The picture on the left is all over the blogosphere. If there is any credit or background information at all, it’s said to be a painting by Dougal Dixon from the book Man After Man. There are three problems with that attribution. Problem #1: Dougal Dixon didn’t illustrate Man After Man. He wrote the text and may have done some concept art, but the illustrator was Philip Hood. Actually (or at least according to rumor) some or all of the illustrations were illegally based on concept art by Wayne Douglas Barlowe, but that’s neither here nor there. Problem #2: I know Man After Man inside and out (it’s my favorite pseudononfiction book after Expedition) and I can tell you for a fact that this illustration isn’t in it. It’s possible that there’s a paperback edition or overseas variant with some different illustrations, but that’s doubtful. Problem #3: This wasn’t scanned from a book. You can see faint text in the background, and if you blow it up and flip it horizontally you see a picture of a moth and ads for various books. So it must come from a magazine or possibly a newspaper.

I did a lot of detective work. To make a long story short, I found that Dougal Dixon wrote an article for Omni Magazine (November 1982) that presaged Man After Man, and this was one of the illustrations. I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy of that issue, but I’d guess based on style and circumstantial evidence that Philip Hood painted it. The only remaining question is why this intriguing creature was left out of the final book.