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List of The Future Is Wild species
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This is a list of possible species postulated in the 2003 Animal Planet/ORF and ZDF series The Future Is Wild. The series examined twelve ecosystems at three distant future times. These imaginary species were based on projections of how current species might evolve, and the series features interview segments with current-day scientists who discuss the features of many of the species in question. 5 million years After the warm time period of humanity's reign a new ice age has dawned. In the northern areas most of the land is covered in deep kilometre glaciers while most of the south is hot and dry. Most of the large lakes and rivers are evaporated or dwindling and water is in short supply. In the tropics most of the forests have died out and have become scrubby savannah. Amazonian Grasslands Due to severe drought and the heat of the tropics, the amazon rainforest has dried up and has been replaced by savanna. Here it rains only for two brief months and scattered trees dot the landscape. Wildfires are common through out the year. Babookari The Babookari is a social monkey that inhabits the Amazonian grasslands. It is descended from the uakari, an adaptable monkey that inhabits rainforests. The babookari is the last of the primates. All other primates and their Caribbean relatives are extinct. It can grow to tall. The legs of the babookari lengthened so it can cover long distances and escape predatory carakillers. Its tail also became longer to signal the rest of the troop. Otherwise the bright colors on its bald face and rear work well for signaling. The diet of the babookari is quite variable, eating just about anything available. To satisfy their poor diet, the babookari eat fish . Their predators include carakillers. When Babookaris are born out in the open they are able to open their eyes and run. They learn how to weave baskets and look out for predators. If the leader dies then his oldest son will become the leader. Carakiller The carakiller is a giant flightless bird of prey. A carakiller inhabits the dry Amazonian grasslands. The ancestor of the carakiller was the caracara. The carakiller is much different. The caracara could still fly, but the carakiller became flightless. After becoming flightless, the carakiller specializes in speed. Packs of carakillers scour the grasslands, flushing out babookaris in their wake. The wings of the carakiller became useful in another way - they became arms. The wing is tipped with a sharp claw, used for tearing up its prey. The carakiller stands about , sporting a bald head and neck. The only plumage on its head is a fan of display plumage, like those in the tail of a peacock, used for signaling each other. Carakillers commonly hunt along the edges of brushfires, killing animals struggling to escape from the flames. Its appearance resembles the extinct terror birds, which also lived in South America. There is also some slight resemblance to the 'raptor' dinosaurs of an even earlier time. In a carakiller pack there is one alpha male that mates with all the females. Instead of having separate nests (and risk the loss of eggs) all the females lay their eggs in a single nest which is incubated by the alpha male which only leaves it to get food. Within a few minutes of hatching chicks are able to run and open their eyes. They stay with their father at all times until they are three years old then they start to hunt with their parents. The males are chased off by their father and the females stay. The males will find younger females in other packs and run away with them as modern Zebras do. This keeps the process of interbreeding at bay and insures survival of the species. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Grassland Rattleback The rattleback inhabits the tropical Amazonian grasslands of South America. Its body is covered in tough armored scales, made from compressed hair (such hair forms the scales of pangolins and the horns of rhinoceroses). Rattlebacks are highly territorial, so when two rattlebacks meet, they shake these plates rattle, hence the name "rattleback". The loudest of these territorial displays wins, and the loser retires gracefully. The rattleback evolved from a terrestrial South American rodent, possibly the paca but probably the agouti. Once the rainforests opened into grasslands, the pacas/agoutis had no place to hide and no defense against predators. The pacas/agoutis have to migrate north to find food. The rattleback specializes in such tactics. <div style="clear:both;"></div> The rattleback has massive armored plates to defend itself against predators, like the carakiller. Even its face is armored and its sides are laced with spines. These plates are also used for territorial display, fending off invaders. The rattleback is omnivivorous, feeding on carakiller eggs and vegetation. When there is a bushfire, the rattleback's fire-proof scales help it avoid being burned. The grassland rattleback uses the spines on its sides to lodge itself tightly to the ground so it cannot be easily dislodged by a carakiller and because of this it does not curl up into a ball like modern day pangolins. Mating season usually begins in the brief Amazon spring (Which is two to three months long). Females and males gather together for an ultimate territorial display. The males compete by rattling their scales. the loudest attracts the most females. After this the male and female go to the small groves of trees that dot the landscape where they burrow and mate. The female nurses the young (which grow quickly and are able to eat solid food in fourteen weeks) and the male gets food for the female until she is able to stop nursing (then he leaves). The female will give food to their young until they are 3 months old, then they are on their own. They can be brown, tan, yellow, or white. Mediterranean Basin The tip of Spain has collided with the northern part of Africa and has closed off the Mediterranean sea from the Straits of Gibraltar. In such a dry climate and with no prime water source the Mediterranean sea has dried out only leaving a few salty brine lakes, filled with undrinkable water. The islands have become hardened karst lands with only a few shrubs and trees growing in the cracks and crevices. When it does rain here the water turns the salt flats into a salty mush. Brine Fly Cryptile The cryptile is an agamid lizard, about 18 inches long. It inhabits the salt flats of the dry bed of the Mediterranean Sea. It runs on two legs, minimizing its contact with the hot salt. Its tail is elongated to balance such an agile gait. It has a large net-like frill around its neck, reinforced with ribs of cartilage. The frill is full of holes and covered in a waxy adhesive. The cryptile eats brine flies, using its net-like frill to catch flies, and licking them off with its tongue. Both sexes have an extra crest atop the head, used for display and communication. The only time a cryptile leaves the salt flats is to lay eggs among the limestone plateaus, where it has problems keeping its eggs from being eaten by grykens and scrofas. When the eggs hatch, the young instinctively migrate back to the salt flats. