This article was first published in the August 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online

More than 16,000 animal species are threatened with extinction. What if humans could use biotechnology to help them evolve? Artist Kathryn Fleming wants us to imagine just that. "We live in a precarious moment," says Washington DC-based Fleming, 32. "Humans are the greatest influence on the evolution of the natural world."

For her Endless Form/Endless Species series, Fleming not only envisions such creatures but creates them, using taxidermy to combine parts of existing animals. "When you start looking at these creatures, you can see they're these perfect designs," she says. "Taxidermy can really help designers to understand natural processes -- and then speculate on what might be different."

Among her bio-inspired creations: artiodactyla optime, or the "Superbivore" (pictured), a future deer whose adaptations include a giraffe-like neck, a 25cm-long prehensile tongue for foraging and cloven hooves that allow it to balance on precarious surfaces. Another beast, carnivora revibro, is a part-feline, part-canine carnivore, with fur that can reflect artificial light to dazzle prey. Some features, Fleming says, could be the result of natural selection, others by human genetic intervention. She has also designed a future London Zoo with habitats for each creature.

Fleming is now researching new species at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC and has opened a studio, Modern Naturalism, which focuses on applying biological principles to design. "Animals have come up with design solutions that are far outside of what we come up with on our own," she says. "That's what evolution is -- hundreds of years of design and development."

This article was originally published by WIRED UK