Just as a heads up, the cable channel Animal Planet ran one of those CGI specials like "Walking with Dinosaurs" tonight--except what they did was a look at three periods of "future Earth" where they extrapolated evolutionary trends to detail life in the future. The two-hour special was called "The Future is Wild," and covered life on Earth at 5 million, 100 million, and 200 million years in the future (for the record, the "frame story" is than humanity has left and sent probes back to watch). Anyhow, some great ideas for creatures and planets. Some highlights:</font>
- 5 Million Years A.D.: The Earth is in a new ice age. In glacial Europe, sabretoothed-predators descended from wolverines hunt cattle-size rats. In the cold desert of the American midwest, 4-foot bats hunt for mole-like birds. In the dessicated Amazonian plains, the last primates--intelligent enough to weave baskets to catch fish--are hunted by 7-foot tall raptors that have regressed to some dinosaur-like characteristics.</font>
- 100 Million Years A.D.: A period of volcanic activity has turned Earth into a virtual waterworld, 75%+ shallow seas. Eastern Africa has broken away, hitting India and turning the Bay of Bengal into a huge Everglades-like swamp. Living there are octopi who can live up to 4 days on land to guard offspring raised in freshwater pools from accidental trampling from 100 ton tortises. In the seas, a 30-foot long jellyfish colony creature moves through specialized members who form sail-like structures (this was probably the most alien creature, although an extrapolation of the Portuguese Man-O-War). In one of the few mountain ranges, the last mammals, tiny mouse-like creatures, are "harvested" by spider colonies divided by caste that use webs to capture grass seeds to feed them.</font>
- 200 Million Years A.D.: Another round of volcanic activity has resulted in mass extinctions. Continental drift has merged the continents into a single land mass, dominated by desert. The vast single sea, wracked by "hypercanes" with 100-foot waves, are ruled by the ultimate sharks, hunting in packs, and 120-foot long squid. The deserts are dominated by termites living on fungi, and there is a vast underground ecosystem in the shallow aquifers in the limestone. And, in a valley in what was Europe, a huge rainforest is the home to elephant-like creatures descended from squid (eight-legged 16-ton creatures whose weight is supported not by bone, but the "stacked-ring" muscular structure of the tentacles) and a smaller arboreal species of squid, who live in roaming communities and demonstrate the first use of tools since humanity left...</font>
) on Animal Planet.