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Gryken The gryken is a small predatory mammal, roughly long and is descended from pine martens and lives on the rocky plateaus on the Mediterranean Basin. It is related to the larger snowstalker, which lives in the Arctic north. Since its ancestors were tree-dwellers, the change to terrestrial life took place during the colder climate of the ice age at this time. A similar evolution occurred in the past, producing prairie dogs and baboons. In the gryken, its tail became shorter and its feet longer. Overall its build is much like that of a dachshund, with an elongated body and short legs. This body design is perfect for wriggling through the deep cracks in the rocky surface, or grykes. However it can only accomplish short bursts of speed for catching prey, such as cryptiles and baby scrofas. To make up for this, the gryken evolved sharp canine teeth for disemboweling its prey. The gryken has probably evolved to take the place of the lynx or another large predator that was around during the time when humans still walked the earth. In fact, it was probably humans that caused the extinction of the dominant predator in that area. This would have left an ecological niche that would need to be filled quickly so as to keep the population of herbivores in check. The gryken was in the best position to fill this niche because it was the only predator left in the area. During the summer Grykens begin to find suited mates. The male will approach a female and they will duel. This is to show if the male is worthy enough to protect the young. After the fight the pair will retreat to a secluded gryke and mate. When the cubs are born the parents take turns watching the young and getting food. The parent will feed their babies regurgitated food like old world dogs and wolves do. When they are seventeen months old they are taught to fend for themselves. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Scrofa The scrofa is descended from wild boars (but are very small by pig standards, only 8-12 inches high) and lives on the remains of Mediterranean islands. They have very narrow legs so they can move quickly and safely climb rocks. They do not appear to be very intelligent and are hunted by the Gryken. The scrofa walks on the tips of its hooves, leaping across the grykes like a pig ballerina. According to the book, males stay with the group as juveniles, and strike out on their own once they reach adulthood. Each scrofa group is co-lead by two dominant females. <div style="clear:both;"></div> <div style="clear:both;"></div> Northern European Ice What was once the romantic city of Paris has become a bleak and bitter cold tundra. Icesheets cover most of the coast and inland is flat and windy. Only a few mosses and grass can survive this weather, in which the tempurature can plummet to -60 and blizzards can appear out of nowhere. The summer is warm and brief. Gannetwhale The gannetwhale is a large seal-like, whale-like seabird that grows 14 feet (4.3 m) long and lives along the Atlantic coast of northern Europe. The gannetwhale evolved from gannets: seabirds that can swim underwater and can also fly. The gannetwhale however is flightless, turning its wings into flippers for swimming. Unfortunately it still needs to return to land to lay eggs, leaving it vulnerable to predators. The female lay a single egg during the short summer, balancing it on its feet so it stays warm. Gannetwhales hunt fish and squid in the Arctic waters. The gannetwhale has a powerful beak and the ability to vomit up half-digested fish and squid from its gut, repelling Snowstalkers which have sensitive noses. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Shagrat The shagrat is a giant rodent that inhabits the northern European tundra. The shagrat is descended from marmots, which today inhabit harsh tundra-like regions in mountains. The shagrat stands tall and is built similarly to mammoths and musk-oxen. They most closely resemble the capybara of the present-day Amazon rainforest. It has short legs, short tail, and other small extremities. Its body is covered with two types of hair: woolly underfur and hollow air-filled guard hairs. Those and a layer of fat beneath the skin protect it from the cold. Shagrats wander in herds, feeding on shrubs and grass. It fears the deadly snowstalker, which brings down weak shagrats with its dagger-like saber-teeth. Its only defense is staying with its herd. Shagrats also defend themselves by making a protective circle. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Snowstalker The Snowstalker is a saber-toothed wolverine. It is descended from the wolverine and inhabits the tundra of Northern Europe. The saber-teeth evolved to kill large shagrats, since the snowstalker should not waste too much energy bringing down large prey. All the snowstalker does is bite and wait for its victim to die. Also, it will sometimes approach nesting gannetwhales to get at their eggs and chicks. The snowstalker grows high at the shoulder, in length and weigh at 75 pounds, making it larger than its ancestor, and is covered in a thick white pelt for camouflage against the snow. The female snowstalker has a quick estrus cycle, lasting about three weeks. The reason for this is snowstalkers are solitary and have massive territories due to lack of prey. During the mating season males and females look for mates. The male will impress a female by making a kill and giving it to her as a gift. If the female accepts then she will let him mate. After mating the male leaves. When the cubs are born, the female will give them food. Later she will teach them to hunt and kill for themselves <div style="clear:both;"></div> North American Desert In midwestern North America the rich fertile fields have become poor soiled cold desert. Most tree species have become extinct and