What happens if dinosaurs are not extinct?

One day 66 million years ago, dinosaurs, species that lived on Earth about 165 million years, encountered unexpected outcome. A 15 km wide asteroid crashed into Mexico, causing tsunamis, forest fires and acid rain, causing a large amount of dust to obscure the sun. As a result, 75% of species on earth, including non -bird dinosaurs, died in a few months after the collision, according to Live Science.

But what happens if the asteroid never stabbed into the earth? Will dinosaur continue to dominate the planet? Do they survive the ice and evolution to become smarter or not?

According to the ancient biology, the dinosaurs may continue to evolve and dominate the Earth. Finally, they survived and adapted over 165 million years, including many times rising and lowering sea water, soaring temperature and volcanic eruption, according to Steve Brusatte, an ancient professor at the University of Edinburgh. But this will cause human mammals to evolve as ever.

Some scientists believe that the dinosaurs will still face the end of the end of the extinct events that seem to take place faster than the appearance of new dinosaurs. But Brusatte did not believe that hypothesis. “For us, the fossil collection of dinosaurs, we can be clearly seen everywhere in the world, dinosaurs are very diverse and abundant. It seems that the dinosaurs are still healthy, successful and diverse, located at the top of the food chain when the planet falls down,” Brusatte said.

Except for several dinosaurs living in a snowy climate, most of them cannot exist in cold conditions like ice. According to Brusatte, many hairy dinosaurs, so they can retain heat like mammals. In addition, some species such as tyrant dinosaurs are more likely to have hot blood, which means they are not completely affected by climate change.

Dinosaurs can also evolve new protection in the cold environment of extreme weather. For example, an elephant evolved about 5 million years ago in Africa. About 800,000 years ago, in the last Ice Ky, some mammoths grow curly as they expand to the colder area of ​​the Eurasian mainland.

If there is enough time, will dinosaurs evolve into smarter species? In a 1982 thinking experiment, the American -Canadian paleorologist Dale Russell wondered whether long -teeth could evolve cognition if they did not die in the end of the extinction event at the end of the white chalk. According to him, a species of long teeth possesses a large brain, stereoscopic vision, with thumb and posture with two legs, can develop intelligence similar to modern people (Homo sapiens) if survived.

However, over the years, biologists rejected the hypothesis. A 2023 study found that there were no dinosaurs that could start the lineage of the elder and evolved to human intelligence. “The live dinosaurs today are really smart birds. They have more neurons in the brain than average mammals. But whether one day the bird has a cognitive level like humans? I don’t know,” Brusatte said.

The evolution of mammals can be seriously affected if the asteroid does not fall. According to Brusatte, if large dinosaurs are still alive, small mammals like mice have existed with them, they will not have the opportunity to evolve and become bigger. He suspects most or all mammals remain small in size for millions of years or more.

While many small -haired mammals are still alive, humans are likely to never evolve, according to Paul Sereno, biologist and biological professor at the University of Chicago. “People evolved in the mammal world and that cannot happen to the large -flying dinosaurs around. We will not survive,” he said. It is the extinct event of landscape living on the mainland and a group of competitive mammals that gives the eldest ancestors of people the opportunity to develop and evolve, according to a study in 2021.