Biology of The Future is Wild

[@snapslingpeavine1371]

I love how The Future Is Wild is basically showcasing a bunch of zoologists fan-creations, and it’s great.

[@noneedtoread9256]

Can u believe it ! Is like darwinian craziness abt the past is not enough now they will bother us abt the future too! And ppl will act like if it is science again! Not just imagination

[@diegopugaquintanilla4344]

@@noneedtoread9256 take your pills old man

[@YokiDokiPanic]

@@noneedtoread9256 That's great, grandma, let's get you to bed.

[@Dittour]

@@noneedtoread9256 Yeah, I can believe it. What I can't understand is people believing in the magical man in the sky theory wrote in an ancient book by people who only wanted power, money and controling people.

[@noneedtoread9256]

@@diegopugaquintanilla4344 from dragon ball pic on ur profile, I should look an old man to you, because you must be a lil kid

[@TheCreativeNick]

It would be a dream if more documentaries like this could be made, especially with today's technology. I guess only time will tell.

[@pij0n]

Yes please! Animal Planet be slacking. Maybe Netflix could do it?

[@Hehe-oz2ib]

YES! It would be amazing if they did a newer version of it with better graphics

[@PuggleStudiosOG]

Yeah it would be really cool

[@morewi]

They were talking about a vr game for this series set in a different time than the show

[@CuriousArchive]

That would be great, hopefully one day!

[@Lia-uf1ir]

20:38 I've read that the real reason that mammals are extinct in the documentary was the difficulty of animating fur at the time. Nowadays, they would probably have included more future mammals. We need a reboot of this series that accounts for the scientific discoveries made in the 20 years since this documentary came out!

[@jurassicarkjordanisgreat1778]

I think afterman is canon to this series too and in the future is wild VR game the titan dolphin exists, I think it was retconned.

[@prapanthebachelorette6803]

Worth reexploring now

[@benjaminmelgaard7575]

when i first heard of it i also just hated how dominating animal groups like mammals and birds just kinda disappear for no reason like they never say there was a mass extinction or anything why are mammals gone

[@KillerFreya]

Honestly that's kind of hilarious

[@riz003_the_avgeek]

bruh

[@joelhancock3715]

I actually like the old-school CGI, they gave the animals a lot of character in spite of the technical limitations. I wonder if this kind of low-poly 3d models will eventually become an art-form like pixel art.

[@CuriousArchive]

I like it too! I could see that being the case one day, its definitely visually distinctive

[@GastropodGaming2006]

its already become one in my weird online social circle to an extent. i'll see people on purpose doing low-poly 3d models for the "vibe" and shit.

[@Nenerii]

People have been making PS1 style horror games, you could say it already has begun

[@eskeline]

@@Nenerii eh but most ps1 style games usually look like bricks or legos, and these are just models but in kinda low quality resolution

[@lombardo141]

There is a bunch of these animations in the B-movie animations. I also love stop motion.

[@complex314i]

I absolutely love the squibbon. Firstly: I am fascinated by cephelopods. Secondly: This is the first time I saw a hypothetical creature evolve to sentience without, for absolutely no reason, morphing into a humanoid form.

[@grassfish01]

You're a kid now! You're a squid now! In all seriousness, apparently The Future is Wild was very popular in Japan. I think it later inspired Nintendo a decade later to create its own race of intelligent humanoid squids that live in the post-humanity future

[@demonking86420]

1/10 because they didn't develop a penchant for the arts and a big nose

[@Belenus3080]

One day they’ll be unearthing the fossils of strange bipedal mammals

[@Araneus21]

Interestingly, there is a speculative creature called the dinosauroid, a humanoid being that is based on evolved dinosaurs One might say there might be a squidoroid, a humanoid creature based on a squid... a speculation that might have inspired the creation of mindflayers...

[@Belenus3080]

@@Araneus21 I wonder how far reaching this series was in pop culture

[@garthst.claire3459]

I loved Future is Wild when I saw it as a kid. The only thing that upset me was that they had mammals die out completely, and then birds too. But later I learned they only did that because fur and feathers were still very costly to animate back then. I owuld love to see a new version of Future is Wild, with modern technology and different takes.

[@Starvino]

I figured it was the higher energy requirements we have

[@chistinelane]

​@@Starvinooxygen especially. Mammals guzzle oxygen. It's likely that with widespread deserts and overly hot seas, atmospheric oxygen will take a dip, putting a damper on mammals enough to be outcompeted

[@prcervi]

the fun choices of speculative biology the threat of setting the rendering computer on fire is certainly one way to force choices of what way the narrative is going

[@RowenaSnow-px3jg]

This may be silly, but the thought that mammals only got cut for asking too much pay... is comforting.

[@shilohmustang]

I remember being so attached to the screen for this. And I was just a kid and my parents asked if I even understood any of it and I was so deep into the rabbit hole I started creating my own weird future creatures and such. Loved it so much.

[@tinobemellow]

Parents rarely give their kids credit for their passions. They typically discourage them from learning anything that isn't approved by themselves or what they learned as children. Yet who has the greater capacity to learn and understand things that previous generations shun? Offspring are a cornerstone of evolution, a fact which humans struggle painfully to understand.