shrubs dominate the landscape. Plants called tubers grow in the stiff soil. On high ground dry snow occasionally falls. Tornadoes and sandstorms occur frequently. Deathgleaner The deathgleaner is a giant predatory descendant of the false vampire bat that traveled north long ago and it inhabits the North American cold desert. Due to the freezing temperatures of the desert night, the deathgleaner is a diurnal hunting bat. The deathgleaner hunts spinks and young desert rattlebacks, plus it eats carrion. The deathgleaner has a wingspan of over across, rendering it to solve the same problems of the pterosaurs of the past. Its wings are fragile membranes and they lose heat easily. The deathgleaners solved the problem of heat loss by evolving a mechanism that cools the blood before it reaches its wings. Flocks of deathgleaners follow rattlebacks. When a desert rattleback uncovers tubers for food, it also uncovers spinks. The deathgleaners then attack the spinks. To promote survival, the deathgleaners share their food with roostmates. Male and females mate around the warmest of times of the year, Usually around July and August. The male will give the female a spink. if she accepts the spink she will mate. When they mate they fly high over the desert in constant freefall. When the pups are born they stay at the roost until three months old. At this time they can cling to the belly of their mother. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Desert Rattleback There is a North American sub-species of the South American rattleback, which feed on tubers. In the harsh desert the insulation properties of the scales and the behavior of clamping down to the ground have helped it thrive in the hostile desert. Bristles around face keep sand out of the face. Adults breed all year round and unlike their South American cousins they have a lower birth rate. Males impress females with their rattling sounds. If she accepts they will head to a shrubby area. Their nest consists of leaves and branches. One cub is common but twins can also occur. The female cares for her baby(s) until they are old enough to fend for themselves. Spink The spink is a burrowing bird that inhabits the dry, cold, North American deserts and grows to 10-12 inches long. The ancestor of the spink is the quail: a type of game bird that spends most of its time on the ground. The spink looks like the extinct Dicynodont, with a rounded body and a small beak. Its tail feathers and bird-like feet betray its ancestry. The book describes the spink's eyes as "mere pinpricks". Spinks communicate by squeaks, warbles, and little songs. Its wings are reduced to spade-like forelimbs, sheathed in keratin. The spink is a colonial bird, dwelling in colonies like those of mole rats and ants. Queen spinks sit on eggs, most of which would hatch into new workers. Spinks eat tubers and create intricate tunnel systems just to find them. However, spinks are helpless on the desert surface, where they become prey for deathgleaners. Spinks seem to show sexual dimorphism, with females being brown, while males are black and white patterned. Hatchlings are cared by nurse spinks. Drone spinks (That mate and start new colonies) head to the surface where the males display themselves, but instead of mating with the males near them the females instinctively go to a different group of males. This prevents inbreeding. When they have found a mate the two spinks burrow into the ground to start new colonies. <div style="clear:both;"></div> 100 million years One hundred million years from now exists a world the polar opposite of ninety five million years ago. Instead of dominating glaciers and dry savannah, the world is rich, moist, and damp. Rainforests cover most of the land and swamps border the coast. The sea level has risen 100 meters causing new reefs to form. The continued existence of mammals is hanging by a thread and the biggest creatures ever walk the earth. Due to continental drift mountain ranges are taller than ever. But there is a dark side to this paradise world. Increased volcanic activity has caused a large mass extinction to occur. Most lifeforms won't survive, but a few life forms will rise up and claim the earth for their own. Antarctic Rainforest 100 million years from now, Antarctica has drifted north to the equator and is now covered in rich forest twice the size of the Amazon. Rain falls frequently and sunny days are occasional. Most of the species of plant have evolved from the mosses, lichens and algae that inhabited Antarctica in the human era but some seeds and spores have drifted from South America. Most of the forest's inhabitants are birds evolved from sea going fowl. A few bugs and spiders have drifted over from other continents. Falconfly The falconfly is a giant wasp that inhabits the rainforests of Antarctica. With a 70-80 cm wingspan, it is about the same size as a modern kestrel. Its massive size is the result of enrichment of oxygen in the atmosphere, which had also allowed for the evolution of giant insects during the Carboniferous period. The falconfly hunts flutterbirds, using skewer-like front legs to skewer its prey and cleaver-like jaws for butchering it. It creates millions of nests underground, feeding its giant larvae juicy bits of flutterbird. However, the falconfly avoids the spitfire bird, which is known to spray acid at it. Descendant of the Sand Wasp. False Spitfire Bird The false spitfire bird is a close relative of the Spitfire bird. A prime example of batesian mimicry, this flutterbird is nearly identical to the spitfire bird, except its lighter color and lack of acid spraying nostrils. It simply hovers around spitfire trees and when a falconfly is spotted it dips its beak into the flower, not gathering chemicals, but pretending to do so to scare the huge wasp away. But this trick also has its disadvantages. The normal spitfire bird can easily take over the false one's nest. The bird has no way of defending its nest but a much louder annoying shriek. There are behavioral differences between the two species as well as physical. Unlike the regular spit fire bird, which has more solitary habits, the false spitfire bird lives in groups. Males roost in groups and females nest in groups. When mating is over, the males fly off in separate bands leaving the females in their traditional nests. Once the eggs hatch, the females take care of their babies until they are able to fly. Roachcutter The roachcutter is a small purple bird with a thick beak and eyes on short turrets. It is descended from the tube-nosed birds that inhabited