It sits on the ground with its face upwards and its mouth open. The shape and colouring of its head mimics the appearance of a local flower, and its sweet-smelling saliva mimics nectar. The Flooer, Florifacies mirabila, is one of these new species. On newly-formed volcanic islands in the Pacific, bats arrived before birds did, and radiated to occupy new niches. The cover of After Man: A Zoology of the Future Photograph: Breakdown PressĪs well as being rigorous, After Man manages to be fun. The striking illustrations, with copious annotations, resemble a naturalist’s field notes. Each species has a scientific name which follows the conventions that taxonomists use, and the text describes their behaviours and inter-species interactions. And convergent evolution (the idea that unrelated organisms in similar ecological niches evolve similar adaptations) is everywhere. Crypsis (adaptations to avoid being seen by either predators or prey) is a common theme, as is mimicry. In Dixon’s, it produced an incredibly detailed, thoughtful book, in which the principles of evolutionary theory and ecology are rigorously applied. What new animals evolve? Of course, in other hands this approach could have resulted in a throwaway romp. The premise of the book is simple: take the Earth today, remove the humans, and let evolution take its course for 50 million years. As a child of the eighties, growing up in a science fiction bubble where daleks, vogons and the fighting machines of the War of the Worlds were at least as concrete to me as anything happening in the real world, After Man presented a biologically-themed alternative world to lose myself in. I n 1981, a remarkable book was published: After Man: A Zoology of the Future, by Dougal Dixon.

The future is wild dougal dixon