INTRODUCTION
By DESMOND MORRIS
As soon as I saw this book, I wished I had written it myself. It is a marvellous idea, beautifully presented. Many years ago, as a young zoologist, I started inventing imaginary creatures, drawing and painting them as an enjoyable contrast to the demands of my scientific studies. Released from the restrictions of evolution as it really is, I was able to follow my own, private evolutionary whims. I could make monsters and strange organisms, plant-growths and fabulous beasts of any colour, shape and size I liked, letting them change and develop according to my own rules, giving my imagination full rein. I called them my biomorphs and they became as real to me as the animals and plants of the natural world.
Dougal Dixon's mind has obviously been working in a similar way, although the creatures he has brought to life are very different from mine. Instead of inventing a parallel evolution, as though it were taking place on another world, he has given himself the intriguing task of contemplating a future evolution on our own planet, closely based on species that exist at present. By waving a time-wand and eliminating today's dominant species, including man, he has been able to watch, through his mind's eye, the lesser animals gradually taking over as the major occupants of the earth's surface.
Setting his scenario in the distant future, about 50 million years from now, he has given the members of his new animal kingdom time to undergo dramatic changes in structure and behaviour. But in doing this he has never allowed himself to become too outlandish in his invention. He has created his fauna of the future so painstakingly that each kind of animal teaches us an important lesson about the known processes of past evolution - about adaptation and specialization, convergence and radiation. By introducing us to fictitious examples of these factual processes, his book is not only great fun to read but also has real scientific value. The animals on these pages may be imaginary, but they illustrate vividly a whole range of important biological principles. It is this � the way in which he has perfectly balanced his vivid dreamings with a strict scientific discipline � that makes his book so successful and his animals so convincing and, incidentally, so superior to the often ridiculous monsters invented by the cheaper brands of Science Fiction.
The only danger in reading this delightful volume is that some of you may reach the point where you suddenly feel saddened by the thought that the animals meticulously depicted in it do not exist now. It would be so fascinating to be able to set off on an expedition and watch them all through a pair of binoculars, moving about on the surface of today's earth. Personally, I feel this very strongly as I turn the pages and there is probably no greater praise that I can offer the author than that....