Antarctica in the 21st century, and have adapted to live in the 100 myh Antarctic forest (as Antarctica would then occupy a tropical position). Due to its elegant wing design, the roachcutter is the fastest and one of the most maneuverable birds living in the Antarctic forests. Like modern swifts and other aerial insect eaters, the roachcutter has virtually no method of defence other than its speed, so it is still sometimes caught and killed by the giant predatory wasp, the falconfly. Roachcutters are mainly solitary but gather together to find mates. Males hunt for large bugs like the Antarctic Roach. He puts these bugs in a display around a nest made of twigs and leaves from plants. The male with the most bugs is more likely to mate. When they hatch both parents take turns caring for their young. Spitfire beetle The spitfire beetle inhabits the rainforests of Antarctica. The ancestors of the spitfire beetle are the blister beetle. They appear to be rather large, at least half the size of the spitfire birds that they hunt. Their evolution coincides with the spitfire tree and the spitfire bird. The spitfire bird defends itself from predatory insects like the falconfly by spraying hot chemicals, which are collected from the flowers of the spitfire tree. The spitfire beetle found a way around this. Their wings and wingcases are patterned like the flower of the spitfire tree. When four beetles arrange their wings and wingcases at the right angle, they imitate the spitfire flower. The spitfire bird visits flowers when it needs the chemicals used for defense. So when approached by the spitfire bird, the spitfire beetles all fall upon their victim and eat it. When the spitfire tree stops flowering, the spitfire beetles lay their eggs in groups of four and die. As the larvae develop over the winter, they emerge during the spring to feed on more spitfire birds. Spitfire bird In the tropical forests, the spitfire bird has adapted the ability to spray corrosive chemicals to fend off predators like the falconfly. They get their chemical weapons from a tree called the spitfire tree. It is descended from a modern petrels and still have the petrel's nose tubes. Mating is a short and fast process. The male and female mate and then care for their young until they fly the coop. Among their predators are the spitfire beetles, which mimic spitfire flowers to ambush their prey. A species similar in appearance, the false spitfire bird, has also evolved but that species is harmless, using its colors to scare predators. Spitfire Tree Millions of years ago when the first trees (Conifers) grew on Antarctica the climate warmed rapidly. Eventually the trees evolved in the Spitfire Tree. It produces Male and Female flowers that hold different Chemicals (if together they will explode which explains the flower genders). It is pollinated by its symbiotic partner the Spitfire Bird. It also is home to the Spitfire Beetle. Bengal Swamp Rise in sea levels has triggered massive floodings of land to occur. 100 million years later the country of Bengal, India has transformed into a large wetland seven times the size of the everglades. The swamp consists of estuaries and tree groves. The humidity levels are at 43% and have caused the Himalayas to erode to small hills. Lurkfish The lurkfish grows long and lives in the Bengal Swamp. The lurkfish is descended from electric catfish. It has evolved a sophisticated way of killing venomous swampuses: electricity. The lurkfish has a massive head, branch-like barbs, and an elongated body. All those can advance its surface area to store muscle blocks that produce electricity. To hunt, it creates a weak electric field and detects whatever movement goes through the field. Once its victim comes within range, it releases a thousand volts to stun its prey. Then the lurkfish can eat in leisure. This behavior is similar to many electric fish in murky, brackish water - such as the electric eel. It occupies a similar niche to crocodiles. If the lurkfish is stranded on shore it can easily slide back into the water. It can also breath through its skin. Male lurkfish defend territories including the females that dwell in his territories. He will mate with the females and produce a large amount of offspring which can care for themselves. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Swampus Descendants of octopuses, swampuses live in the brackish Bengal swamps, formed when Africa merged with and blocked the Bay of Bengal. They have a deadly venomous bite that can even kill a baby toraton. Unfortunately for the swampus, adult toratons have no predators and are not affected by their venom. One of the few creatures capable of killing a swampus is the lurkfish, which uses the electric field surrounding its body to stun the swampus. One remarkable thing about the swampus is that it is the first cephalopod to venture out onto land. Infant swampuses are nurtured in a leafy plant named the Nursey Vase filled with fresh water, into which the mother urinates to maintain the proper salinity. Four of the swampus' arms have changed into four individual snail-style foot-muscles, and its mantle cavity can also be used as a lung, allowing it to stay out of water for up to four days. One male will mate with three females and help raise their young. When the young swampus are ready to leave their nest the mother will escort them to the shore and see them a safe journey. They do this to save their young from the Lurkfish. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Toraton The toraton lives in the Bengal Swamp, which replaced the Bay of Bengal after East Africa collides with Southeast Asia. The toraton is 23 feet (7 m) tall and weighs 120 tons. It is descended from modern tortoises. The toraton is the largest creature to walk the earth, if measured in terms of bulk and weight (growing even larger than the dinosaurs), though the sauropod Argentinosaurus and the blue whale were the only creatures to rival or surpass the giant tortoise in size and weight. Although young toratons are small enough to be killed by swampus venom, the adults are too big to be harmed. In fact, a full grown toraton has no predators. The toraton eats constantly, consuming 1,300 pounds of vegetation a day. It requires less food than a mammal of the same size because of its ectothermic ancestry. The toraton cannot withdraw into its shell like the tortoise could, but its shell is used to protect and partially support its muscles. The toraton has evolved a digestive system that has a muscular stomach to grind its food, and a gut