Description:
This project is a work of speculative fiction regarding Paleontology and evolution. As such, none of these creatures are actually real, but this project verges on reality in other ways.
Every creature in this project is described and illustrated by me as a real animal, living in its ecosystem, on a hypothetical earth-like planet that is somewhat smaller and more tropical than earth.
The resemblance to reality is, though I have described and illustrated these creatures, they were not as such created by my-self. All of the animals in this project are directly taken from and inspired by a very rich and fascinating source, Paleontology.
However, they are still fictional, because these creatures are all mistaken views or hypotheses that were described and reconstructed by Paleontologists and artists, over the some 150+ years that Paleontology has been a viable science. Some are as recent as to have been supposed during this decade, and some were described more than 100 years ago. The one thing they share is that they are all false interpretations of the fossil evidence, from supposedly venomous dinosaurs, giant rhinoceros iguanas, creatures with the head on the wrong end or even creatures classified in the wrong animal group.
I thought that, the expansive history of Paleontological mishaps provides such a rich menagerie of creatures, that imagining them as real creatures that never were, is a fun and romantic notion. Think of this is an old-fashioned, rather hyperbolic “Lost World” of prehistoric monsters in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, or Willis ‘O Brian, except that these ones have only ever existed in the minds of scientists.
This strange exotic land is not only a nightmare to a would-be time-traveler or inter-dimensional-astronaut, but a nightmare of Paleontologists worst mistakes.
I have kept the narrative consistent and with an in-world tone throughout, as such, there are no details given as to the nature of the science mistakes that inspired them. I challenge the reader to find these details out themselves, by consulting the bibliography, website list, and recommended reading provided.
Enjoy your trip, and remember they can’t hurt you anymore than a grammatical error can hurt a pencil.
This project is a work of speculative fiction regarding Paleontology and evolution. As such, none of these creatures are actually real, but this project verges on reality in other ways.
Every creature in this project is described and illustrated by me as a real animal, living in its ecosystem, on a hypothetical earth-like planet that is somewhat smaller and more tropical than earth.
The resemblance to reality is, though I have described and illustrated these creatures, they were not as such created by my-self. All of the animals in this project are directly taken from and inspired by a very rich and fascinating source, Paleontology.
However, they are still fictional, because these creatures are all mistaken views or hypotheses that were described and reconstructed by Paleontologists and artists, over the some 150+ years that Paleontology has been a viable science. Some are as recent as to have been supposed during this decade, and some were described more than 100 years ago. The one thing they share is that they are all false interpretations of the fossil evidence, from supposedly venomous dinosaurs, giant rhinoceros iguanas, creatures with the head on the wrong end or even creatures classified in the wrong animal group.
I thought that, the expansive history of Paleontological mishaps provides such a rich menagerie of creatures, that imagining them as real creatures that never were, is a fun and romantic notion. Think of this is an old-fashioned, rather hyperbolic “Lost World” of prehistoric monsters in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, or Willis ‘O Brian, except that these ones have only ever existed in the minds of scientists.
This strange exotic land is not only a nightmare to a would-be time-traveler or inter-dimensional-astronaut, but a nightmare of Paleontologists worst mistakes.
I have kept the narrative consistent and with an in-world tone throughout, as such, there are no details given as to the nature of the science mistakes that inspired them. I challenge the reader to find these details out themselves, by consulting the bibliography, website list, and recommended reading provided.
Enjoy your trip, and remember they can’t hurt you anymore than a grammatical error can hurt a pencil.