Sixty-six million years in the past, an asteroid hit the Earth with the drive of 10 billion atomic bombs and adjusted the course of evolution. The skies darkened and vegetation stopped photosynthesizing. The vegetation died, then the animals that ate up them. The meals chain collapsed. Over 90 p.c of all species vanished. When the mud settled, all dinosaurs besides a handful of birds had gone extinct.
However this catastrophic occasion made human evolution potential. The surviving mammals flourished, together with little proto-primates that will evolve into us.
Think about the asteroid had missed, and dinosaurs survived. Image highly-evolved raptors planting their flag on the moon. Dinosaur scientists, discovering relativity, or discussing a hypothetical world during which, extremely, mammals took over the Earth.
This may sound like unhealthy science fiction, but it surely will get at some deep philosophical questions on evolution. Is humanity simply right here by probability, or is the evolution of clever tool-users inevitable?
Brains, instruments, language, and large social teams make us the planet’s dominant species. There are eight billion Homo sapiens on seven continents. By weight, there are extra people than all wild animals.
We’ve modified half of Earth’s land to feed ourselves. You can argue creatures like people have been sure to evolve.
Within the Eighties, palaeontologist Dale Russell proposed a thought experiment during which a carnivorous dinosaur advanced into an clever device consumer. This “dinosauroid” was big-brained with opposable thumbs and walked upright.
It’s not inconceivable but it surely’s unlikely. The biology of an animal constrains the route of its evolution. Your place to begin limits your endpoints.
In the event you drop out of school, you in all probability gained’t be a mind surgeon, lawyer, or Nasa rocket scientist. However you could be an artist, actor, or entrepreneur. The paths we absorb life open some doorways and shut others. That’s additionally true in evolution.
Large dinosaurs and mammals via time. Credit score: Nick Longrich
Contemplate the dimensions of dinosaurs. Starting within the Jurassic, sauropod dinosaurs, Brontosaurus, and kin advanced into 30-50 ton giants as much as 30 meters lengthy—ten occasions the burden of an elephant and so long as a blue whale. This occurred in a number of teams, together with Diplodocidae, Brachiosauridae, Turiasauridae, Mamenchisauridae, and Titanosauria.
This occurred on completely different continents, at completely different occasions, and in numerous climates, from deserts to rainforests. However different dinosaurs residing in these environments didn’t develop into supergiants.
The widespread thread linking these animals was that they have been sauropods. One thing about sauropod anatomy—lungs, hole bones with a excessive strength-to-weight ratio, metabolism, or all these items—unlocked their evolutionary potential. It allow them to develop massive in a manner that no land animals had ever earlier than, or have since.
Likewise, the carnivorous dinosaurs repeatedly advanced large, ten-meter, multi-ton predators. Over 100 million years, megalosaurids, allosaurids, carcharodontosaurids, neovenatorids, and eventually tyrannosaurs advanced big apex predators.
Mind dimension versus physique mass for dinosaurs, mammals, and birds. Credit score: Nick Longrich
Dinosaurs did massive our bodies nicely. Massive brains not a lot. Dinosaurs did present a weak pattern in direction of elevated mind dimension over time. Jurassic dinosaurs like Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Brachiosaurus had small brains.
By the late Cretaceous, 80 million years later, tyrannosaurs and duckbills had advanced bigger brains. However regardless of its dimension, the T. rex mind nonetheless weighed simply 400 grams. A Velociraptor mind weighed 15 grams. The common human mind weighs 1.3 kilograms.
Dinosaurs did enter new niches over time. Small herbivores turned extra widespread and birds diversified. Lengthy-legged varieties advanced in a while, suggesting an arms race between fleet-footed predators and their prey.
Dinosaurs appear to have had more and more advanced social lives. They began residing in herds and advanced elaborate horns for preventing and show. But dinosaurs principally appear to repeat themselves, evolving big herbivores and carnivores with small brains.
There’s little about 100 million years of dinosaur historical past to trace they’d have carried out something radically completely different if the asteroid hadn’t intervened. We’d possible nonetheless have these supergiant, long-necked herbivores and large tyrannosaur-like predators.
They might have advanced barely larger brains, however there’s little proof they’d have advanced into geniuses. Neither is it possible that mammals would have displaced them. Dinosaurs monopolized their environments to the very finish, when the asteroid hit.
Mammals, in the meantime, had completely different constraints. They by no means advanced supergiant herbivores and carnivores. However they repeatedly advanced massive brains. Large brains (as giant or bigger than ours) advanced in orcas, sperm whales, baleen whales, elephants, leopard seals, and apes.
In the present day, a couple of dinosaur descendants—birds like crows and parrots—have advanced brains. They’ll use instruments, speak, and rely. However it’s mammals like apes, elephants, and dolphins that advanced the largest brains and most advanced behaviors.
So did eliminating the dinosaurs assure mammals would evolve intelligence?
Effectively, possibly not.
Beginning factors might restrict endpoints, however they don’t assure them both. Steve Jobs, Invoice Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of school. But when dropping out robotically made you a multibillionaire, each school dropout can be wealthy. Even beginning in the best place, you want alternatives and luck.
The evolutionary historical past of primates suggests our evolution was something however inevitable. In Africa, primates did evolve into big-brained apes and, over 7 million years, produced trendy people. However elsewhere primate evolution took very completely different paths.
When monkeys reached South America 35 million years in the past, they only advanced into extra monkey species. And primates reached North America at the very least three separate occasions, 55 million years in the past, 50 million years in the past, and 20 million years in the past. But they didn’t evolve right into a species who make nuclear weapons and smartphones. As an alternative, for causes we don’t perceive, they went extinct.
In Africa, and Africa alone, primate evolution took a novel route. One thing about Africa’s fauna, flora, or geography drove the evolution of apes: terrestrial, big-bodied, big-brained, tool-using primates. Even with the dinosaurs gone, our evolution wanted the best mixture of alternative and luck.
This text is republished from The Dialog beneath a Artistic Commons license. Learn the unique article.
Picture Credit score: Enrique from Pixabay