filled with bacteria to digest the rest of the vegetation. Its legs have moved directly underneath its body to support the tons of massive muscle on this enormous creature. Toratons mate back to back because they are so massive that if the male were to get onto the female she would be injured. She lays her two large eggs in a nest. She must help them crack their shells open. They are cared for 5 years by their parents. When an adult toraton feels death approaching, it will migrate to large toraton graveyards, where decomposing toratons produce enormous amounts of heat. Great Plateau When Australia collides with Northern Asia and North America a large mountain range forms. Three times as high as the Himalayan mountains it is one of the few places in this hot house world that has snow and ice. The summers are faintly warm and the winters are cold. Blizzards are common year round. The area also has a large amount of ultraviolet light. Great blue windrunner The great blue windrunner is a large bird with a wingspan of 3 meters (about 10 feet). This bird inhabits the mountainous Great Plateau during the warmer months. Its ancestors were cranes. The Great Plateau is much higher than the former Tibetan Plateau, so the windrunner had to adapt to cope with the thin air. These birds are able to reach high altitudes but the thin air cannot support wings as well as denser air near the ground, and the windrunner must also be able to spend its winters in the lowlands. To solve the problem, the windrunner evolved flight feathers on its legs, so it can use them as an extra pair of wings for gliding by spreading them out to the sides in midflight, like the prehistoric Microraptor. Its head also has feathery tufts which act as gliding wings to support its head in flight. At such high altitude, more ultraviolet light from the sun leaks through the atmosphere. The windrunner is covered in fluorescent blue feathers that reflect this ultraviolet light. Windrunners can also see in ultraviolet and so use the light to recognize one another. Their eyes are protected from this otherwise dangerous light by lenses which act as "built-in sunglasses". The great blue windrunners primarily eat silver spiders snatched from their webs. During early summer months the birds gather together to mate. The males will perform a dance that will attract a female. When the eggs hatch their parents take care of their young for 3 months. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Grass Tree A species of plant in the Great Plateau that is descended from the bamboo tree. By having very sturdy roots, the Grass Tree is able to withstand the fast winds. Also, they are capable of releasing many seeds, which the seeds are then harvested by Silver Spiders to feed the Poggles. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Poggle The poggle inhabits the Great Plateau (the point where Australia collides with Asia and North America). The poggle is a small large-eyed rodent which evolved from prairie dogs. After 100 million years, the poggle is one of the last mammals ever. Once the climate warmed up, insects, molluscs, and various other lesser organisms began to rise to dominance, quickly displacing the mammals which began dying out for unknown reasons. Poggles are very prolific animals and they feast on grass tree seeds. They live in small caves along with silver spider colonies or in separate wild bands. The spiders provide the seeds for the poggles. Once the poggles become fat and slow, the spiders slaughter one and eat it. Just as the poggles rely on the spiders for seeds, so too do the spiders rely on poggles for flesh and young, as the hormones in a pregnant female poggle are required by the spider queen to reproduce. Like their rodent ancestors they reproduce large amounts of young and mate for life. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Silver spider The silver spider is a colonial spider that inhabits the Great Plateau. The silver spider is silvery to reflect ultraviolet light. Otherwise its greenish stripes along its silvery body is used to foil its main predator: the great blue windrunner. Since the windrunner sees in ultraviolet light, the silver spider creates an ultraviolet pattern that makes it imitate a grass tree seed. Silver spiders are divided into castes depending on size. The smallest and youngest spiders start a web by ballooning over a ravine, trailing a line of silk behind it. Larger web-building spiders start the framework of the web and fill in the gaps. These webs are for trapping grass-tree seeds, which are blown by the wind into the webs. Harvester spiders collect the seeds and pile them in their nest. These seeds are fed to poggles, which are the main food for the spiders and the last species of mammal. This is not a surprising relationship for today leafcutter ants do a similar thing: collect leaves to feed to a fungus. The largest member of the spider colony is the queen, which grows to the size of a football and is the only spider to breed in the colony. When the fat poggles living in the silver spider colony are killed, one by one, often according to the poggle's age, they are fed to the queen first to trigger a reproductive hormone to produce eggs and eventually, more spiders. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Shallow Seas The melted ice caps has caused sea levels to rise over 100 meters, flooding flat land and warming up the ocean. As a result large reefs bigger than the great barrier reef have formed. But there are many differences then from the reefs of today. For one thing there is no coral. Instead large algae reefs have formed. The area is also dominated by tropical storms. Ocean Phantom The ocean phantom is a huge jellyfish that visits the algal reef, approximately 30 feet (9 m) long and 13 (3.9 m) feet wide. Descended from the present day portuguese man-of-war, they form a floating mass with highly advanced systems of coordination and functions. Each phantom is actually a colony of thousands of individual creatures, such as spindletroopers, combined into one giant organism. If parts are broken off in a storm and if each part has a little bit of every system the ocean phantom can start an entire generation of new ocean phantoms. