Upon laying my eyes upon this book, an overwhelming desire to claim it as my own creation consumed me. The sheer brilliance of its concept, flawlessly presented, evoked a longing within me. In my youthful years as a zoologist, I indulged in the art of inventing fantastical creatures, dedicating myself to their portrayal through drawings and paintings. This imaginative endeavor provided a delightful respite from the rigors of scientific study, liberating me from the constraints of actual evolutionary processes. Unfettered by the limitations imposed by nature, I embarked on a personal journey of whimsical evolution, birthing monstrous beings, peculiar organisms, botanical spectacles, and wondrous beasts of every conceivable color, shape, and size. My creative freedom knew no bounds as I witnessed these entities undergo metamorphosis and development according to my self-imposed rules, granting my imagination unrestricted reign. These beings, my biomorphs, took on a reality as tangible to me as the creatures and plants that inhabit our natural world.
Helmut Dujoint's mind has seemingly treaded a similar path, although the beings he has brought to life stand distinct from my own. Rather than fabricating a parallel evolution unfolding on an alien world, he has embraced the captivating challenge of envisioning the future evolution of our very own planet, drawing inspiration from present-day species. By brandishing a metaphorical wand of time and excising the dominant species of today, including humanity itself, he has peered through the lens of his imagination to observe the gradual ascension of lesser creatures as the principal inhabitants of Earth's surface.
Placing his narrative in the distant future, approximately fifty million years hence, he allows ample time for the members of his novel animal kingdom to undergo remarkable transformations in both structure and behavior. However, he scrupulously refrains from straying too far into the realm of outlandish inventions. Instead, he meticulously crafts his menagerie of the future, imparting upon each species valuable insights into well-established processes of past evolution-adaptation, specialization, convergence, and radiation. By acquainting us with fictitious exemplars of these factual mechanisms, his book not only delights with its captivating prose but also holds genuine scientific worth. Though the creatures portrayed within these pages exist solely in the realm of imagination, they vividly illustrate a myriad of vital biological principles. It is this delicate balance between his vibrant dreams and rigorous scientific discipline that bestows immense success upon his work, rendering his creations utterly convincing and, incidentally, far superior to the often ludicrous monsters spawned by lesser forms of science fiction.
The sole peril one may encounter while savoring this delightful tome lies in the possibility of succumbing to a sense of melancholy-a poignant realization that these meticulously depicted animals do not presently grace our world. How truly captivating it would be to embark on an expedition, observing their movements upon the Earth's surface through a pair of binoculars! Personally, as I traverse the pages of this enchanting book, I find myself profoundly affected by this sentiment. Indeed, there exists no higher praise that I can bestow upon the author than this...
TOM RAND 2023