He Fast-Forwarded Evolution into the Future

Some 50 million years from now, a long-limbed, long-necked, and long-eared herbivore roams the temperate woods and grasslands of the Northern Continent. The Common Rabbuck (Ungulagus silvicultrix) appears to be a cross between a white tailed deer, a giraffe, and a rabbit. Its natural predator is a wolf-sized muscular rodent with fearsome fangs called the Falanx (Amphimorphodus cynomorphus), which hunts in a pack. In the rainforest canopies in what had once been Africa and Asia, a lean and tall cat called the Striger (Saevitia feliforme) moves through the branches with opposable fingers and prehensile tail.

These are only a few of the dozens of animals that appear in , Dougal Dixon’s 1981 book that takes readers to the late Cenozoic epoch known as the Posthomic, the era “After Man.” In his introduction to , biologist, author, and TV presenter Desmond Morris would enthuse, “as soon as I saw this book, I wished I had written it.” Nominated for the Hugo Award, and something of a cult classic, would go on to spawn a series of books, a television show, and the discipline of speculative