Satoshi Kawasaki is a Japanese illustrator, author, or both. Normally I try to get the facts correct, but in this case I am forced to rely on Google's translation services. While these allow us all to sample texts that would otherwise remain closed, the results are not necessarily reliable. For those who do not now how to operate the Google translation service, simply go the main Google page, and there should be something called 'language aids' or similar just to the right of the search window. Clicking on it will allow you to paste in text, or to translate an entire web page. To see how well or poorly it works, have it translate a paragraph in your native language into Japanese, and paste the result in to translate it back again. Following this link will bring you to an Amazon page showing a book of extinct animals. I think it is a safe guess that most people interested in speculative biology will also like palaeontology. If so, the cover of this book should convince you that Mr. Kawasaki knows his business, and seems to prefer the bizarre. He does not shy away from speculative biology either, and in his case that concerns life in the future on Earth. He has a very nice website showing life on Earth in various geological ages, starting at the Cambrium. Clicking on an epoch shows a world map for that age, and selecting a continent or sea opens a page with its inhabitants. From the Cambrium on each major era has its own map. There are four such pages for the future, resulting in pages for 5, 50, 100 and 200 million years in the future. But before you zoom off to look there, stop at the other ages as well, because here and there you will find animals indicated with an outline and a question mark, and these are quite interesting. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki In the present era, I found this intriguing dog with a human face living in Japan and China. The text says that the animal is not suffering at all, but that this is its normal face; at least I think that is what it says. The garbled translation suggests that the original text might be quite funny, but that is something I can only guess at. At any rate, images such as this one show that Mr. Kawasaki has a somewhat surrealistic sense of humour, which I rather like. If you do not, be warned, because similar themes will keep cropping up. If you take speculative biology as a completely serious business, do not bother visiting his site. Of course, taking anything entitled 'speculative biology' completely serious is a bit surrealistic by itself. I will not delve into all the animals, nor discuss in any detail how life evolves in the future. I rather liked the way how chameleons leave the trees and evolve into a range of large terrestrial animals, looking a bit like present-day mammals as well as like dinosaurs. What I also liked was that intelligent beings seem to evolve here and there, only to vanish without a trace. Instead I will focus on the world of 200 millions years into the future, and on one theme only: land-living cephalopods! Yes, there are land-living octopus and squid here. Dougal Dixon was probably the first to shoo cephalopods onto dry land in his book 'Life after Man'. The theme was worked out in more detail in 'The Future is Wild'. I think there are some significant problems with this concept. One is that the cephalopod body structure simply does not provide a good starting point for an animal that needs to withstand gravity. Tentacles in particular are an extremely bad starting point. In earlier entries (last one here) I explained my reasons for thinking so. In short, you can walk on tentacles, but once evolution has increased their efficiency, they are no longer tentacles, but will have become legs. The second reason to think that cephalopods will have a difficult time making it on land is that they are not the first to go there, so they will have to compete with animals with fully developed legs. In 'The Future is Wild' swamps were provided for the purpose, but the other animals were not whisked away to support the cephalopods. Perhaps an isolated island, where there are no land animals at all, might do the trick. Even then you have to hope that birds won't bother the new-fangled land-squids too much. Mr Kawasaki's terrestrial cephalopods do not seem to care one bit about such sombre estimates of their likelihood, but look quite alive. Let's have a closer look. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki This one is entitled a 'Purototerasukuido', and is described as a primitive 'Terasukuido'. Let me guess: 'sukuido' might be a Japanese transliteration of the English word 'squid', and 'terasukuido' might be 'terrestrial squid'. 'Puroto' could be 'proto-', so this might be a proto-land-squid'. The animal looks like it is lifted bodily out of 'The Future is Wild', so it seems like Mr Kawasaki is playing another joke. It is describe as a living fossil, and the statement that high fertility balances high mortality shows that Mr Kawasaki also thinks that such an animal needs all the help it can get to stay alive. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki Next: a goby squid. The text says 'Second is to leap out of the crab', which may mean that it is an ambush predator, waiting for a crab to emerge. It has six walking legs and two prehensile arms, which makes sense, I think. It somehow manages to look very attentive, indeed like a little goby fish. