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:icondomain-of-darwin: #Domain-of-Darwin
Evolutionists of DeviantArt

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October 11, 2008
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:iconlexlothor:
This was a tiny pen and ink illustration I did long ago for an article I wrote on evolutionary morphology for the Fantasy Artists Network zine "Fantasy".

(c) John P. Alexander
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:icongeekspace:
~geekspace Oct 13, 2008
I take it polyphallangy provides a firmer structure for the paddle's base, allowing more force to be applied with each stroke than, say, webbed digits?
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:icongeekspace:
~geekspace Oct 12, 2008
Again, a fine piece of X-ray detail, and equally fine stiple gradation upon the subject itself. I'm also impressed by that angular skull & set of fish-hook teeth...as well as the equally brutal-looking background fish. Xiphactinus, I presume?

Always a pleasure to peruse your paleo-works (pardon the alliteration).
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:iconlexlothor:
*LEXLOTHOR Oct 12, 2008
The purpose of this picture was to show how a paddle evolved from a manus through the process of polyphallangy (multiplication of knuckles). The companion work on Ichthyosaurs was to show polydactyly (the multiplication of fingers).
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:iconbhut:
~bhut Oct 11, 2008
So how well do Fantasy Artwork and evolutionary morphology work together?
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:iconlexlothor:
*LEXLOTHOR Oct 11, 2008
Answer: not well.

The intention of the article was to introduce fantasy artists to very BASIC notions of functional morphology so that the fantastic creatures they rendered (unicorns, dragons, chthullus, whatever) might have some credible anatomy.
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:iconbhut:
~bhut Oct 12, 2008
So? Did it work?
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:iconlexlothor:
*LEXLOTHOR Oct 12, 2008
I said what I wanted to say, but I doubt if more than a few hundred artists ever saw this article that was published in 1980. I have considered other more ambitious projects in the intervening decades but others beat me to it. I was working on a book on "future dinosaurs" when Dougal Dixon did his own series of books and essentially flooded the market.
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:iconbhut:
~bhut Oct 12, 2008
I wouldn't call it a "series of books" - each of these books was a separate work, not really related to each other: "After Man: A Zoology of the Future", "Man After Man" and "The New Dinosaurs" do not have much in common with each other at all.
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:iconlexlothor:
*LEXLOTHOR Oct 12, 2008
These books essentially covered the field of alternate evolution.

Since it has been 20 years since these came out I may revisit the subject.

I see that the Brit TV series "Primeval" is stripmining some of Dixon's concepts.
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:iconbhut:
~bhut Oct 12, 2008
Dixon's concepts are 20 years too old - of course "Primeval" and its producer, Impossible Pictures, are stripmining the concepts. If you want to see the more recent versions of Dixon's concepts, you should find the series "The Future Is Wild" (the original series, not the cartoon one) and see it. You won't forget them in a hurry, that's for sure!
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