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Reef glider The reef gliders descended from sea slugs. The adults are 13 feet (3.9 m) long and shaped like a giant teardrop. Swimming using a series of wings along their flanks, they patrol the shallow seas hunting for ocean phantoms. They have keen eyesight and can also sense chemical changes in the water. Because of its body size and behavior, the reef glider has probably evolved to take the place of the whales and seals from modern times. This is not unlike the gannetwhale, which evolved to fill this niche 95,000,000 years earlier. The baby reef gliders eat red algae, and are hunted by the ocean phantom. The adults, however, are much larger than the babies, and hunt ocean phantoms. They have developed two genders unlike their hemaphrodite ancestors. The males will swim in an acrobatic fashion while the females survey the males. they will choose the male that is the best acrobatic swimmer. They will swim off and mate in a complex display of acrobatic swim movements. When the male has fertilized the females eggs she will lay them on an algae polyp and swim off letting her young look out for themselves. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Spindletrooper The spindletrooper exists in a symbiotic relationship with another creature, the ocean phantom, a future descendant of Siphonophora (creatures related to the Portuguese Man O' War). When the ocean phantom is attacked by a reef glider, the ocean phantom releases the spindletroopers to protect itself. Upon being released, the spindle troopers climb down the tentacles of the ocean phantom and spear the predatory reef gliders with its poisonous fangs. In return for protection, the ocean phantom feeds the spindle troopers. They mate only if a spindle trooper dies or if a new colony is started. 200 million years The earth is recovering from the mass extinction that occurred 100 million years ago, causing the death of most evolutionary groups, leaving only molluscs, insects, slime molds, plants, and the remaining fish and crustaceans and semi-aquatic amphibian to fill the evacuated environmental niches. All the continents have met up and created a second Pangaea and a large global ocean. A massive desert has formed in the center of the continent and forests border the coastline. Many of the lowly organisms have adapted and have claimed the open niches - most molluscs have taken the place of mammals, for instance. The last backboned animals, fish, now fly as the birds or remain in the seas as the last sharks. Crustaceans and the rest of the molluscs also stay in the oceans, whilst insects populate the central deserts, and a new sapient develops. But, present-day fish had evolved into new kinds of amphibians. And amphibians ruled the earth. Central Desert The central desert lies in the center of the continent where no rain can fall. This is because of the large mountains that border the coastline that block the moisture from reaching the desert. There is no vegetation. The only water that the desert has is the under ground rivers and occasional oasis. Sandstorms are common as well as tornadoes. Gardenworm The gardenworm is an 18 inch (0.45 m) long worm creature with a symbiotic algae in its multi-branched limbs. During the day it goes above ground and spreads these leaf-like limbs to the sun, where the algae feeds the gardenworm through photosynthesis. While feeding this, it resembles a plant. The gardenworm is vulnerable to terabytes while on land, as they "farm" its algae inside their nests. When not above ground, the worm lives in the large reservoirs of groundwater below the desert, where it is vulnerable to attacks from slickribbons. If pursued by a slickribbon, it can release a cloud of white, smokey liquid that serves as a distraction, allowing the gardenworm to escape. These worms have developed two genders for a more complex lifestyle. The males will simply choose their mates and the females find a safe place to lay their eggs. Gloomworm These are very simple worms related to gardenworms that swim around in dark caves. They live on bacteria and are eaten by just about anything else in the cave. Continent of America to Australia. Slickribbon The slickribbon is a purple, semitransparent predatory worm up to in length. It has powerful pincer jaws mounted on a springy trunk, and is equipped with numerous bristles on its side to help with swimming and sensing water pressure changes. The Slickribbon mainly feeds on gardenworms and gloomworms (Its relatives). It is the only predator in the underwater caves where it lives. Its family is Megafaucidae. Terabyte Terabytes are termite-like desert insects. They are the descendants of modern termites. Like termites, terabytes are organized into castes but are even more specialized than any present-day insects: *Transporters- which carry other legless castes to a specified area *Gum-spitters-which do nothing else but spit sticky gum for building purposes *Rock-borers- which use chemicals to dissolve the hard limestone under the desert to get to the underground pools below (the chemical in question is concentrated hydrochloric acid). *Biters- that we never see, bite at the limestone along with rock-borers to get to the pools below. As their names imply, they have strong jaws. *Water-carriers - which suck up water to water the algae that the colony grows. *King -Is chosen by the queen and carries the queen. *Nurses-nurses the eggs *Builders-Helps the gum-spitters by building the mounds *Warriors- Spit chemicals much like the rock borers, but for defensive purposes. *Queen- lays eggs and is the center of the colony. To get this algae they have to fight gardenworms. The terabytes cultivate gardenworm algae in their mounds, using the water-carriers to water it, and getting it sunlight from transparent panes in the top made of terabyte saliva. Gardenworms are either found vulnerable, lying around near oases, or inaccessibly swimming around in the underground caves. The transporter terabytes carry gum-spitters to the attack point and the gum-spitters freeze the worms in their tracks. Then other transporter terabytes apprehend the worms to grab some algae to take back to their enormous nests. Underneath the nests are a series of caverns that disperse heat from the nests. This is so the terabytes don't get hot in the blistering desert. Global Ocean With one continent only occupying a small region of the planet the rest of the earth is made up of a vast global sea. Because there are no other large landmasses to break up currents the ocean is extremely powerful and large "Hypercanes" batter the coastlines almost year round. the currents of the ocean are extreme from pole to pole. Ocean Flish The ocean flish is descended from cod, which was one of the last fish on Earth 200 million years from now. Unlike the flying fish, the flish can accomplish something beyond any modern