[@nicolebarfuss3067]

@@tinobemellow i hope one day society learns this and accept it.

[@xythrial]

@@tinobemellow I agree that parents (and adults in general) tend to underestimate children but I also think it’s a good idea to ask if a child understands particular topics so that you can help fill in any gaps in knowledge. It’s good to be interested and aware of what your kids are interested and aware of :) can be a bonding opportunity!

[@benja2998]

​@@tinobemellow as a person with good parents I have no opinion about that

[@FranKoPepez]

I know that feeeel! I even created my own future animals with plastiline. I remember a giant snake.When I grew up I knew about titanoboa and was glad that I wasn't that far away from reality

[@dialog_box]

What I love most about this is that the animals all have colloquial names. I love speculative biology as much as everyone else here, but one of my biggest gripes is that most people only focus on the scientific names of species. Scientific names are just too foreign sounding and too similar to each other for most people to remember them easily, so coming up with names that actually invoke some meaning is fantastic

[@noneedtoread9256]

Can u believe it ! Is like darwinian craziness abt the past is not enough now they will bother us abt the future too! And ppl will act like if it is science again! Not just imagination

[@dialog_box]

@@noneedtoread9256 oh no. i can't tell if you're serious or not, and i'm almost not even sure which would be worse.

[@ManiyaVinas]

@@noneedtoread9256 how can you explain the useless bones that are not connected to the rest of the skeleton of a wale?? why would gawd give a whale these bones unless the early ancestor of the whale had four legs??

[@noneedtoread9256]

@@ManiyaVinas it is already explained that the one you called useless bone. It actually has very important role. Is not my mistake that you don't update your info. Go and check latest studies what they are saying

[@raulpetrascu2696]

Agreed I actually invented a game with my friends where I give the absurd name of one of these weird speculative creatures and they have to describe its features, habitat, behaviour etc, -the closest to the real description wins. It's pretty fun to see what people come up with when all they have to go by is "Bladderhorn" or "Coconut Grab"

[@promemerboy1765]

Huge respect for the cameraman who travelled into the future to record this documentary

[@KingAlextheKing]

yeah

[@flystab5771]

Yeah props to him! Kinda ashamed that Earth lost it’s graphic and animation budget in the future but hey what can you do?

[@SleightWryder]

I wish I could be as cool as that cameraman. Dude's a real one for real.

[@ekszentrik]

THIS show is the ground zero of most spec evo (even if some books were earlier). It's strange that there are pieces of art where you can go "what the hell is this and why is it so interesting" as a middle school kid and your interest in a whole field lies then decades dormant because this was literally unprecedented and unpostcedented in mainstream media.

[@pacotaco1246]

This and alien planet created absolutely key captivating moments of my love of spec evo

[@sephiroticempires]

unpostcedented lol yeah it sucks. even regular old dinosaur documentaries don't look as good as they used to be

[@jordanbriskin238]

"Unpostcedented." Remind me to use that one.

[@effigytormented]

@@jordanbriskin238 easy enough to discern with context clues. I've never even thought of this word before.

[@BigBossMan538]

I saw this on Animal Planet as a kid. I was enthralled by it. The carakillers and babookaris were my favorite animals. The carakillers were actually pretty scary to kid me. You can imagine how horrified I was when the mass extinction 100 million years in the future happened. The book further terrified me when I learned that the earth would eventually end. Yeah I have an interesting story with this series.

[@jesseward4115]

Seeing the last mammal die by a colony of spiders made me so sad at 8 years old lol

[@wasteofusername1]

I’m happy that everyone had that existential crisis about the last mammal on earth when they were young too lol

[@servantofwrath7370]

There was a book?

[@danielmcguire7752]

The Snowstalkers scared the hell out of me as a kid I remember having the whole DVD set and I would watch every single one except for the Ice age episode because it scared me so badly mostly tho because I was like six years old LOL 😏

[@alang.bandala8863]

Wait, a book?!?

[@wither5673]

squids or octopus evolving near human level intelligence is actually the least weird part of the documentary, the more we learn about actual squid/octopus the more we question intelligence in general. its honestly fascinating.

[@talkingweevil3172]

I mean if you lok. at the tree octopuses are on the tip on one side and the opposite side is us

[@jrizo8849]

@@talkingweevil3172the spectrum is probably much more vast too

[@talkingweevil3172]

@@jrizo8849 ya Ofc

[@fireblaze1994]

I guess in this timelines, squids and octopus will become the next intelligent civilization like humans did millions of years earlier. My concern is that earth will be uninhabitable in 1 billion years from now, so they have limited time to evolve into a type 1 civilization.

[@urielgonzalez2882]

​​@@fireblaze1994 And then they became squid kids, Get it lol

[@robwalsh9843]

The Snow Stalker is a very realistic theoretical future animal. There were prehistoric mustelids that came close to the size of bears and large canines in size. A huge polar sabertooth wolverine is something that could exist.

[@catsdogswoof3968]

That's what every animal was supposed to be

[@jkl674]

@@catsdogswoof3968key word “supposed” lol some of these are so laughable.

[@obiomajronyekwere4469]

I would love if they did a remake of this with new ideas and speculative ideas! Overall great video too!

[@CuriousArchive]

Same here!

