Living Fossil (short story)
| "Living Fossil" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by L. Sprague de Camp | |
Charles Schneeman's illustration of the story in Astounding Science-Fiction | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Astounding Science-Fiction |
| Publisher | Street & Smith Publications, Inc. |
| Media type | Print (Magazine) |
| Publication date | February, 1939 |
"Living Fossil" is a science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, on the concepts of human extinction and future evolution. It was first published in the magazine Astounding Science-Fiction for February 1939. It first appeared in book form in the anthology A Treasury of Science Fiction (Crown Publishers, 1948); it later appeared in the anthologies Gates to Tomorrow (Atheneum, 1973), and The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 1 (Tor Books, 1999). The story has been translated into Danish, Swedish and Italian.
It is perhaps the earliest work of fiction dealing with the afterwards popular theme of humanity being replaced by other intelligent primates in the future, later epitomized by Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes.