What Happens If the Dinosaurs Never Go Extinct? | Unveiled

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What Happens If the Dinosaurs Never Went Extinct?</h4>

What if the dinosaurs were still alive today? How different would Earth’s history be had these magnificent creatures never disappeared? And would we, human beings, still be here right now, if the dinos didn’t die?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what happens if the dinosaurs never went extinct?

The non-avian dinosaurs suffered extinction about sixty-six million years ago. It was the end of the Cretaceous Period when the final ever example withered away; the close of a truly incredible era in terms of life on Earth. Until they were wiped out, the dinosaurs had roamed this planet reasonably comfortably for around 175 million years. The earliest species arrived about 240 million years ago. So, clearly, these were no flash-in-the-pan fad. This was their world for a far longer period than, say, the period since humans first walked the land. In terms of longevity, the 175 million year dinos easily trump the 300,000 year modern homo sapiens. We know, then, that it must have been something massive, incomparable even, to put an end to the dinosaurs’ reign. And, of course, the most widely supported argument says that that massive something was an asteroid.

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs is believed to have been between six and nine miles wide. It crashed into Earth traveling at twelve miles per second, and created what’s now known as the Chicxulub impact crater, on the Yucatán Peninsula, in modern day Mexico. For many of the dinosaurs nearby when the rock hit, it was instant death. For those that survived the initial event, it set off a chain reaction of ecological ruin (and food chain collapse) that eventually killed off all of the largest, non-avian, land-lugging beasts. There are still some species that can be traced all the way back to this time and beyond - including crocodiles and most species of bird - but for the dinosaurs, in general, this really was the apocalypse.

In the aftermath, and over the following hundreds, thousands and millions of years, the balance of life on Earth went in a totally different direction. With the massive dinosaurs either dead or dying, the rise of the mammals took hold. Tiny animals and rodents became more and more common. Over time, larger mammals emerged, including many that were far bigger than even the biggest creatures we have today. And, with all of that as a backdrop, ancient hominins made their way, as well. In the last couple hundred thousand years, humans have come to wield the single greatest influence on Earth.

But what happens if history is rewritten? What happens if the dinosaurs don’t go extinct in the way that they did? And would the apparent civilization of today ever have had a chance to develop?

For dinosaurs not to die out, one of two things has to happen; either they survive the asteroid strike that in real life killed them… or, the asteroid never hits Earth at all. If they managed to survive - perhaps the asteroid isn’t quite as big, or they (in another life) just manage to hang on - then it’s a sure bet that they’ll at least have been changed by the event. It’s been calculated that the rock that did do for the dinosaurs brought with it the explosive power of ten billion atomic bombs. So, even one that’s half as powerful - delivering a measly five billion nukes’ worth of destructive energy - would constitute unimaginable devastation. Were it just one tenth of the real thing, that’s still one billion A-bombs and some serious damage. 

With every degree less we go, though, it figures that a larger proportion of dinosaur species might have had a greater chance of survival. Consider next, however, that not every dinosaur known to us was even still around at the time of the asteroid - in fact, most had already died off due to other, non-asteroid things. It’s not, then, that even with a smaller rock, every single species would’ve been spared extinction. Multiple studies now show that dinosaur biodiversity was already dropping prior to the asteroid that sounded the final death knell… so, presumably, that trajectory would have continued. And would likely have been sped along by any cosmic event, even one that the dinosaurs did technically survive.

In the other scenario, where the asteroid just never hits at all, there are all the same possibilities, only this time the dinosaurs never suffer any kind of major life-or-death moment. We know that the environment on Earth has moved through countless cycles over the billions of years that our planet has existed… so perhaps one such cycle still would have killed the dinosaurs off, anyway. That said, the asteroid brought such a sharp change to conditions, that the dinosaurs disappeared relatively quickly as a result of it. Had their asteroid-free demise been more drawn out, then perhaps the rise of the mammals would have happened slower, as well, or not at all, meaning that we wouldn’t be here. From a purely human perspective, then, it’s a pretty good thing that the rock did hit… because, without it, we might never have been possible.

Of course, the final scenario is that the dinosaurs never go extinct when they did… and they manage to survive (and even grow) over the following sixty-six million years that (in real life) they never got to live. Again, with the status quo of the Mesozoic never so drastically challenged, it’s a good bet that humans wouldn’t evolve into themselves. Instead, Earth would still be ruled by the dinosaurs, which by this point will have been here for almost 250 million years. There have been projections made, however, as to the adaptations that might have set in. For any form of life to last that long, it needs to be ever-changing, to fit with new and emerging bacteria, fungi, environmental conditions, et cetera. The dinosaurs would be no different. For example, studies show that dinosaur arms were becoming less and less necessary for many species, by the time of extinction. So, if extinction had never happened, then perhaps there’d now be endless arm-less varieties, bred that way for efficiency’s sake. Something like a massive snake on legs. 

Easily the most infamous prediction as to what might have emerged, however, is the humanoid troodon - aka the dinosauroid - first put forward by the US/Canadian paleontologist Dale Alan Russell in 1982. The dinosauroid is an estimate as to how dinosaurs might have evolved if they never died out and if they, for whatever reason, gradually moved toward a human-like specification. In the real world, the troodontidae dinosaur group were bird-like creatures. It’s thought that they had far larger than average brains, though; large, forward-facing eyes; and highly sophisticated hearing. The idea is, then, that if any dinosaur were to become anything like a human, then the troodons would probably be the likeliest candidate. By now, the dinosauroid might’ve been fully bipedal. The beak-like structure of its troodon ancestor might’ve flattened into something more closely resembling a human nose. Its eyes may have repositioned and, although its scaly skin will have given it an alien look to our minds, it perhaps wouldn’t have been wildly different from us, physically speaking. That said, theories on the dinosauroid are highly controversial, with many claiming that there is little-to-no basis to believe that any dinosaur would have evolved in this way. We humans do have a tendency to humanize anything that we don’t especially understand - often doing the same when we picture extraterrestrial life - and critics argue that that’s exactly what’s happening here.

But, what’s your verdict? What would the world be like today if the dinosaurs never went extinct? What would it be like if they had never encountered hell on Earth thanks to a careening rock from space? 

What’s interesting, is that while these are wholly hypothetical questions, had that asteroid struck this planet just a couple of minutes later, crashing into the ocean instead of into land, then there are suggestions that, actually, it really wouldn’t have had the same impact. The dinosaurs might have survived. History might have unfolded entirely differently. And large mammals (including humans) probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day.

There is some evidence that some species were dying off before the asteroid. It is possible that some other mechanism might have ended their story, even if that fatal rock had never transpired. But, equally, it’s not unlikely that these colossal life forms will have continued. And, according to one model in particular, one specialized species might’ve even gone human. And that’s what would have happened had dinosaurs never gone extinct.