[@geckoguy4141]

There's apparently a VR game in the works with some interesting concepts produced so far. You can find most of the concept images and stuff on google.

[@tobenamed610]

@@geckoguy4141 what's it called? i wanna check it out

[@geckoguy4141]

@@tobenamed610 I think it's just called, "The Future is Wild VR."

[@CybertronusPrime-ro9ve]

Guys! There was a TV show made that was based on the documentary broadcasted on Discovery Kids. Please look it up, it is not a joke.

[@tripleswaggaroni1544]

The spec biology is really really neat, but I also like the speculative geography and geology as well! Love the idea of the Mediterranean Sea becoming huge salt flats like the ones in present-day Death Valley. Really neat to picture this stuff!

[@m.w.4879]

Man, what a trip down memory lane. Me and my siblings were enthralled by The Future is Wild when we were younger, even those of us who had less interest in science fiction and strange creatures. I remember the Lurkfish scared me, because when it shocked the Swampus there wasn't any visible method of attack, it just... spasmed and died. I don't remember it's name, but the flat, eel-looking thing that could spit out its jaws to catch prey scared me too, so much that I would refuse to watch the episode and the part of the intro it appeared in! I think that was more because it was so bizarre and startling to me, not because of any unknowns like the Lurkfish. I also thought it was so weird that it was one of my oldest brother's favorites. My favorites were the Ocean Phantom and the Spindle Troopers. I just thought they looked so cool, and their symbiotic relationship was a completely new concept to me. They were strange and not quite earthly, but close enough to what I already knew to be utterly captivating. Looking back now, The Future is Wild really helped shape some of my interests and those of my siblings. Nowadays, the ocean holds some of my favorite creatures, jellyfish and siphonophores and coral and whales and all kinds of weird fish, and both my brothers love strange, alien creatures, some of the past and many of the future. I am so glad I subscribed to this channel. Not only do you bring new and fascinating things to light, you've concisely covered things I already knew, and reminded me of why I love those things so much. Thank you for all your hard work!!

[@dionettaeon]

I think it was called a Slickribbon, a descendant of cave worms. And I agree, that thing looked freaky.

[@caranostalgico9249]

There's actually a shark named ''Goblin Shark'' that protrudes it's jaws in the moment of the attack, that's a freaky shark...

[@davidegaruti2582]

@@dionettaeon honestly i think it's like anomalocaris redux

[@dionettaeon]

@@davidegaruti2582 See your point, though I think Opabinia would be a closer fit.

[@saturn6784]

I've always wanted to see science fiction that explores the idea of earth in millions of years. Your channel has been wonderful for that!

[@quantumangel737]

I remember watching this back in the day, and couldn't find it anywhere, thank you for bringing this out! I was fascinated by the squids being terrestrial and super intelligent

[@Red_Adanac]

I like how most of these creatures are somewhat possible in a small sense or intermediate sense, but the fact that they used uncertainties to be more creative with future evolutions is what amazes me in this series

[@catpoke9557]

Yup. If you didn't use anything you weren't 100% certain about most of the animals would just end up looking more or less the same as modern ones, since those are really the only ones we can truly be certain make sense.

[@gameslacker2711]

We need more of this, speculative lifeforms can be far fetched most of the times but man it's entertaining and fun to think about. Heck it's what got me so interested in wildlife, animals and plants as a whole when I was a kid

[@billfred9411]

I remember another one similar to this that is about possible lifeforms out in space. It even speculates on lifeforms that could survive on planets that would be totally inhospitable to us like gas giants or planets that have a frozen surface with a sea under the ice.

[@ChipsDaCat]

I love the idea of Future=Past. History does seem to repeat itself.

[@pux0rb]

I remember when this came out as a kid. I watched it that night in complete and total awe, and went to bed imagining what kinds of amazing creatures are possible. It also helped me to better understand ancient life. I miss this kind of programming so much.

[@raidermaxx2324]

now we have even better thanks to KZbin

[@kain5056]

This also had a kids 3d animated spin off series. It was about people time travelling and having adventures involving these creatures. I don't know if it was any good, but it is nice that it exists.

[@RichyArg]

i can't remember jack about that series, but i do remember it was fun as hell to watch

[@olookslike0]

I personally liked it back then but that might just be cause the concept was really neat. I do recall they gave the animals voices on occasions, which is kind of a weird choice. But hey, it was to get some introspection into how they operated as a species.

[@lyndapietrzak785]

Ha! I knew I remembered a spinoff of sorts. Wasn't sure if anyone else had watched it but looks like I wasn't alone. I do remember really liking the show tho

[@heliosdik1931]

I Found it some time ago and i have to Say it aged with grace. Aside from original music and visuals the characters Were thought out and the story was actually quite logical. Wich i cannot Say about many other animations of that era. And of course the main thing was showing this fantastic enviroment and placing the cast in the context of it. It is still a series for Kids but an adult can watch it too without mental depriviation from non logical story and bullshit character decisions. Also the chemistry between the cast is Nice. Over all watching it is a pleasant expirience, Worth a shot

[@Mary-Love]

WHAT IS THE SPIN-OFF CALLED??

[@HomeSlice97]

Some of the more extreme examples, like terrestrial and arboreal cephalopods, are a bit out there, but most of these creatures seem not only entirely possible, but actually relatively probable. Very cool documentary!

