 Cover of a 1998 paperback edition by St. Martin's Press. The cover depicts the Reedstilt (Harundopes virgatus), a tall fish-eating talpid from Eurasia. | |
| Author | Dougal Dixon |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Speculative evolution |
| Publisher | Granada Publishing (UK) St. Martin's Press (US) |
Publication date | 1981 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 978-0586057506 |
After Man: A Zoology of the Future is a 1981 speculative evolution book written by Scottish geologist and palaeontologist Dougal Dixon and illustrated by several illustrators including Diz Wallis, John Butler, Brian McIntyre, Philip Hood, Roy Woodard and Gary Marsh. The book features a foreword by Desmond Morris. After Man explores a hypothetical future set 50 million years after extinction of humanity, a time period Dixon dubs the "Posthomic", which is inhabited by animals that have evolved from survivors of a mass extinction succeeding our own time.
After Man used a fictional setting and hypothetical animals to explain the natural processes behind evolution and natural selection. In total, over a hundred different invented animal species are featured in the book, described as part of fleshed-out fictional future ecosystems. Reviews for After Man were highly positive and its success spawned two follow-up speculative evolution books which used new fictional settings and creatures to explain other natural processes: The New Dinosaurs (1988) and Man After Man (1990).
After Man and Dixon's following books inspired the speculative evolution artistic movement which focuses on speculative scenarios in the evolution of life, often possible future scenarios (such as After Man) or alternative paths in the past (such as The New Dinosaurs). Dixon is often considered the founder of the modern speculative evolution movement.[1][2][3]
- ^ Naish, Darren. "Of After Man, The New Dinosaurs and Greenworld: an interview with Dougal Dixon". Scientific American Blog Network (Interview). Retrieved 2018-09-21.
- ^ Potenza, Alessandra (9 June 2018). "This book imagines what animals might look like if humans went extinct". The Verge. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ^ Naish, Darren. "Summer 2018 at Tet Zoo Towers". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved 2019-08-14.