So, this is what I've been doing with my time recently, under the all-purpose pretext of 'uni':
It's a 3-DVD specumentary that my work used to distribute. I've been curious about it since I started there but the common response was that it had gone out of print and that was that. Eventually, however, my constant questioning lead a workmate to confess that he had a copy at home which he never watched and which he subsequently unearthed and brought in for me!
I've been watching it most of the weekend; I find it fascinating and addictive!
The basic premise is a group of scientists (geologist, zoologists, botanists etc) got together to try and speculate what the Earth, and more importantly the life on it, would be like in 5, then 100, then 200 million years.
At this point I should point out that I'm a hopeless Sci-Fi buff, so watching a bunch of guys like this...
...drone on for five and a half hours about the life-forms on Earth in 200 million years really does sound like my idea of time well spent!
For those of you shaking your heads right now and wondering why you associate with me at all, now would be a good time to stop reading and go haunt the 'Celebrity Trash' boards for a while.
There really is some fascinating stuff on these DVD's. For instance, the odd creature on the box above is called, imaginatively enough, a Flish. Any guesses why?
It's speculated to live in the world of 200 million years from now and is essentially a flying fish that has been able to dominate the skies in a world that is just one huge land mass (Pangea 2 if you will) and one giant ocean. It's able to become dominant because all the birds (and mammals and reptiles) have been killed off in massive climate related extinctions (the science guys make it sound much more plausible than I do...).
This is probably the most far fetched creature in the series (aside maybe from the arboreal squid...seriously!).
One of my other favourites is this guy:
He's called a Sharkopath (yeah, yeah, I know! But bear in mind these are scientists, not PR specialists!). The funny formations on his head are massively developed versions of the sensor arrays today's sharks use, and the highlights on his side are bio-luminescent signals he uses to communicate with his packmates. Because as if being a shark version 3.0 isn't enough killing power, the Sharkopath is a pack hunter!
But my favourite of all is this little fellow:
He's a Terrabite and he's a descendant of the termite. The reason I find him so interesting is that he's an entirely new caste in the insect world. He's a Carrier. Not of disease, but of other, more specialised Terrabites. He ferries members from other castes around to do their jobs. The other castes in his highly developed society are the Waterbearers, whose job it is to drink as much water as they can physically hold before being carried to wherever the water is needed, Biters who are essentially just a set of jaws and Spitters who are split into subcastes and are able to produce and 'spit' different types of chemical agents. And they all get lugged around as needed on the backs of the carrier class! Fascinating stuff, no?
Well, you all probably don't think so, but I do. 
In fact, I'm off to watch the last episode right now...