[@HerohammerStudios]

The time frame is probably the biggest issue

[@ArcaneWolf9]

Wow, there's a blast of nostalgia. Such a great and thought provoking series. If I remember correctly, the narration at the start states that humanity's descendants have left the planet behind, but are now sending probes back to survey and study the changes in their former home.

[@x1PMac1x]

They do need to bring this series back. I bought every Walking with Dinosaurs and similar docu-series like this as a teen and young adult.

[@kbassassin8308]

Walking with Monsters: Time Before the Dinosaurs, Walking with Dinosaurs, Allosaurus: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, Walking with Apes, & Future is Wild are the ones I own (might've gotten some of the names wrong been awhile since I've seen them.)

[@olekzajac5948]

I think TierZoo could (and should) make a similar series where he predicts how different species could evolve in the future.

[@WozzyWatkins]

To be fair though his evolution knowledge isn't actually very good he's far better at raging the animals like his channel is based on which I woukd personally prefer to watch.

[@dachemistofx1667]

@@WozzyWatkinsmaybe he could rank the species on how they would do against todays meta

[@WozzyWatkins]

@@dachemistofx1667 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@sivanlevi3867]

Other creatures included: Roachcutter-A flutterbird in tropical Antarctica that feeds insects that evolved from a seabird ancestor Falconfly-A descendant of wasps that lives like the modern sand wasp, hunting birds with its lance-like middle legs then taking the carcasses to multiple nests all over the forests Spitfire Beetle-A beetle that mimics a flower when four of them work together, the only creatures that can hunt Spitfire Birds without issue False Spitfire Bird-A bird that looks like a regular Spitfire Bird but is using Batesian mimicry as a defense Silver Swimmers-The bottom of the food chain in the global ocean, evolved from the larval form of crustaceans through neoteny, taking on a variety of forms and niches Bumblebeetle-A short-lived insect of the Rainshadow Desert of the new Pangaea that has to find rotting Flish carcasses to lay its eggs in before its life ends Grimworm-The larva of the Bumblebeetle with jaws like those of leechs to shear through flesh, which they eat a lot of before metamorphosis Desert Hopper-A snail that has become human-sized, lives in a dry desert, buries itself in sand to avoid heat and hops around like a pogo stick with its one foot Death Bottle-A flowering desert plant that relies on the Bumblebeetle to spread its pollen and seeds, while also feeding on lifeforms that fall into a spiky trap it creates in the sand Terabyte-A super evolved termite with multiple castes that lives in the central desert of the new Pangaea, some carry water, some dig their mounds, some serve as troop transport Garden Worm-A strange worm that relies on photosynthetic symbiotic algae for most of its sustanence, often having to avoid predators with surprising defenses Gloom Worm-An aquatic worm that lives in freshwater caves underground, feeding on luminescent bacteria colonies growing on the rocks Slickribbon-A predatory worm that feeds on other worms using extendable mandibles Forest Flish-A relative of the Ocean Flish that lives in the northern rainforest, a pollinator that lives like a hummingbird Slithersucker-A slime mold that preys on Forest Flish by hanging from trees and snaring them in a sticky trap

[@jordanbriskin238]

Actually, according to the narration, the desert hopper is only 30 cm (1 foot, more or less) tall, so you couldn't really call it human-sized.

[@sivanlevi3867]

Well, based on where the Desert Hopper lies evolutionarily speaking, it's like scaling a snail to the size of a man. And 30 cm is way too small if you look at the animation.

[@TheSchultinator]

The Rainshadow Desert portion of The Future is Wild always seemed too outlandish to me.

[@sivanlevi3867]

Which part? You don't think a habitat like it is possible? Or that the creatures looked too weird to be true? In context, the invertebrates are the true rulers of Earth's landmass by 200 million years in the future.

[@TheSchultinator]

@sivanlevi3867 The insect requiring *carcasses to be thrown over a mountain range* and the hopping snail.

[@Pinheadd]

The best documentary so far. Yes, it's just a bunch of biological concepts, but it so well made for the year it came out. I think I'm studying bio right now, because I watched it as a kid

[@adamthepaleo-nerd5452]

I'm getting so much nostalgia from my childhood with this video! This documentary series was actually one of the many documentary shows and movies from the late 90's and early 2000's which strongly contributed to me pursuing a career in paleontology. It further contributed to my profound interest in studying ecology, evolution, speculative biology, and even geologic processes such as plate tectonics. As such, I will forever cherish "The Future is Wild" alongside the other documentaries from my childhood even with all of its questionable predictions.

[@caliberkat]

I used to watch this series when I was about 8 years old, & it feels good to see these amazing creatures 10 years later. Thanks for bringing nostalgia.

[@mazdamundi1768]

I remember I watched this in my high school biology class. After watching this we did a project where we had to choose an animal and predict how it might evolve in the future. I choose an otter and my reasoning was that it had to develop longer legs for walking on land because its habitat dried up. It could also use its opposable thumbs to catch small prey. I have no idea if that's plausible, but it was certainly fun.

[@joshuagross3151]

Small prey? Look up River Otters in the Amazon.

