Rats!

I read with interest a report in last weeks Sunday Times (see how long it takes me!) about Richard Dawkins' 'prediction' in his book, The Ancestor's Tale, that rats would become the predominant species after man becomes extinct.

Hmmm - prediction or memory?

In 1981 Harrow House Editions published a book, After Man - A Zoology of the Future, (ISBN 0 246 11577 7) by the author and palaeontologist Dougal Dixon who extrapolated on Darwins Theory of Evolution to predict evolving species.
One of these was was the Falanx (Amphimorphodus cynomorphus), a descendant of the common rat grown to the size of a wolf, who replaced the dogs and cats as the main predator and illustrated here by Diz Wallis.

Sorry Professor Dawkins - Dougal beat you!

My favourite though has to be the Night Stalker (Manambulus Perhorridus). A five foot high blind predator descended from Bats which hunt in packs at night, screaming and using echo location to find their prey.
It led to a very interesting conversation when, carrying an excellent model made by Dougal, I was stopped at US Customs who asked "What's in the bag?"