what are the chances that a new, highly advanced species will rise, evolve, populate and pick up where we left off?
2006-09-12 13:53:34 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Anthropology
One interesting theory I have come across is that squids could evolve, leaving the water and developing high levels of intelligence. There is a German documentary that speculates about what life might be like on earth millions of years in the future. One episode features 'squibbons' swinging through the trees, using tools and acting collectively just as primates.
2006-09-12 14:34:25 · answer #1 · answered by Marakey 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is hard to say.
Evolution has nearly run its course - there's much less time ahead for evolution than there is behind - three and a half billion years behind, and perhaps only a couple of hundred million years of complex multicellular life ahead, due to the slowly changing balance of CO2 and O2 (no I'm not talking about global warming.)
That said, certain types of ecological niches fill again and again. This is called "convergent evolution." Vertebrates of the air have evolved three times - pterosaurs, birds, and bats. In the niche that dolphins evolved into today, icthyosaurs evolved into a couple of hundred million years ago. Multituberculates once occupied the roles held by squirrels and chipmunks today.
What is not clear is whether there is an obvious niche for "intelligent biped." Some paleontologists, such as Dale Russell, have speculated there might be; Russell even conjectured what a Troodon-descended hominid might have looked like if the dinosaurs had not been extinguished.
However, I am not so sure. Apes, in fact, are on their way out. In the last ten million years, monkeys have outcompeted the apes, and any anthropologist who observes baboons out-foraging chimps can tell you that this is for a reason. Chimps are smarter, but monkeys are better. Even humans didn't fare all that well until Sapiens Sapiens came along. Hominid after hominid died out all over the world; the pattern is familiar - Erectus type hominids move out of Africa into Europe and Asia, hold on for a while, and then die out.
We could be the only shot this planet ever takes at our type of life. We are rare and precious, and that is the best reason for environmentalism. The world will go on.
But we might not.
2006-09-12 14:09:16 · answer #2 · answered by evolver 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
99% of all animal life was extinguished millions of years ago. So far homo sapiens have not lasted as long as the Neanderthals, so it is theoretical that we will probably destroy ourselves eventually. Some scientists believe that we are actually de-evolving what with climate change all over the globe. Any advanced species would probably have to come from another planet. The world has been destroyed six times already and who's to say what's next?
2006-09-12 14:03:41 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
there is every chance of that. evolution will always fill every niche available, so if the niche of intelligent, manipulating bipedal eventually becomes vacant (and it will eventually, make no mistake, extinction is a natural part of the overall evolution of the planet), another species will rise and evolve to fill that niche.
marty k - despite what you think this is hard science and has very little to do with socio-political attitudes.
2006-09-12 14:00:11 · answer #4 · answered by nerdyhermione 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If humans became extinct, I think it is quite possible for another animal, almost certainly a primate to develope intelligence and perhaps in 10 million years equal ours.
2006-09-12 16:56:21 · answer #5 · answered by JimZ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
wow this makes me think.
well if we did indeed evolve from monkeys,or a fish,then there will be another species.i mean before we were here dinosaurs ruled the world so how did we magically appear?
so i think there will be another spesies.
maybe even aliens if they exist could take over.
2006-09-12 14:01:18 · answer #6 · answered by Compton,CA 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think eventually another primate group would rise, evolve, populate and pick where we left off. I don't think it would be a non-primate group.
2006-09-12 13:57:42 · answer #7 · answered by Kanayo 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Whatever happens, I hope they don't 'pick up where we left off', but find a better way of doing things.
2006-09-13 05:18:02 · answer #8 · answered by nursesr4evr 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i'd imagine it'd be the same chances we had, after the dinosaurs were wiped out. it's a matter of time, cleverness, and perseverance.
2006-09-12 18:52:17 · answer #9 · answered by Om 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If that happened i'd root for dogs to take over.
They would never pick up where we left off, they dont have hands!
2006-09-12 13:57:40 · answer #10 · answered by big-brother 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