[@SM-be5dh]

Your bio teacher sounds like a g

[@simonpetrikov3992]

Honestly I think this needs a reboot for a modern audience since there’s so much that has changed about certain scientific discoveries

[@MadHatter42]

When I was a kid, I had never heard of this series, but I HAD watched the cartoon show on Discovery kids based on this series, which had the same name. My friend, meanwhile, had heard of this series, but HADN'T heard of the kids' cartoon. So we ended up having a long conversation about how much we loved all the cool different animals that appeared in both shows, and it took us a long time to figure out that we were even talking about different shows, and an even longer time to explain what these other shows were. This just before smartphones became commonplace, so we couldn't just pull up a quick KZbin clip or Wikipedia article. It was a little breakdown in communication that was fun to work through.

[@sonicANDtailsfan157k]

Must've gotten a little awkward when you mentioned the human time traveling teens.

[@ebonyblack4563]

I'm incredibly impressed at how well CA summed up so much in this time frame. For the unfamiliar there were whole speculative ecosystems skipped in this summary, so the actual series is still very much worth a watch. The Future Is Wild paired with After Man were my entry points to speculative evolution from a science perspective rather than fantasy.

[@BergXX23]

You have no idea how long I've been looking for this. It was a special on the Discovery Channel way back in the day. Thanks for posting this!

[@mlgodzilla4206]

Feel like the show needs a reboot, somethings are off even for speculative zoology. Also I think the worlds need more fleshing out with more animals and plants in each time zone

[@cosmicrider5898]

There are a few channels that have running series

[@mlgodzilla4206]

@@cosmicrider5898 which ones?

[@tudoraragornofgreyscot8482]

@@cosmicrider5898 don’t just stand there, tell us!

[@NoNamesLeft0102]

@@tudoraragornofgreyscot8482 alien biospheres by bibilarion (spelling?)

[@cosmicrider5898]

My appologies my favorites are artifexian(more conlang less speculative) kzbin.info,and biblaridion (more speculative , but also a good bit of conlang) kzbin.info/door/MjTcpv56G_W0FRIdPHBn4A Project rose( only speculative biology) kzbin.info/door/8bL-lETKMgWrTM-egjA_PQ Ben G Thomas( is good palentological bioligist, for real life examples) kzbin.info

[@ShootingStarNeo]

Nice to know I wasn’t the only kid given to existential dread by the concept of the silver spiders and the poggles.

[@Hearty1100]

Same. Plus I'm an arachnophobe, so it made it worse

[@SuperRyge]

As the person that animated and rendered the silver spiders I am quite pleased that they freaked you out :). They were originally brown, in a vfx team meating the producers asked us what we could do to make them more interesting and less like normal spiders. I was actually joking when I said "Make them chrome" and entireley suprised when they weent for it.

[@BSsex]

@@SuperRyge that's awesome! I'm pretty sure you've given some kids nightmares tho xD

[@Crayven95]

The coolest parts for me in this video (never saw the show) were birds taking up mammal niches and the squids. They could probably do even more with the “what ifs”, like what if all mammals went extinct. Seeing what else would fill which roles and how they would change to fill said role would be fun

[@Replicaate]

I won the book they made of 'The Future is Wild' at my grade school's end-of-year ceremony thing for being the highest scoring student in English class in my grade year - I loved it, but I had no idea it was a TV series until much later, when I was just starting college, and then I watched it for the nostalgia and old-school, somewhat limited CGI, which I find incredibly charming in its way. TFIW is no Serina or All Tomorrows, but I feel like this series really got people and especially kids thinking about speculative evolution, and some of the future animals. I give it credit for having several very familiar orders of animals - birds, mammals, aquatic fish - be obliterated and allow really weird new creatures to take their niches. Also I wonder if the flying tribbethere species from Serina were in/directly inspired by the Flish, now that I think on it...or everyone who does spec-evo just really wants fishbirds.

[@BrotherRobbie]

Still have all 13 episodes saved on my computer....it was an interesting adventure, and very well detailed. Dougal Dixon inspired a generation of scientists, writers, and sci-fi fans for sure

[@seniormoros_rose6402]

This series predicted the Splatoon series, let that sink in.

[@aaronsweitzer4483]

Funny woomy game

[@Spiritstage]

@@aaronsweitzer4483I know that

[@Arthion]

Given that both the ability to predict future evolution and animation technology has vastly improved, I would very enthusiastic about a revisit to this concept.

[@SharkNinjaBlueStar]

Man, I remember this series blowing my mind when I was a kid. I had the whole thing on DVD and used to watch it all the time. I'm pretty sure this and other nature shows like it only propelled my interest in the natural world into overdrive, leaving me with the fascination of the topic that I have today.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

I never saw the TV series, but I did read the book. And one of the things you can absolutely respect about The Future is Wild was that even though they never claimed to be anything more than speculation, their speculation was still grounded in scientific theory. The fact the Megasquid's maths actually checks out and it could support itself using the those muscles is one of the small details that helped separate this series from "oh in the future there'll be flying sharks and laser shooting frogs" sort of drunken rambles.

[@elli_senfsaat]

Ah, I remember reading the book and watching these documentaries back in elementary school. I loved it so much, it provided the spark for my passion for creating my own fantasy creatures.

