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One fatal 24-hour interval 66 million years ago , the dinosaurs — which had inhabited Earth for about 165 million years — bring a nasty surprisal : A roughly 9 - land mile - encompassing ( 15 kilometers ) asteroid barge in into what is now Mexico , spark tsunami , wildfires and acidulous rain and causing vast amounts of debris to block out the sunshine . As a result , 75 % of species on Earth , including the nonavian dinosaurs , died off withinmonths of the impact .
But what if the asteroid had never struck Earth ? Would the dinosaur have continued their sovereignty over the planet ? Could they have survived ice age and evolved to become more healthy ?
A catastrophic asteroid impact 66 million years ago wiped out 75% of species on Earth, including the nonavian dinosaurs.
According to paleontologists , it ’s possible thatdinosaurswould have go forward to evolve and rule Earth . After all , they ’d already survived and adjust for 165 million long time , which included surviving rising and return seas , temperature spikesand volcanic blast , according toSteve Brusatte , a professor of paleontology at the University of Edinburgh . But this would have made it impossible for our mammal ascendent to evolve the path they did .
Some scientists remember dinosaurs would have met their end of the world anyway because extinction appear to haveoutpaced the emergence of new dinosaur specie . But Brusatte is n’t convinced .
" For those of us who roll up fossil of the last dinosaur , we can see quite clearly that everywhere in the public … there [ was ] a great diversity and abundance of dinosaurs , " Brusatte told Live Science in an email . " It seems remarkably clear to me that dinosaurs were unattackable , successful , still diverse , [ and ] still at the top of their secret plan when the asteroid hit . "
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 slam dance into Earth ?
Dinosaurs in an ice age?
But could dinosaur have lived in icy atmospheric condition , such as ice ages ? With the elision ofsome dinosaurs that subsist in snowy climate , the legal age did n’t . According to Brusatte , some dinosaur may have fared well under new utmost experimental condition .
" Many of them had feathering , [ so ] they could insulate themselves just like mammals can , " Brusatte said . In addition , some dinosaurs , such asTyrannosaurus king , were likely warm blooded , research uncovering , meaning they were n’t completely at the mercifulness of a changing mood .
It ’s also possible that dinosaurs would have develop Modern defenses against the cold during extreme atmospheric condition . Take mammoths , for example , which develop around 5 million old age ago in South Africa . About800,000 year ago , during thelast ice age , some mammoth grow woolly coat as they expanded to the much colder 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 evolved into more intelligent brute ? In a 1982thought experiment , American - Canadian paleontologistDale Russellwondered whether troodontid dinosaurs could have evolved sentience had they not died in the end - Cretaceous slew extinction . He dub them humanoid dinosaurs , or dinosauroids . He based this idea on the fact that one species of troodontid already had a " great mental capacity , stereoscopic vision , opposable finger and bipedal height , " and might have evolve to have an " encephalization quotient standardised to that ofHomo sapiens " if it had survived . His pardner Ron Séguin , an creative person and example Lord , made a reconstructive memory , prove a green - skinned creature .
But over the years , paleontologist have dismissed this idea , calling it unrealistic and too anthropomorphic - looking . A2023 studyfound that " neither troodon nor any other dinosaur could have begun a primate - similar lineage that evolved to a human level of intelligence activity . "
That enounce , modern - sidereal day birds show that dinosaurs may have been fairly reasoning .
" The dinosaurs that live on today — birds — are really smart , " Brusatte say . " They actually havemore nerve cell in their brains than mammals , on medium . [ But ] could wench one sidereal day attain homo - like cognition ? I do n’t know . "
What would have happened to mammals?
Mammal phylogenesis would have present a knockout setback if the asteroid had not dispatch . Brusatte said that if enceinte dinosaurs had pull through , the small , rodent - like mammals that already existed alongside them may not have had the same chance to germinate and grow larger .
" I suspect that mammal would have mostly or entirely stick small for many millions of old age more , " he said . " Although with cool temperatures and the last Ice Age , that may have devote little mammal — as ardent - blooded furry tool that could handle the frigidness — an chance to get larger , and maybe giant dinosaur would have go by the roadside . "
Related : Are bird reptiles ?
But that does n’t mean that humans would have emerged . " While furred piffling mammalian may have still fared okay , human beings would still likely never have evolved , Paul Sereno , a fossilist and professor of biology at the University of Chicago , told Live Science in an email .
— If birds are dinosaurs , why are n’t they inhuman - blooded ?
— What was the distinctive animation duo of a dinosaur ?
— Why was the name ' Brontosaurus ' impart back from the dead ?
" We evolve in a mammalian world impossible to have taken place with with child nonavian dinosaurs running around , " Sereno said . " We are not inevitable . "
It ’s the extinction of terra firma - habitation dinosaurs , and possibly the extermination of a competing group of mammal , that gave our primate ancestors the opportunity to fly high and develop , a2021 studyfound . If the asteroid had miss Earth , it ’s likely that homo , at least as we know them , never would have existed .
" History would have been totally different , " Brusatte state . " Our precise ancestors surely would have never had their hazard to evolve . "
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