MadSci Network: Evolution |
Hi! That's a mighty good question you are asking there, kid... and one I wish I had an absolute answer to! Some people claim humans will never go extinct in the same way dynosaurs did (Try this article at http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/human_extinction.htm) Others claim we will, since the circle of life and extinction seems to be what we're all destined for. Would others take our place? Possibly, over millions and millions of years... depending on what wiped us all out in the first place. Ecological disasters, or nuclear disasters, or... even... being struck by something awfully large and knocking us out of orbit could prevent anything else from ever living on this little green planet of ours. Truth is, we don't really know. Maybe humans will branch off into new "creatures" over many million years and the "old human race" will be replaced by a new one, one which started with humans but certainly isn't human anymore. That's one way to look at it. Maybe humans will be wiped out, and then over millions and millions of years, new life will evolve and become as self-aware as we are. Truth is, as smart as we are, we don't really quite know what would happen or what *will* happen... Many scientists and philosophers (who seem to like to think about this a lot) wrote books on the possibility of human extinction and what would happen next. They're a little bit hard to chew and certainly difficult to understand... If the subject interests you a lot, go to your local library. Find out about other species that have become extinct - some animals, even Neaderthals (The Last Neanderthal: The Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives by Ian Tattersall may be a good place to start for that, but it's a tough read)... Make up a table: what happened to them? Why are they now extinct? Did any of them "evolve" into different species altogether? What came after them? Did they, in some way, survive (think of, say, the relationship between birds and dynosaurs)? Then think about the silly humans that we are: could such a thing happen to us? Will we cause our own extinction in the end? Science (and philosophy!) is all about asking questions. For every question we answer, we come up with more... but it's always a good idea to keep on asking, keep on finding out, searching, and trying to put pieces of the Great Big Puzzle together! Good luck! Marie-Helene
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