Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 17, 1992 TAG: 9201170155
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DINAMATION EXHIBIT LETS YOU TAKE A STEP INTO THE FUTURE
Imagine how handy the Woolly Gigantelope would be in the snow. With its large horns that resemble snow plows, this grazing animal of the tundra could shovel your driveway in one quick scoop while you waited comfortably in your house.And Manambulus perhorridus, the terrifying Night Stalker, could start your car with its back feet, which come over its shoulders and work effectively as hands.
You've just stepped 50 million years into the future.
But wait. Step back.
Man, and his best friend, won't be there.
So believes Scottish geologist Dougal Dixon, whose book, "After Man: A Zoology of the Future" (St. Martin's Press, 1981), envisions the Earth's roaming, swimming, flying and slithering creatures millions of years after man snuffs himself out.
Dixon's exploration of possibilities will be on view in "Zoology of the Future," a Dinamation exhibit at the Science Museum of Western Virginia today through April 12.
In his introduction, Dixon writes: "One trend that is foreseeable is the ruinous effect that man is having on the precise balance of nature. I have taken this not unjustifiably to an extreme, with man having extinguished the species that are already on the decline and having wreaked terrible destruction on their natural habitats before dying out himself and allowing evolution to get back to work, repairing his damage and filling in the gaps left behind."
Most of these gaps are filled with the pests of which man has so diligently tried to rid himself.
The Night Stalker, for example, is a walking descendant of the bat. Nearly 5 feet tall, it will scream, "ZOOLOGY OF THE FUTURE": Opens today. Science Museum of Western Virginia: Center in the Square, downtown Roanoke. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m. For recorded information on exhibits and programs, call 343-7876. screech and roam in packs, preying on mammals and reptiles with its ferocious claws and teeth.
Though fantastically frightening, Dixon's creatures are based on the principals of evolution and ecology. And while his predictions are not firm, they are "speculation built on fact," he says.
Dixon has accounted for continental drift in his scientific search for future fauna. In a few million years plate tectonics will combine the continents of Africa, Eurasia and North America with Australiato form a single continent. South America will separate from North America.
The Earth then will house six habitats: the tundra and polar regions, coniferous forests, temperate woodlands and grasslands, tropicalforests,tropical grasslands and deserts.
Western Virginians may be interested in knowing that their mountains will be the temperate woodlands and grasslands where rabbucks (large rabbits that resemble Bambi), falanx (giant dog-like rats), 3-foot tall, owl-eyed predatory birds and long, furry tree dwellers will prey.
Among the animals represented in the museum's exhibit is the Desert Leaper, a camel-like mammal that can lose up to 50 percent of its body weight before becoming ill, as well as large animated exhibits, similar to Dinamation's robotic dinosaur displays.
Several diaramas also will illustrate the six habitats and the animals that will dwell in them.
Science Museum admission will increase during this exhibit to $4 for adults and $2.50 for children.
"Zoology of the Future": Opens today. Science Museum of Western Virginia: Center in the Square, downtown Roanoke. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1-5 p.m. For recorded information on exhibits and programs, call 343-7876.