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki This is a 'Sleipnir', named after Odin's eight-legged horse. The first animal shown above is a functional hexapod, using two arms for predatory purposes. Perhaps this is another example of centaurism, but that is debatable. The Sleipnir lives in herds and is well-protected by scales. Its length is given as 200-250 cm, so it is quite large. The legs might still be tentacles, but they might just as easily have bones in them; perhaps this is an example of a tentacle turned into a leg. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki An African predator? Yes, the 'chitopasu' is a sprinter; is there a cheetah in that name? In this case, the text clearly states that there is no skeleton in its legs. What a pity. Note that the illustration is apparently not by Mr Kawasaki but by 'UME'. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki The Zeburasukuido must be prey, and it is (I guess its name means 'zebra squid'). Note that the mouth is underneath the animal, while he eyes are on top, just like its ancestors. I do think that the eyes should probably be smaller, as eyes do not generally scale in the same way as body size. Having such large eyes makes it look much smaller than it is supposed to be. Count its legs: there are ten this time! All this leg variability suggest that land squids are not a monophyletic group; that means that the species shown here are not descended from a single species. Instead, their resemblance suggests that various groups of cephalopods all made it onto land, bringing their different body plans with them. Not impossible, but what would drive such a tendency? Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki Finally, a brachiator (that's an animal swinging from its arms). It looks agile, as it should be. Its legs are attached to the underside of the body. If these animals indeed hang from branches much of the time, instead of sitting on them, the attachments of their legs might wander to the top of the body, making life a little easier mechanically. I really like the sense of humour that permeates these creatures. It would be nice to have Mr Kawasaki tell us a bit more about his creations, and perhaps he will respond. Until then, have fun with his website and his creations.
コレはかなり好きな雰囲気だ！ あの可愛らしい世界に身を投じてみたい！とさえ思わされたエポック社の「シルバニアファミリー」のメンツが、アブラやサビ、そしてなにやらメカメカしい物に乗車するワイルドな雰囲気 ...
Wenskaart Spiny Woodland Hopper van Anne Stokes inclusief bijpassende envelop. De kaart heeft een blanco binnenkant en is 120 x 170mm groot. Deze kaarten zijn geprint op FSC papier en gedrukt met inkt op plantaardige inkt.
Marine biologist Alexander Semenov specializes in invertebrates and is the head of the divers’ team at Moscow State University’s White Sea Biological Station where he organizes and manages all sorts of work, often diving in harsh conditions. Semenov is also a professional photographer, so combining these two specialties allows him to capture subjects most of us haven't even seen.
Satoshi Kawasaki is a Japanese illustrator, author, or both. Normally I try to get the facts correct, but in this case I am forced to rely on Google's translation services. While these allow us all to sample texts that would otherwise remain closed, the results are not necessarily reliable. For those who do not now how to operate the Google translation service, simply go the main Google page, and there should be something called 'language aids' or similar just to the right of the search window. Clicking on it will allow you to paste in text, or to translate an entire web page. To see how well or poorly it works, have it translate a paragraph in your native language into Japanese, and paste the result in to translate it back again. Following this link will bring you to an Amazon page showing a book of extinct animals. I think it is a safe guess that most people interested in speculative biology will also like palaeontology. If so, the cover of this book should convince you that Mr. Kawasaki knows his business, and seems to prefer the bizarre. He does not shy away from speculative biology either, and in his case that concerns life in the future on Earth. He has a very nice website showing life on Earth in various geological ages, starting at the Cambrium. Clicking on an epoch shows a world map for that age, and selecting a continent or sea opens a page with its inhabitants. From the Cambrium on each major era has its own map. There are four such pages for the future, resulting in pages for 5, 50, 100 and 200 million years in the future. But before you zoom off to look there, stop at the other ages as well, because here and there you will find animals indicated with an outline and a question mark, and these are quite interesting. