Future is Wild Clip: Diving, Baby Octopuses

[lifetrance]

I finally got around to watching The Future is Wild (television series), and I've decided that this is most certainly the best part. To save you the trouble of watching the whole thing, I've extracted the clip and put it on loop:

Diving, Baby Octopuses

Enjoy

-Brandon

 

[chrono_war01]

werid...

 

[Colin]

my score for diving technique

...

 

[chrono_war01]

 

[Melissa]

Footage documenting the only-seen-in-April Delaware River Flood Octopus?

Melissa

 

[Hans Akkerman]

"The future is wild" series seems to be very fond of the idea of cephs ruling the earth. In this particular episode an amphibious ceph, called the Swampus has a symbiotic relationship with a plant (resembling a bucket), which it uses as a nursery for it's young. In return the Swampus kills everything that comes near it.

a couple of million years later The "rainbow squid" has mastered the art of blending into the environment, by projecting the scenery on one side of the animal to the other, Making itself completely invisible. It plucks birdlike fish (don't ask) out of the air with it's tentacles and grows to 120 feet

 

[Hans Akkerman]

The most fanciful adaptation, was that of the Megasquid
An 8-ton mammoth squid, that lumbers through the forest.
However a squid is still a squid and therefore has no skeleton to hold it upright. That's why it's arms have changed into 8 muscular columns

Still, the leading role is reserved for the simian ceph: the squibbon (notice how cleverly named it is?) the series ends with them destined to become the next high intelligence on the new earth, equalling or even surpassing their human predeccessors

Personally, I think the producers might have gone a little too far with that one, but I must admit it was quite edearing to see a couple of squibbons playing with seeds and rescuing their sibling from the clutches of a megasquid.

 

[chrono_war01]

I wonder will the show it in HK?

 

[Squidman]

That megasquid looks like something you might see in an old Godzilla movie.

 

[chrono_war01]

Yep.

 

[GPO87]

That clip is so funny, I've got to see that movie!

 

[legendarycroc]

its a tv show not a movie..

 

[Hans Akkerman]

I feel that the producers believe that if cephs manage to survive on land and become social, there will be no limits to what they can achieve

 

[erich orser]

The entire "Future is Wild" miniseries can be ordered online. A friend got it for me for my birthday. I found the entire series rather enjoyable. I imagine a lot of it might have gone a little like this in the planning stages:

PRODUCER: Hey, our SFX guys came up with this, so I'm asking you science guys if it might be possible, I mean, it'll look soooo cool..!

SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR: Well, I suppose, under extremely specific circumstances that nobody can completely predict with any real chance at accuracy... if certain factors don't come into play while others do... if these other species go extinct... umm... I guess, uh, maybe it might turn out like that in the time period you've come up with... although really this is just specula-

PRODUCER: GREAT! I'll call the SFX guys and tell them to get rolling on the CGI! It's the big thing with the kids these days! And you'll tell how these critters got that way, right!?

S.A. : Well, I guess-

PRODUCER: The ratings are gonna be great! Don't like this name, though. Squimps. Squorillas... naw, not cute enough... how about... SQUIBBONS!!

S.A.: Great. Yeah. Squibbons. Just make sure that on the check my name is spelled correctly this time...

Personally, I thought where they take bat evolution in so short a time seems morphologically unsound. For creatures that have barely changed in about 55-60 million years (I speak of insectivores - macrochiroptera came along considerably later), they seem to evolve a helluva lot in brand new ways over the next twenty million. What's with the long goose-like necks and disproportionately tiny heads? Vampiric behavior makes some sense, especially feeding on future descendants of modern avian life, but to live this way, modern vampires must live in regions where there are huge amounts of easily-attainable prey (livestock, poultry). Vampires were relatively rare before Europeans arrived with their style of agriculture. This program shows them living in a frigid desert region where their prey seem to stand a good chance of escape just by burrowing. This is all provided that we haven't killed them all off long before this, of course.

I did really dig the Rainbow Squid, however.

There have been a lot of really good, well-researched shows using cutting-edge SFX recently. In particular, I look forward to what Nik will be bringing us soon, but much as I like watching my copy of "The Future is Wild", that miniseries is purely to be taken as entertainment.

 

[Snafflehound]

It reminds me of those Dougal Dixon books like "Life After Man" only with better art.

My favorite critter from Dixon was the giant baleen-beaked creatures that evolved from penguins after the demise of whales and dolphins.