This assignment draws upon the science fiction sub-genre of Speculative Biology, which plays with the natural link between an organism's adaptations and its external environment to posit imaginary organisms which still follow ecological and evolutionary rules. Some fields of speculative biology focus on imagining alien organisms completely separate from real-life evolutionary trees; much of the creature design for the Star Wars universe has drawn upon such work. In this assignment, though, students demonstrate their understanding of real-world natural selective forces to propose how changes in Earth's environment might drive evolutionary change in the descendants of contemporary organisms in the future. This helps reinforce the idea that there is no "goal" to evolution, that it is a constantly-occurring process which will continue to shape the ecosystem of Earth even after humans are gone.
Evolution of the Future - How to Draw an Imaginary Future Animal Even If You Have No Artistic Skill Evolution of the Future - Rubric
Comments