fish (with the exception of the freshwater hatchetfish): flight. In the future flying fish will use their broad fins for gliding. The flish takes this one step further: it attaches powerful pectoral fin muscles to its gill arches, allowing it to breathe air outside of water. The flish retains two pelvic fins for resting atop the oceanic surface. To provide more force for flight, the caudal fins rotated 90 degrees, so they are flat like the flukes of a whale. Because birds are extinct when flish evolved, they filled every niche of seabirds along the global ocean that surrounds Pangaea II. They hunt silverswimmers and are in turn hunted by rainbow squid. Flish hunt by expanding toothed jaws from its beak-like sheath. Mating season begins in the prime of summer, males and females come together to find a good mate. The males divebomb each other until the other retreats. Then male and female will dance in the sky. Once a nest is made on the cliffs the female will lay her eggs and the male will fertilize them. When the eggs hatch both male and female take care of their young for up to seven months before letting them fly the nest. Rainbow squid Not a Terasquid, the rainbow squid is one of the ocean's largest species, and a giant carnivorous descendant of squids, with a total length of 120 feet (36 m) long. When hunting it can change colour and camouflage well, it can even make video displays. It is nearly at the top of the food chain but is still disturbed and hunted by the pack-hunting sharkopaths. Rainbow squid hunt ocean flish. To catch an ocean flish, the squid mimics a group of silverswimmers, the flish's prey. When a flish comes close, the rainbow squid will lash out and grab the ocean flish. Rainbow squids are, however, a banquet themselves for the sharkopaths who hunt them. When attracting a female the male displays flashing bioluminescence from which the species derives its name; as an unfortunate side-effect, this makes it easily visible to predators. Overall, the appearance of this future squid is a bit different from any present-day squid. This is mostly due to its wide, flat purple tentacles and body. Rainbow squids are independent from birth and do not need their parents' help. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Sharkopath The sharkopath are an advanced pack-hunting descendant of the spined pygmy shark that can grow up to . in length and hunt in packs of dozens of individuals, unlike modern sharks. They can hunt at speeds of over and have powerful jaws with steely teeth, and the force of 40,000 pounds per square inch. They have specialized ridges around their heads packed with sense organs. It can tell the location of their prey via bioluminescent patches that run along their flanks that glow faster when closer to the prey item. As soon as a Sharkopath detects prey it turns towards it. When the rest of the pack notice the signal, they will immediately turn to the same direction as one. These features and expert pack coordination help make it possible for a pack of sharkopaths to hunt down and kill prey ranging from silverswimmers to the massive rainbow squid, which are many times their size. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Silverswimmer In the future, virtually all the species of bony fish have died out, leaving all the niches they filled vacant and Silverswimmers, neotenous forms of crab, have filled that vacancy. Their ancestors were microscopic crab larvae, but now they are as diverse in size and shape as fish once were, and they fill the void in the sea left by the absence of aquatic bony fish. There are hundreds of different species of Silverswimmer and they fill every available niche. Some are predators, some prey, some are parasites and others are scavengers. The program focuses on one filter-feeder type, although a carnivorous type is shown briefly. Northern Forest On the northwestern corner of Pangaea II warm currents bring large moisture levels and result in endless amounts of rain. Because of the plentiful supply of water a large temperate rainforest has formed. The Plants and animals of the northern forest are used to the constant moisture of rain. Because of this once low life organisms can evolve into new species. Conifers are now able to grow the size of Redwood trees, and the once dwindling lichen plant is now a tree which bears fruit. Though covering a small range this forest is one of the most complex of ecosystems on land. This forest is the home of a new advanced creature the Terrasquids. This forest could also be the birth place of a new civilization. Forest Flish Along the northwestern coast of Pangaea II, flish evolved to fit the role of forest birds. Unlike the oceanic flish, the forest flish has hook-like claws on its pelvic fins for hanging upside-down. They are also much smaller, taking on the role of old world hummingbirds and general forest birds. The forest flish is descended from cod. They are also smarter than their sea going cousins and are much more social, having an IQ comparable to modern birds. The mating season begins in spring and males are very territorial. Any females in the male's territory are considered "his" females. He will fight off rival males and defend his females. After the territorial fights, females begin to fight over the right to mate with the male (they do this because there can be only one female mate). When the fights are over, the male and female retreat to their roost where the female and male go front to front as old world frogs once did. The female will stay in this position for up to ten weeks incubating her eggs. the male will feed her. After the eggs hatch the babies hang from their parents' bellies like bats do. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Megasquid After mammals became extinct, squids filled in the niches, creating a new group, called Terrasquids. The Squibbon and the Megasquid are the examples shown. The megasquid is about 12-feet (3.65 m) tall, 8 ton terrestrial air-breathing descendant of squid. With tentacles that extend to 10 feet (3 m) and rhino-like skin, the megasquid is a formidable creature. It roams the northern forests of the planet. Eight of its arms have evolved to become legs that look like thick columns, each about 1/3 of a meter thick. The remaining two arms have evolved to become manipulatory tentacle-like appendages. Its locomotion is different from other animals: it first moves its right front and back legs and the left middle legs, then its left front and back legs and its right middle legs. Although it would appear that an invertebrate of this size would not be able to live on land (it would be crushed by gravity due to lack of bones), it has specialized muscles that form rings and columns in the legs to form a mock skeleton-like supporting structure. On its forehead is a pouch for producing a call akin to that of a frog. Its main food source is fruit and Squibbon. The Megasquid is implied to have evolved from the Swampus, another of the show's ideas and the first octopus to crawl onto land, that lived prominently in the Bengal Swamps 100,000,000 years from the Megasquid's time. