The idea of trying to imagine (0) … WHAT… sort of animals will be living on our planet in thousands if not millions of years’ time seems at first sight to be futile. Can we possibly imagine what’s in store so far in the future? The team of scientists (1) ….... work on the question is to be published soon have, all (2) …… same, applied a great (3) …………... more than guesswork (4) …………... the task. Each of them, specializing (5) ................. a different discipline, has used understanding of the past to figure (6) …………... all the environments that may be available to future life forms. By studying past ice ages and climates, they have deduced the (7) …………... in which weather patterns will, in all (8) …………..., affect different areas of the globe. From their study of past evolution, they claim they can predict how life will adapt to fit the new ecological conditions (9) ………….... about by these changes. Because there is a series of rules governing evolution in the past, it requires no great leap of faith to look in the other direction. The result is a collection of very weird - looking creatures. Although the scientists admit they may be wrong, they say it is the best they can come up (10) ….. based on what they know, with just a little imagination thrown in for really good measure.