Animal Planet: Future is Wild

[seasong]

It was fun, but I verily agree that parts were craptactular...it made me think that scientists aparently don't know everything about what they study, or we'd have gotten more details on the chain of food, here...

Actually, it seems like they had very few scientists, and only in a few fields. If I had to guess, I would say biology & zoology primarily, and there was definitely a marine biologist. There was nary an insect specialist in sight, and definitely no physicists. The geology looked like it was taken on faith from websites, but was at least reasonably good.

No, I'm not a scientist - I just knows 'em when I sees 'em.

Food Chain: There was no food chain. Some of the animals simply lived on air, like the sabre toothed wolverine's babies (I still can't believe that, after showing a modern wolverine lifting and carrying an entire carcass with it's neck, the future sabre-tooth left the carcass behind).

And the mode of movement of the Squibbons seemed very...wrong. They sommersaulted everywhere. That...makes no sense to me. I can't believe there'd be enough horizontal branches to make that mode of movement beneficial.

The squids were inaccurate on so many levels, I'm not sure where to start. When the first mammals crawled onto land, they changed drastically in appearance. The squids flattened out a bit, but otherwise did not. If I were in charge of the squibbon creature design, I would have modelled them on a kind of acrobatic sloth, with a long, hooked pair of limbs, several short, powerful limbs designed for shifting weight, and an enhanced crest (for protection). And what happened to their jets? At the very least, I'd think those might evolve into poison spitters or (whackier) air vents for a bit of extra push or firing darts.

 

[Richards]

I kind of wish there had been a little more variety in the species. I mean, you have the entire animal kingdom to play with, and three of the "future species" are all advanced from octopi/squid?

I thought those spinks (underground quail) were really cute, though. I want one! (I didn't quite follow why underground birds would need a queen caste, though. It made some sense with the silver spiders, but no so much with the spinks.)

I imagine our good friend the cockroach was pretty much unchanged, at least in the "5 million years later" world? They're supposed to be the best equipped for survival, and are likely to be the ones inheriting the Earth when mankind is done with it...

Johnathan

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Actually, it seems like they had very few scientists, and only in a few fields. If I had to guess, I would say biology & zoology primarily, and there was definitely a marine biologist. There was nary an insect specialist in sight, and definitely no physicists. The geology looked like it was taken on faith from websites, but was at least reasonably good.

No, I'm not a scientist - I just knows 'em when I sees 'em.

Food Chain: There was no food chain. Some of the animals simply lived on air, like the sabre toothed wolverine's babies (I still can't believe that, after showing a modern wolverine lifting and carrying an entire carcass with it's neck, the future sabre-tooth left the carcass behind).The squids were inaccurate on so many levels, I'm not sure where to start. When the first mammals crawled onto land, they changed drastically in appearance. The squids flattened out a bit, but otherwise did not. If I were in charge of the squibbon creature design, I would have modelled them on a kind of acrobatic sloth, with a long, hooked pair of limbs, several short, powerful limbs designed for shifting weight, and an enhanced crest (for protection). And what happened to their jets? At the very least, I'd think those might evolve into poison spitters or (whackier) air vents for a bit of extra push or firing darts.

Over in the Creature Catalog forums, Arani Korden posted the URL's for the websites for the books the show is derived from. You might want to check them out:

http://www.thefutureiswild.com

http://www.thefutureiswildbook.com

The first one is about the project itself, which was devised over five years by 14 scientists (at least, that's how many are listed there). You can find their backgrounds by clicking on The Team. Plus, having Dougal Dixon involved automatically raises the level of competence pretty high. Also, check out the section called The Concept; it states that they did, indeed, have geologists working on the project.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

When the first mammals crawled onto land, they changed drastically in appearance.

I'm sorry to be nitpicky, but given the nature of the discussion - you do mean "animals" here, not "mammals", correct?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Here is the URL for the page listing the authors and consultants for the Future Is Wild book:

http://www.thefutureiswildbook.com/authorbio.html

 

[seasong]

I'm sorry to be nitpicky, but given the nature of the discussion - you do mean "animals" here, not "mammals", correct?

Yes, that is what I meant. Actually, when I meant "when non-squid life crawled onto land...".

And I certainly don't mind the nitpick!

 

[seasong]

Wow, thanks for the links! A brief comment:

Dr Letitia Aviles, Associate Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, USA

This professor was listed as a consultant, and is the only person in the list with any kind of "ecology" listed. Still, that's more than I thought, from the show. I can only hope that the lack of any real ecology was due to the producers, rather than Dr. Aviles.

As I suspected, there was no one mentioned who listed knowledge of insects (which would have had a large impact on the 200 million mark, where insects were rather shabbily treated). On the other hand, there also wasn't a marine biologist, which is rather curious .

They had quite a few people with geological or meteorological knowledge... I imagine that the overly simplified view was the fault of the producers, or possibly just the graphics team.

With all of that said, I still loved the show.

 

[seasong]

I knew it. Professor William Gilly is listed as "Cell and Developmental Biology", but here's the real story...

Professor Gilly's research program addresses areas of neurobiology ranging from molecular-level to studies of motor control involving specific motoneurons in behaviours of the living animal. His laboratory at Hopkins Marine Station primarily focuses on squid and other cephalopods. A new area of research is directed at defining the population structure of market squid (Loligo opalescens) stocks around Monterey Bay and the Channel Islands.

Hahahaha! I love being right. (Of course, that there had to be a squid lover on the team was pretty obvious, so I don't expect much in props ).

Side note: A closer look at most of the science team indicates a heavy preponderance of marine-oriented people, and more than just the one ecologist... but the ecologist-knowledgeable ones are all focused on rather specific areas, such as "predator social structure" or "mechanics, evolution and ecology of vertebrate flight".

A wider team base would doubtless benefit them, but I'm willing to take what they're willing to give .

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I suspect that any deficiencies in the show from a scientific standpoint was more the doing of the producers of the show, than anyone involved in the actual project.

Regarding the shark commentary above - sharks have existed, relatively unchanged, for hundreds of millions of years already. I think the implicit assertion is that there is a reason for that - sharks are pretty much perfectly adapted for what they do. The changes shown in the show seem logical to me - pack hunting, intelligent sharks would be extremely efficient. The bioluminescence used for pack identification and communication is interesting, given that sharks don't make any vocalizations that I'm aware of (could be wrong).

 

[demiurge1138]

I, too, liked the program, for the most part. But some things bothered me that nobody has mentioned. Such as:

In the carakiller bit, the "flying dinosaur" that supposedly evoled into birds was a pterosaur, not a proto-bird. But that could just be the fault of the graphics team.

They never explained if the flish were water breathers, or if they still needed to enter the water every few days to replenish.

The idea that the bumblebeetle's reproductive cycle was solely dependant on flish flung into the desert by "hypercanes" (please!) seemed rather far-fetched.

Also, everything was "whatever... of the future!". It felt like one of those old movies where by 1999 everyone had a flying car.

But I didn't have a problem with the megasquid preying on squibbons. I got the impression that megasquid were omnivorous, and the squibbons were just a protein supplement.

Also, was it just me, or did the giant tortoises seem out of proportion, especially the baby that was killed by a swampus?

Demiurge out.