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Slithersucker The slithersucker is a huge slime mold which dwells in forests. It hangs from a tree branch, dangling a curtain of sticky material to ensnare passing forest flish. It mimics a lichen tree seed capsule in order to be ingested and dispersed by megasquids. The slithersucker inflames the megasquids brain and essentially controls it. It then makes the terasquid sneeze out bits of it, spreading it throughout the forest. <br clear=all> Squibbon Squibbons are air-breathing descendants of squid who can swing through trees. They swing better than modern day gibbons due to their lack of an internal skeleton. Because of their need to coordinate their many-muscled limbs and the complex visual perception needed to swing from branch to branch, their brains are highly developed. As a result, they are highly intelligent (closer to humans than any other animal on this planet) and can even outsmart a megasquid, which sometimes tries to eat them. They are highly agile, snatching Forest Flish from the air to eat. It is implied that they have the capacity to evolve into sapient beings, thus allowing civilization to once again develop on Earth. They are very playful and curious. Like the Megasquid, it is possible that they evolved from the Swampus. Lichen Tree A massive tree that is descended from lichen that grows to the size of a redwood. Rainshadow Desert On the east coast of the supercontinent there is an 8,000 (49,709.695 miles) area called the Rainshadow Desert. This is where ocean flish land if they are caught in continuous storms called hypercanes with 250 mph (400 km/h) winds. Bumblebeetle The bumblebeetle is a sparrow-sized species of beetles that inhabits the Rainshadow Desert (southeastern Pangaea II). The wingcases of the bumblebeetle reduce to streamlined airfoils. Its body is covered in sensory hairs, specifically for detecting scent. The bumblebeetle has no mouth and practically no digestive system: the bumblebeetle spends only a day in its adult form. It has fat reserves for food, from the larval stage of its life, Grimworms, that feed on Ocean Flish carcasses and on each other. The bumblebeetle mates in its larval form and then spends its entire adult life pregnant and searching for flish carcasses, in which to release its young. After this it dies, also becoming food for its larvae. Most of its life, the bumblebeetle is a larva, which is called a grimworm. When a bumblebeetle emerges as an adult, it already carries its cargo of grimworms. Then it flies away to a flish carcass. With no other landmasses to break up storms, powerful hurricanes called "hypercanes" blow unlucky flish over the mountains into the desert, where the dry atmosphere kills them. When the bumblebeetle finds a dead or dying flish, its abdomen splits to release the grimworms and dies. The grimworms burrow into the flish and eat the rotting flesh. Male grimworms leave for other flish carcasses and mate with female grimworms. When the flish carcass is stripped of flesh, the grimworm females pupate and emerge as adult bumblebeetles. Thus all bumblebeetles are female. The bumblebeetle serves another role to the Rainshadow Desert ecology. The deathbottle plant can fertilize itself, but it can not spread its seeds. So it evolves silvery leaves that imitate a flish corpse. Bumblebeetles land on this leaf and fall into a seed chamber. Covered in adhesive seeds, the bumblebeetle deposits them far from the parent plant. <div style="clear:both;"></div> Deathbottle The deathbottle grows in the Rainshadow Desert of the continent of Pangea II. It grows natural pitfall traps lined with poisonous spikes. Desert hoppers sometimes land on these traps and fall into them, where they are impaled and consumed. Since its main diet consists of desert animals like the desert hopper , it is a carnivorous plant. Deathbottles flowers reproduce with seeds. Since they are incapable of spreading them on their own, they rely on bumblebeetles to spread them. Bumblebeetles are drawn into a seed chamber that imitates the appearance and odor of a dead flish on the outside. After many adhesive seeds attach to the bumblebeetle, it is catapulted out of the seed chamber from a lightly colored portion of the flower, which is really a spring, and continues on its way. Desert Hopper The desert hopper is a snail about 1 foot (30 cm) tall that inhabits the Rainshadow Desert of the second Pangea. Today, snails are restricted in size on land and they slide along on a sheet of mucus. In a desert, water for creating a lubricant is too valuable for use since water could be lost easily. The desert hopper takes this specialization a step further. Instead of eyes on stalks, the eyes of the desert hopper rest on movable turrets like those of chameleons. To conserve water, the desert hopper's skin is like that of modern reptiles. Instead of sliding on mucus, the foot of the desert hopper modified like a spring for hopping over the desert. They usually feed in groups to avoid the risk of predators. To eat tough desert plants, its toothed tongue functions like a drill to bore into plant material. This weakness for plant food makes it common prey for deathbottles. To protect itself from intense heat and predators, the desert hopper retreats into a spike-covered eight-inch (203 mm) shell and burrows underground. During mating season males and females gather to find a fit mate. In order to attract a female, males box each other like the present day Kangaroos do. Once a male succeeds in driving off other males he will escort a female to the breeding grounds. After mating the female lays eggs and both parents tend to the eggs for 12 weeks till the eggs hatch. Parents take care of their young until they are one year old. Trivia The Russian biologist Pavel Volkov criticised many of the concepts of The Future is Wild as being scientifically inaccurate; and are specially frowned among "speculative biologists" See Also
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