals were quite realistic. Like a previous reviewer, I'd also quibble about the quality of the artwork in some places (the animals appear to be painted onto photographic background), and about the fact that the content is limited to that seen in the video (which is better artistically). My major complaint, though, is with the science. The authors appear to have extrapolated forward by looking back. The animals of 5, 100, and 200 million years in the future look disturbingly like animals from that far in our past. For instance, in 200 myr, there will be no birds, which are replaced by flying descendants of codfish that perch in trees (assuming the endangered cod survives the next few decades, at least one ice age, and a mass extinction). This kind of extrapolation ignores what appear to be general evolutionary trends towards increased intelligence, among other things. I won't even go into what's been done to the plants and other organisms... In any event, this is an entertaining book, especially for kids, but don't be surprised if biologists groan when reading it.
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Title: After Man : A Zoology of the Future by Dougal Dixon ISBN: 0312194331 Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: 15 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Wild World of the Future by Claire Pye, John Adams, Dougal Dixon, Mel Pickering, Peter Bull Art Studio Ill ISBN: 1552977250 Publisher: Firefly Books (J) Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Future Evolution by Peter Ward ISBN: 0716734966 Publisher: W H Freeman & Co. Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Extraterrestrials: A Field Guide for Earthlings by Terence Dickinson, Adolf Schaller ISBN: 0921820879 Publisher: Camden House Pub Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Science of Aliens by Clifford A. Pickover, Clifford Pickover ISBN: 0465073158 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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