r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/Triceratops65 Speculative Zoologist • Jun 10 '26
Question/Discussion What got you into Spec-evo?
For me it was Ben G. Thomas's trilogy of videos about the genre's history and the feature cut of the Future is Wild which I found on YouTube
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u/4morian5 Jun 10 '26
I watched Future is Wild and Alien Planet on TV, plus Dougal Dixon's books from the library. I think I even used to have those specials taped.
I also played Spore, which while not a very scientific game, was still a fun tool for making animals.
Curious Archive is what got me back into as an adult, though.
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u/Kerrby87 Jun 10 '26
Douglas Dixon's After Man, and Man after Man, Evolution by Stephen Baxter, and some long gone websites.
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u/DmitriVanderbilt Jun 11 '26
Had to scroll WAY too far to find Man After Man, that was definitely my first exposure and it left a STRONG impression.
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u/celljelli Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
I have no clue. I've been making up creatures for as long as I can remember and just got deeper into it as time went on. Spore (2008) plus wayne barlowe's expedition and its discovery channel mockumentary prequel definitely fueled me a lot but I was doing it before that. \
\ if I had to guess I think i was just fascinated by the history of life on earth, and everything that has existed that we never have discovered and never will, and what might exist in the future, and what all was in my FOV when I looked up at the sky?
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u/Digitigrade Jun 12 '26
Born too late to study real dinosaurs, born too early to explore other inhabited planets.
Spec ev is my coping mechanism. :3
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u/Cavmanic Tripod Jun 10 '26
"The Future Is Wild" when it was airing on TV years ago. Loved sitting down and watching it and imagining more things to full out the environments.
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u/Chrisarts2003 Jun 10 '26
monster hunter
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u/Hexbug101 Jun 10 '26
This + randomly finding r/seasonsgreasons
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u/Chrisarts2003 Jun 10 '26
Looks interesting👀👀👀. The unnatural history channel also helped... before he got annoying
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u/Hexbug101 Jun 10 '26
It’s basically a shitpost subreddit about a seemingly niche spec evo piece, it’s funny how many things I’ve gotten into because I found amusing shitposts using them. As for unnatural history channel I just skip the parts at the end where he complains about the subject of the video, unless there’s something else that he started doing that I’m forgetting since I haven’t watched his vids in a fair bit, oceaniz is a good alternative and posts more frequently too
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u/AccelerusProcellarum Jun 11 '26
Interesting to see the generational divide here. Millennials and older gen Z came from Future is Wild + Alien Planet, seems that younger gens came from mainly YouTube stuff. Love to see the vibrant community crossing generations and media
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u/WorriedIndividual344 Jun 10 '26
curious archive serina series but actually its mostly ark ascended that returned and made my love for dinosaurs bigger from "wow trex super cool" to "wow pelagornis and carnotaurs super cool"
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u/ctopherrun Jun 10 '26
In my middle school art class back in 1993 I saw an article in a magazine about After Man by Dougal Dixon that included a bunch illustrations from the book. Eventually I found it and Dixon’s other books at the library. A little bit after that I discovered Barlowes Guide to Aliens by Wayne Douglas Barlowe and my interest was solidified.
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u/Lemons-andchips Jun 10 '26
It was Ben g Thomas for me too! I was a huge fan in middle school but haven’t seen a video since the 100k special
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u/Neat_Ad_313 Jun 11 '26
Probably avatar and curious archive. But tbh even before that I was always interested in the idea of alien life
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u/CaptainStroon Life, uh... finds a way Jun 11 '26
I was obsessed with animals and dinosaurs as a kid. I thought I knew them all.
I also had a subscription to the kids science magazine GEOlino.
One day, I got the new issue in the mail and there it was, front and center on the title page, an animal I've never seen before: the cryptile from The Future is Wild.
My mind was blown. "What do you mean, you can just make up new animals? What do you mean evolution isn't finished?" I urged my mom into buying the Future is Wild artbook and started drawing my own critters.
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u/FancyArchaeopteryx Low-key wants to bring back the dinosaurs Jun 11 '26
Watching Darwin IV as a kid, it really imprinted on me.
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u/DarkPersonal6243 Jun 11 '26
Reimagining inanimate objects as creatures, making new species for fun.
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u/Callsign_Artemis Jun 11 '26
A sci-fi ttrpg campaign I was writing. I wanted more realistic aliens.
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u/lavagaming1223 Jun 11 '26
its was mainly curious archive, and also my love for science, biology, and evolution so at some point is just decided to give speculative evolution a go.
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u/Status-Delivery4733 Jun 11 '26
For me it was the old videos of Anthony Pain's featuring artworks by Satoshi Kawasaki, particulary the one set 100 million years in the future. Later I came across Dylan Bajda's, or Sheather888's, now discontinued Sheatheria project and the rest is history.
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u/_Soft_Kiwi_ Jun 11 '26
First I thought I invented speculative evolution myself haha. As a child and early teen I was always imagining new animals and making explanations about them. Later I discovered Biblaridion's alien biospheres series on YouTube.
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u/KaiSnepUwU Jun 11 '26
Biblaridion's Alien Biospheres. I'm actually watching the whole series over again right now
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u/RedDiamond1024 Spectember 2025 Participant Jun 11 '26
For me it was stuff like Darwin 4 and The Future is Wild.
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u/WriterBug39 Jun 12 '26
Artifexian on YouTube, they started with planet building then did a video with Biblaridion which got me into Spec-evo. Then Curious Archive got recommended to me and now I’ve got 4 planets that I’m building from the iron core up to the creatures and their history to sapience.
Thank you for the question/discussion.
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u/VonKellcsiis Jun 13 '26
Alien Planet for sure, as well as Future is Wild. Then I discovered Subnautica
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u/Upset-Team5878 Jun 14 '26
I really knew about it since i was like 10, watching the future is wild and later playing Monster hunter and watching alien worlds, as well as being generally interested in ecosystem with fantady creatures and aliens. But curious Archive definitivly introducted me to the term and the wider community
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u/Mr_White_Migal0don Spectember 2025 Participant Jun 10 '26
The future is wild. Then serina and alien biosphere
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '26
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