[@tionen3810]

"The Future is Wild" book version was one of my childhood books ! I am so happy that you made a video about it !

[@deucedecker4903]

This is truly jaw dropping. I'm watching the ocean phantom segment, and I've just noticed my jaw has been "on the floor" the whole time. I am glad to find something this exciting and genuinely interesting.

[@JBrotsis1]

Glad you did a breakdown of this show because I could never find episodes all these years later. I will say I remember thinking, and still do, the ridiculousness of the show not including crocodilians as they’ve remained relatively unchanged for millions of years and would more than likely be here millions of years after us.

[@SophisticatedGoat222]

To be fair, showing something relatively unchanged wouldn't be all that interesting if they couldn't come up with a weird direction for it to evolve like they did with the sharkopath.

[@JBrotsis1]

@@SophisticatedGoat222 I think a fun direction could be to make them turn into dinosaurs/raptors. Like a reverse evolution.

[@williamerwin7094]

@@JBrotsis1 Except that crocodiles evolved before the dinosaurs, so it wouldn't be reverse evolution but possibly a kind of progression.

[@catpoke9557]

@@JBrotsis1 They did a reverse evolution by giving those vulture looking birds finger claws.

[@catsdogswoof3968]

All of them including American are on youtube now

[@lunarwench]

I've thought about this series from my childhood all my life. I'm 35 now, and I remember being awestruck at the show, and my love of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals could never have prepared me for how cool this show was. I have never been able to forget how simply thrilling it was. I hope a revival happens too!

[@krullachief669]

You have no idea how much I love that fact that, even 200 million years later, there are still fucking sharks, stubbornly not evolving their basic shape and structure. Mammals, birds, and reptiles are gone or might as well be gone, but the shark is forever! Also, I forgot just how good a future biology speculation documentary The Future is Wild is. God this is some good nostalgia.

[@carmineknight9123]

So, fun fact, I was living with the family of one of the professors who was on this series, in the summer of 2020. I found this out when I was watching a _different_ discussion video during that summer, and while I also suddenly remembered that I had actually seen parts of one of the episodes, the video showed clips of the people talking on the show, and BAM, there was the face of someone who was literally a stone's throw away from me! I told them about it, and it was wild. They still have old VHS tapes from the show. Fun stuff aside, this show is such a unique exercise in presenting specbio content to a wide audience with a great deal of passion. It means a lot to me, who dabbles in specbio myself. It's surprising I didn't remember it stronger given how into the subject I am.(I mean, I'm on this channel, aren't I?!)

[@aarons6935]

Sure bud.

[@vincenttrigg4521]

What's specbio

[@carmineknight9123]

@@vincenttrigg4521 it's just shortening the term "speculative biology" since that can be unwieldy to repeat over and over in succession. Speculative biology being theorizing about lifeforms like the ones on the video, figuring out how they could have continued to adapt and change in a somewhat "believable" way.

[@SirBlackReeds]

That is one cursed profile image.

[@Drefsab]

This is what got me into speculative evo/biology/zoology back in the day, along with Alien Planet. The 2000s were a great time for this sort of thing.

[@FunkMastaMegaFlex]

The 2000s sure were. They took a really unique approach to looking at ideas and telling fictional stories using real science.

[@pogostix6097]

I remember watching this in high school biology class one time, when a substitute teacher was there. We only had time to watch one episode, which was a severe bummer at the time... I forgot what it was called and only found the series in full on KZbin recently, over a decade later hahaha.

[@KingAlextheKing]

must've been fun lol

[@Turnute]

The Future is Wild was imported in France when I was a kid. I lived next to an amusement park called « le Futuroscope », and when I first went to it they adapted this world into a VR Ride! It was really cool and there was merch too : a book, website, and AR Cards of different creatures that would fight and interact with each other. This universe is still so cool and I still love it! Great video, I feel like a kid again

[@Nightbird-67tm]

Ah yes, the show that fascinated me as a kid, could not remember what it was called for years until I turned 15 and then rediscovered it on YT with all the episodes up (until most were deleted, that is) and then became enraptured with it once again. Seriously, this show holds a very special place in my heart and I still get chills of nostalgia every time I hear the intro theme.

[@NegativeDumpster]

I once heard that the writers made a conscious choice to have mammals and birds go extinct. Not necessarily because it was particularly plausible, but because (at the time this special originally aired) animating fully 3-D fur and feathers was extremely expensive and difficult. So, them not featuring nearly as many mammals and birds was largely due to financial reasons. That being said, I think they were able to do so in a way that seems plausible; besides, like you said, the idea of a world where mammals and birds go extinct, and other types of fauna fill in their niches, is a pretty interesting concept.

[@ghostbread6615]

Damn you’re pumping out videos like a factory and that alone makes me happy because I have 30 minutes of interesting content to watch now

[@Squid_does_games9638]

I don’t know if this would be up your alley but could you do one of these on the robotic animals of horizon: zero dawn. The story is basically that humanity created a nano machine bio weapon that self replicated by consuming biological matter. To preserve the remaining flora, fauna, and humanity, they built giant bunkers like arks governed by ai set to start trying to recolonize the planet with plants and animals after the nanomachimes die off in a couple hundred years. The ai’s use machines based off of biological animals from the present and the past, but with some evolutions and machanical body part for increased efficiency. I think it is an interesting take on how an ecosystem could coexist with nature and machine.