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki In the present era, I found this intriguing dog with a human face living in Japan and China. The text says that the animal is not suffering at all, but that this is its normal face; at least I think that is what it says. The garbled translation suggests that the original text might be quite funny, but that is something I can only guess at. At any rate, images such as this one show that Mr. Kawasaki has a somewhat surrealistic sense of humour, which I rather like. If you do not, be warned, because similar themes will keep cropping up. If you take speculative biology as a completely serious business, do not bother visiting his site. Of course, taking anything entitled 'speculative biology' completely serious is a bit surrealistic by itself. I will not delve into all the animals, nor discuss in any detail how life evolves in the future. I rather liked the way how chameleons leave the trees and evolve into a range of large terrestrial animals, looking a bit like present-day mammals as well as like dinosaurs. What I also liked was that intelligent beings seem to evolve here and there, only to vanish without a trace. Instead I will focus on the world of 200 millions years into the future, and on one theme only: land-living cephalopods! Yes, there are land-living octopus and squid here. Dougal Dixon was probably the first to shoo cephalopods onto dry land in his book 'Life after Man'. The theme was worked out in more detail in 'The Future is Wild'. I think there are some significant problems with this concept. One is that the cephalopod body structure simply does not provide a good starting point for an animal that needs to withstand gravity. Tentacles in particular are an extremely bad starting point. In earlier entries (last one here) I explained my reasons for thinking so. In short, you can walk on tentacles, but once evolution has increased their efficiency, they are no longer tentacles, but will have become legs. The second reason to think that cephalopods will have a difficult time making it on land is that they are not the first to go there, so they will have to compete with animals with fully developed legs. In 'The Future is Wild' swamps were provided for the purpose, but the other animals were not whisked away to support the cephalopods. Perhaps an isolated island, where there are no land animals at all, might do the trick. Even then you have to hope that birds won't bother the new-fangled land-squids too much. Mr Kawasaki's terrestrial cephalopods do not seem to care one bit about such sombre estimates of their likelihood, but look quite alive. Let's have a closer look. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki This one is entitled a 'Purototerasukuido', and is described as a primitive 'Terasukuido'. Let me guess: 'sukuido' might be a Japanese transliteration of the English word 'squid', and 'terasukuido' might be 'terrestrial squid'. 'Puroto' could be 'proto-', so this might be a proto-land-squid'. The animal looks like it is lifted bodily out of 'The Future is Wild', so it seems like Mr Kawasaki is playing another joke. It is describe as a living fossil, and the statement that high fertility balances high mortality shows that Mr Kawasaki also thinks that such an animal needs all the help it can get to stay alive. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki Next: a goby squid. The text says 'Second is to leap out of the crab', which may mean that it is an ambush predator, waiting for a crab to emerge. It has six walking legs and two prehensile arms, which makes sense, I think. It somehow manages to look very attentive, indeed like a little goby fish. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki This is a 'Sleipnir', named after Odin's eight-legged horse. The first animal shown above is a functional hexapod, using two arms for predatory purposes. Perhaps this is another example of centaurism, but that is debatable. The Sleipnir lives in herds and is well-protected by scales. Its length is given as 200-250 cm, so it is quite large. The legs might still be tentacles, but they might just as easily have bones in them; perhaps this is an example of a tentacle turned into a leg. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki An African predator? Yes, the 'chitopasu' is a sprinter; is there a cheetah in that name? In this case, the text clearly states that there is no skeleton in its legs. What a pity. Note that the illustration is apparently not by Mr Kawasaki but by 'UME'. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki The Zeburasukuido must be prey, and it is (I guess its name means 'zebra squid'). Note that the mouth is underneath the animal, while he eyes are on top, just like its ancestors. I do think that the eyes should probably be smaller, as eyes do not generally scale in the same way as body size. Having such large eyes makes it look much smaller than it is supposed to be. Count its legs: there are ten this time! All this leg variability suggest that land squids are not a monophyletic group; that means that the species shown here are not descended from a single species. Instead, their resemblance suggests that various groups of cephalopods all made it onto land, bringing their different body plans with them. Not impossible, but what would drive such a tendency? Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki Finally, a brachiator (that's an animal swinging from its arms). It looks agile, as it should be. Its legs are attached to the underside of the body. If these animals indeed hang from branches much of the time, instead of sitting on them, the attachments of their legs might wander to the top of the body, making life a little easier mechanically. I really like the sense of humour that permeates these creatures. It would be nice to have Mr Kawasaki tell us a bit more about his creations, and perhaps he will respond. Until then, have fun with his website and his creations.
