Scientists decided to "take a look" at what our planet will look like in 50 million years, and who will win the race to become the dominant species. They conducted a study to establish which species will play a major role if in the future humanity disappears for any reason.
The author of the work is a professor at the University of Scotland, Luc Bucher, who suggested what a depopulated world might look like in millions of years. The results of his research were presented in one of the scientific publications. In the article, the professor tells what chances other species have for the inheritance of our planet, and also explains why the Earth cannot become the "Planet of the Apes".
According to Bucher, if we assume that in 50 million years mankind does not destroy all other forms of life before its extinction, then there may be several dominant species. In particular, our world, as at the very beginning of its inception, is still at the mercy of bacteria, despite the nominal end of the era of microbes about 1.2 billion years ago.
The professor declares that this happened not because the bacteria became less or they completely disappeared, but the person is inclined to pay more attention to complex multicellular organisms that appeared much later. Further Bucher notes that at present, nematodes or roundworms are on our planet four out of five representatives of the animal world. Thus, according to the expert, the diversity or prevalence does not affect the idea of "dominant" forms of life.
The scientist believes that human fantasies are captured by large and charismatic organisms, so it is customary to look for dominants among them. The researcher explains that narcissism is a quality that is often inherent in humans, so most experts are confident that primates will remain the dominant species on Earth, especially considering their evolution. According to Bucher, many modern scientists are wrong, arguing that someday primates will have a developed vocal apparatus or some chimpanzees, if given enough time for this, will understand human technology.
So, the "Planet of the Apes", according to the professor, cannot be for the reason that this species will surely get ahead of us in extinction. The scientist is sure that if humanity dies as a result of some global crisis, the same will happen to animals with similar physiology. Therefore, all hominids will be destroyed. After all, if a person feels bad, then any other organism will be much worse.
Also, if all people become victims of a terrible pandemic, which affects only a few species of mammals, then in this case, great apes will become the first on the "extinction list." In addition, Bucher considers it unlikely that a mind similar to human intelligence will develop in more distant primates or mammals.
Promotional video:
As the researcher adds, of all the species that once inhabited our planet, people are the loneliest. In addition, if any human traits have not yet appeared in animals, then they are unlikely to appear in the future. In general, it can be said that intelligence is not very beneficial for evolution, unless it affects the increase in survival or increase in reproduction. Therefore, you should not think that the successors of humanity will be the smartest creatures, rather, on the contrary.
Büscher concludes by stating that socially organized, speechable, and humanly evolving animals are in fact impossible. During its existence, our planet has many times observed cases of mass extinction of one or another species. At the same time, the diversification of life was quite rapid, and the "adaptive mutation" of various animal species occurred without intellectual evolution.
So, a small shrew, which is significantly different from dinosaurs or mastodons, because it did not become a creature that builds civilization on Earth. The same goes for other evolved species of reptiles and land animals, most of which died 250 million years ago.
Apparently, according to experts, animals that do not have a social organization will not succeed in becoming the dominant species on our planet. So, it is possible that in the future our planet will be inherited by ants, although now it is difficult to imagine what the descendants of ants will look like in 50 million years.