[@DarthBiomech]

HZD is possibly the closest thing to my concept I wanna see realized some day, about a biosphere and technosphere being mixed together, with autonomous machines finding uses and niches among the organic life, and organic life finding uses and niches for the roaming robots as well.

[@russellking6538]

Not enough crabs.

[@georgiafan775]

Yeah by then it'll be nothing but crabs at the rate we're going, lol😂

[@cobychoochoo1943]

More crabs🦀🦀🦀🪧🪧🪧

[@jayschmidt2196]

I mean statistically speaking for sure

[@peterrebeccacard1610]

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

[@DogManWes2790]

Best Comment Here

[@dionettaeon]

This series was awesome. I remember catching a glimpse of the Ice Age desert episode as a kid, and the Spink and Deathgleamer really stuck in my mind. It took me about a decade to finally find what the show was and was amazed by all the creature designs. If I had to pick a favorite from each era, it would have to be the North American Rattleback, Great Blue Windrunner, and Forest Flish.

[@purplehaze2358]

I’m not joking when I say, wholeheartedly, that tFiW is one of, if not, the best spec evo project. Period.

[@shreddherring]

That reef glider is an image that always stayed with me, but I'd never have been able to remember where I'd seen it, so it was absolutely brilliant to see bits of this show again

[@gaz-atolla7519]

I loved this series, one of the best speculative future docs out there (Life After People was another great one) but I would love to see this redone with better CGI and covering more points in time than just the 5, 100 and 200 million years they hit

[@Scienceboy0]

Does anyone else remember the children's animated show based on The Future is Wild? It was a team of humans and a squibbon going through all these time periods and locations, encountering a different one of these creatures each episode.

[@ajax7590]

I remember this show ! I thought for a while my overtop imagination made this up!

[@missdivine3557]

Oh yeah, I remember that too! I think it was a bunch of kids/teens too. The show would also do this weird thing where they’d have cutaways to the animal that was being studied for that episode where they were talking and having weird sitcom like escapades.

[@OsmoZchannel]

I still have the augumented reality cards of the future is wild that you could pop off creature from thee show with your webcam

[@angrybudgie96]

I thought that's what this guy was talking about though?

[@LordInquisitor701]

Do you know what name is

[@Milanium215]

I always love your speculative evolution stuff and hearing you talking about The Future Is Wild made my day. The Megasquid was always one of my favourite animals from this series!

[@egomanfreeman1]

oh man I loved this show, it felt so forgotten I thought I have dreamed it all up or something. after many years it made me interested in videos like this

[@GreenLeafUponTheSky]

ah yes, when history becomes myth, and myth becomes legend

[@mazeltovcocktail2.0]

honestly this is what got me into speculative biology as a kid

[@kotyara85]

I loved this series as a child! I even revisited it somewhat recently, and it’s still very fun, even if the CGI is kind of weird

[@violetlight1548]

I absolutely adored this series, and I wasn't even a kid when it came out. It led to my own interest in Speculative biology. I'm watching with my little Toraton figurine beside me :)

[@srntnjl523]

What's more terrifying than a shark? A shark with RGB. This video gives off nostalgia vibes to me. This is one of the reasons I chose to get a degree in biology

[@Kickiusz]

"This thing looks like [thing you know] but it's actually [another thing you know]" - TFIW in one sentence. Loved that show as a kid, still constantly think back to it as an adult.

[@thisisachannel.780]

honestly i could totally see cephalopods taking over if there’s a mass mammal extinction. squids/octopi(pode?) are insanely smart already, imagine what they could do if they became pack creatures??

[@jwwebnaut7045]

I think the main reason the octopi haven't advanced further is their extremely short lifespan. Hardly any time to learn new things - and pass them on. Poor critters 😢 Are they social beings btw?

[@thisisachannel.780]

@@jwwebnaut7045 i’m honestly not sure about that. i know they can be pretty friendly with humans in captivity and in the wild, but the key word is can.

[@lucidinterval8012]

Imagine seeing the SWAMPASS in real life?!

[@thisisachannel.780]

@@lucidinterval8012 😱😱😱 SWAMPASS caught LIVE on CAMERA ?!

[@GeoTren28]

@@jwwebnaut7045lifespan is something that actually evolves quickly, i mean look at us humans it was near impossible for someone to reach 80 years of age 5000 years ago

[@HEMAYATC]

I loved this show as a kid. Thank you for bringing back some great memories!!

[@deejay3973]

19:55 "You know, someday these mammals will go extinct and then we'll have the last laugh. Ha ha!" Patchi - Walking with Dinosaurs 3D (2013)

[@ArmandoEnfectana-bp6jo]

Impossible, The Future in Wild franchise will not exist if those goddamn rats exist, why? Number 1, mammals will fuckinly redominate the lands and the sea. Number 2, those Giants Spider aren't sentient like mammals, it will not realized mammals feed on milk and they target larger one, no exceptions, so the Mammals will get extinct or they're tactics will fail because those goddamn rats will go down from the mountains. Number 3: Mammals will redominate the 200 million years timeline.

