Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
With the outrageous popularity of the Jurassic Park franchise, it’s clear that many people
are obsessed with dinosaurs.
I may be one of them.
Sadly, as we know, the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, and we were denied a
life alongside the great beasts.
But what if they never went away?
Let’s explore.
If you want more alternate reality videos, check out our Biggest What If's playlist on
the channel.
Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question: What if Dinosaurs Never Went Extinct.
First of all, let’s do that annoying thing where we say “Hnoy, technically there are
some that didn’t go extinct, hnoy.”
Some point to the fact that sharks and crocodiles existed in essentially the same form millions
of years ago, while others say that modern birds are living dinosaurs.
However, let’s go with the spirit of the question, and imagine what would have happened
if Dinosaurs never went extinct.
If the dinosaurs never went extinct, the world would look very different from nowadays.
The dinosaurs died off due to a massive cooling that occurred, according to many scientists,
due to the contact of a comet on Earth, which sent large amounts of matter into the atmosphere.
This dropped the temperature significantly, and lowered the amount of carbon in the atmosphere
a great deal.
If dinosaurs never went extinct, that would imply that the climate would have changed
very little, or very gradually, since then, or they would not have survived.
But what would this mean for humanity?
Well, there’s a good chance that humanity would not exist as we know it.
It was largely the extinction of the dinosaurs, who previously ruled the world, that led to
the rise of humanity.
If they never went away, it may be that we wouldn’t be around to ponder this question
in the first place.
If we were to survive alongside the dinosaurs, it would require a great deal of adaptation.
With so many large predator dinosaurs out there, humanity would need to find a way to
defend itself quickly if it was to survive.
We would need to find a way to live and thrive without being eaten, which would likely have
us settling in areas away from the more dangerous creatures.
Furthermore, humanity might look quite different, if the climate was to be suitable for both
us and the dinosaurs.
While a modern day human could potentially survive in certain geographical areas and
seasons during the Mesozoic Era, we wouldn’t be particularly well-suited.
There’s a good chance that Natural Selection would result in humans better adapted to the
warmer climate, as well as other things like atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and oxygen.
With all of these factors taken into account, this leads to one ultimate conclusion: The
Flintstones would come true.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit much, but we all know this was your first thought when you
saw the title of this video.
If humans did find a way to live alongside dinosaurs, we would likely attempt to tame
and domesticate them.
Dinosaurs would be rather difficult to tame by nature, due to their limited intelligence
and low social quotient.
However, if we were to selectively breed certain types of dinos, it could be that we would
eventually have a species that could be domesticated and even trained to work alongside us.
This could mean Ankylosaurus demolition services, brontosaurus construction, or yes, velociraptor
assault teams.
Move over Chris Pratt.
Interestingly, it may be more likely that we would already be intellectually eclipsed
by the time the first humans showed up.
Some researchers believe that if the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event hadn’t happened, certain
theropods like the Troodons might have developed high levels of intelligence, potentially rivaling
or overtaking the intelligence of modern humans.
Paleontologist Dale Russell claims that since these and other theropods had proportionally
large brains, they would be the most likely to evolve to take better advantage of their
brain power.
This would have significant implications for humanity.
Essentially our only advantage over dinosaurs would have been our intelligence.
But if there was already a species of intelligent dinos around for millions of years before
we appeared, and they followed a similar intellectual trajectory to us, then we would have little
chance of surviving long enough to become intelligent ourselves.
The world would likely be shaped by the intelligent dinos, innovating and creating technology
to meet their needs.
So it could be that this channel would still exist…
it would just be hosted by a Troodon.
And now we return to our question: What if Dinosaurs Never Went Extinct?
Well, chances are we wouldn’t see humans working alongside dinosaurs, like in The Flintstones
or the video game Ark.
Without the extinction event that eliminated the dinosaurs, there’s a good chance that
humanity would not even be given the chance to begin.
It’s possible that we would manage to survive, and domesticate dinos to do our bidding, but
it seems more likely that dinosaurs would develop intelligence of their own.
All in all, as much as we may wish dinosaurs still existed, it’s probably for the best
that they’re gone.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know what dinosaur you would most want to have as a
pet.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.