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One fatal day 66 million years ago , the dinosaurs — which had inhabited Earth for about 165 million yr — got a nasty surprise : A some 9 - nautical mile - wide ( 15 kilometers ) asteroid crashed into what is now Mexico , actuate tsunami , wildfire and acrid rain and causing vast measure of junk to block out the sun . As a result , 75 % of species on Earth , let in the nonavian dinosaurs , drop dead off withinmonths of the encroachment .
But what if the asteroid had never struck Earth ? Would the dinosaurs have uphold their sovereignty over the satellite ? Could they have live on internal-combustion engine ages and evolved to become more intelligent ?
A catastrophic asteroid impact 66 million years ago wiped out 75% of species on Earth, including the nonavian dinosaurs.
According to fossilist , it ’s possible thatdinosaurswould have keep on to evolve and dominate Earth . After all , they ’d already survive and adjust for 165 million years , which included surviving rising and falling seas , temperature spikesand volcanic bang , accord toSteve Brusatte , a prof of palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh . But this would have made it impossible for our mammal ancestors to evolve the way they did .
Some scientists retrieve dinosaurs would have contact their doom anyway because defunctness appear to haveoutpaced the egression of new dinosaur species . But Brusatte is n’t positive .
" For those of us who collect dodo of the last dinosaurs , we can see quite distinctly that everywhere in the world … there [ was ] a great diversity and abundance of dinosaur , " Brusatte assure Live Science in an electronic mail . " It seems remarkably clear to me that dinosaurs were strong , successful , still diverse , [ and ] still at the top of their game when the asteroid make . "
A catastrophic asteroid impact 66 million years ago wiped out 75% of species on Earth, including the nonavian dinosaurs.
Related : What happened when the dinosaur - killing asteroid slammed into Earth ?
Dinosaurs in an ice age?
But could dinosaurs have live in glacial conditions , such as methamphetamine hydrochloride ages ? With the exception ofsome dinosaurs that lived in snowy clime , the legal age did n’t . According to Brusatte , some dinosaurs may have fare well under new extreme condition .
" Many of them had plumage , [ so ] they could insulate themselves just like mammalian can , " Brusatte said . In addition , some dinosaur , such asTyrannosaurus male monarch , were likely warm blooded , research discovery , meaning they were n’t completely at the mercy of a change climate .
It ’s also possible that dinosaur would have evolved new defenses against the coldness during uttermost weather condition . Take mammoth , for deterrent example , which evolved around 5 million age ago in South Africa . About800,000 years ago , during thelast ice age , some mammoths spring up woolly coat as they expand to the much insensate region of Eurasia .
A reconstruction of the troodontid dinosaurStenonychosaurus inequalisbehind a model of a dinosauroid, a thought experiment put forward by paleontologist Dale Russell, who wondered if some dinosaurs could have achieved sentience had they not died in the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
Would dinosaurs have evolved to be more intelligent?
give enough time , could dinosaur have develop into more intelligent animal ? In a 1982thought experimentation , American - Canadian paleontologistDale Russellwondered whether troodontid dinosaur could have evolved awareness had they not died in the destruction - Cretaceous mass extinction . He nickname them humanoid dinosaurs , or dinosauroids . He based this idea on the fact that one coinage of troodontid already had a " magnanimous mind , stereoscopic vision , opposable fingers and biped height , " and might have evolved to have an " encephalization quotient similar to that ofHomo sapiens " if it had survived . His collaborator Ron Séguin , an artist and model maker , made a reconstruction , showing a light-green - skinned brute .
But over the years , paleontologists have dismissed this thought , calling it unrealistic and too anthropomorphic - looking . A2023 studyfound that " neither troodon nor any other dinosaur could have begun a hierarch - similar lineage that evolve to a human level of intelligence . "
That say , advanced - day shuttlecock show that dinosaurs may have been fair levelheaded .
" The dinosaurs that live on today — birds — are really smart , " Brusatte said . " They actually havemore neurons in their brains than mammalian , on modal . [ But ] could birds one day attain human being - like noesis ? I do n’t know . "
What would have happened to mammals?
Mammal organic evolution would have face a severe setback if the asteroid had not arrive at . Brusatte said that if prominent dinosaurs had survived , the small , rodent - like mammals that already existed alongside them may not have had the same opportunity to germinate and grow larger .
" I mistrust that mammals would have mostly or entirely persist small for many million of eld more , " he said . " Although with cooling temperatures and the last Ice Age , that may have given small mammals — as strong - blooded furry fauna that could treat the low temperature — an chance to get larger , and possibly giant dinosaur would have gone by the wayside . "
Related : Are birds reptile ?
But that does n’t mean that man would have emerged . " While furred little mammalian may have still fared okay , human beings would still in all probability never have evolve , Paul Sereno , a palaeontologist and professor of biology at the University of Chicago , told Live Science in an email .
— If birds are dinosaur , why are n’t they frigid - blooded ?
— What was the distinctive life span of a dinosaur ?
— Why was the name ' Brontosaurus ' brought back from the dead ?
" We evolved in a mammalian world out of the question to have bring station with great nonavian dinosaurs range around , " Sereno said . " We are not inevitable . "
It ’s the extinction of land - dwelling dinosaurs , and maybe the defunctness of a contend mathematical group of mammalian , that cave in our archpriest root the chance to expand and evolve , a2021 studyfound . If the asteroid had leave out Earth , it ’s probable that human beings , at least as we bed them , never would have subsist .
" story would have been altogether different , " Brusatte said . " Our exact ancestors surely would have never had their chance to germinate . "
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