[@diplofocus2406]

I loved this programme, I remember discussing the concept of terrestrial squid with colleagues at work years ago, every so often one of them will send footage of an octopus crawling on land exclaiming "it's happening!" 😆

[@Huntersaurus-a4c]

TFiW, 5 million years on the future: Some well thought-out species which could actually happen in the future TFiW, 100 million years on the future: A bit of a stretch, but still able to create coherent organisms TFiW, 200 million years on the future: haha terrestrial cephalopods go brr

[@remhunt13]

i have been looking for this show for YEARS!!!!! Im so happy you made this video!

[@realn.w.a554]

I would have never thought the quality of the first one would be considered "dated" as the narrator said in the beginning , I didn't even know when it was actually made exactly, I just seen it as realistic slightly animated example.... It's so cool though how they were able to depict these animals and interesting to know how drastically things could change millions of years from now😳

[@squidsinspace75]

I was always moved by this moment when Squibbons attack the Megasquid to save their 'tribe member'. This was so strong parallel to the similar scene in one of the episodes Walking with Beasts when Australopithecus tribe did exactly the same to save one who get attacked by wild cat.

[@caranostalgico9249]

You would say that... someone with your profile name must appreciate squids! (≧∇≦)

[@n.g.s1mple29]

I loved the walking with series so much.

[@Eli-akad]

Crazy thing is as a kid I watched both series and remember drawing the same parallels

[@ArcMedicalResearch]

Glad I wasn't the only one so deeply moved by this show as a kid

[@dunkelklinge]

This book introduced me to the concept of speculative evolution as a child. It’s the reason I‘m really interested in the topic! Back the I actually thought these where 100% real predictions.

[@nexus6mc2182]

Thank you very much for this, Curious Archive. You always make quality content

[@complex314i]

Great choice of an Eosapian for your avatar.

[@silverhowl9331]

I’m into speculative biology right now, and this is just a goldmine of inspiration waiting to happen!!

[@cretacians]

i grew up watching documentaries like this and the walking with series. so many good documentaries from my childhood but it feels like stuff like that just doesn’t get made anymore. i would love if all of my childhood favorites got revived in some way

[@M_11_m41n]

Hopefully they do a remake of this series.

[@jindrariley1824]

Thank you for reminding me this show. I have seen only a snippets out of it as a child, but it left me astonished non the less. Especialy the swampists and windrunner. ❤

[@afterdinnercreations936]

I remember seeing this in biology-class and being spell-bound. I LOVED this series! I remember they also made a Flash animated-series on the HUB network of this show.

[@junoniathesilkwing4221]

Most speculative evolution: Horrifying alternate realities with otherworldly life-forms. Meanwhile Serina: kanarie

[@dxfcgvbhj]

There were those ant shoggoths tbf

[@1furious]

I watched this series when I was like 10 years old at my gran's and then just wasn't able to remember the name for years and years after the fact and practically convinced myself I dreamt the whole thing before I finally and randomly stumbled back on it like three or four years ago. The relief.

[@ConfusedBlueDragon]

I remember using the intro theme from this show as part of a music competition for my English class back at school; everybody else had chosen similar generic rap or hip-hop music, but when they heard this I could see what they were thinking and knew they had lost. The fact that I was thinking out of the box and they didn't was one of the reasons why I ended up with the top spot... I never got seen as 'that kid in the corner' afterwards which I found quite amusing.

[@shinigamiphantom1391]

Nice. Love that show. Squibbons are my favorite future monster.

[@DanielRuiz-tq6tp]

My mom and I used to watch this on tv when I was a kid. We both loved this series!

[@broenthompson4634]

It would be interesting to see a similar series where each episode follows the effects humans activities such climate change and pollution whether that be acidity or radiation has on future lifeforms.

[@NotOnLand]

I loved this as a kid, and while I've forgotten most of it I'll always remember the squibbons!

[@ozvoid1245]

I loved the retrospective covering new discoveries that confirm this show's speculations years later.

[@pocketrealms]

Great video as always glad to see them coming :))

[@JellyAntz]

Excellent breakdown of this series! =D This series is really amazing and fun to watch, but I think the creators just got lazy and decided to make mammals go extinct since they're already so complex and commonplace today. And then they were like, "Okay, no more birds, too." 🤣 Now with the logistics and stuff: Within 5 million years, many unpredictable drastic changes are likely to happen. It's not the length of time that determines whether drastic changes would happen, but more about what changes happen in the environments. I think the fairly average time it would generally take for animals to drastically evolve is between 200,000 years and 10-20 million years. Humans evolved in 5-7 million years, and whales evolved completely from deer-rats in just 5+ to 20 million years. Also, something important to consider is that life evolves in lineages, not individual species into another individual species. Take tyrannosaurs and ceratopsians, for example. They evolved in lineages. Instead of a single species of spink or snowstalker, there would be whole lineages and related families of creatures that descended from the same ancestors.

[@Randomme001]

Brings back memories. When I was 6 my dad would make me watch it and I loved it so much.

[@logancampos2436]

Yeah I remember this on TV. I was definitely intrigued by it. They should make new episodes. I definitely remember the snowstalker. The mega squid, the sharkopaths, the "monkey like squids "