150 million years ago, during the late Jurassic period, our earth was very different.
Europe was a cluster of islands surrounded by a warm tropical sea, and it was actually
much closer to the equator.
And in Bavaria, southern Germany, the skies were dominated by a small, feathered, winged
dinosaur called Archaeopteryx.
Archaeopteryx, according to Darwin, was the best piece of evidence that we have that dinosaurs
are related to modern birds.
Scientists don’t really know why Archeopteryx went extinct, it could have been that it was
easy prey for bigger dinosaurs.
But what if it didn’t go extinct?
Lets imagine what life would be like in an archaeopteryx world, right now on life’s
biggest questions.
Hello and welcome back to life’s biggest questions, the channel that imagines the impossible.
I’m your host, charlotte dobre.
And If you love dinosaurs, make sure you give us a thumbs up, subscribe and ask us a question
in the comments below.
The fact is, dinosaurs did not go extinct.
There are over 10 thousand species of dinosaurs currently living on planet earth.
Only they aren’t giant lizards, they are birds.
Yes, most species of dinosaurs went extinct when an apocalyptic asteroid hit the earth
65 million years ago.
But this asteroid was not enough to wipe out all the dinosaurs, some of them survived.
One of Those survivors was archaeopteryx.
Its relatives included tyrannosaurus-rex and velociraptors.
Over many, many millions of years, archaeopteryx bred and evolved and eventually became what
we know today as modern birds.
I bet you’re never going to look at a chicken the same way again.
Archaeopteryx’s name means ancient wing . It looked like a bird and a dinosaur decided
to have a love child, and yes I know that puts a strange image in your head but go with
it.
(just go with it).
It was relatively small, around the size of a raven.
Archaeopteryx had wings and presumably feathers, and would either flap its wings or get around
by gliding, experts aren’t too sure.
It also had very sharp teeth, claws and hyper-extendable second toes, nicknamed ‘killer claws’.
Even though archaeopteryx looked like a bird, it had more in common with small, bird like-dinosaurs
called theropods.
Its believed that archaeopteryx would hunt by hiding out in trees, then swooping down
to grab its prey on the ground, and then it would climb back up the tree so it could consume
its kill safely.
So, I’m just going to state the obvious, if archaeopteryx didn’t go extinct, our
skies would be a very different place.
You know Alfred hitchcock’s the birds?
Well if you haven’t seen that movie, it will make you terrified of birds, and I feel
like it could be an accurate depiction of what the world would be like if archaeopteryx
didn’t go extinct.
I mean, it was a winged, carnivorous dinosaur.
It ate everything from small reptiles, to amphibians, mammals and insects.
If it didn’t go extinct, people as well as other animals would be constantly on the
lookout for vicious dino-birds that could claw or peck their eyes out.
Not fun.
Lets start by imagining how early human history might be different.
First of all, if archaeopteryx were still around, that would undoubtedly change every
ecosystem.
Youre putting a carnivorous bird into the food chain, and that would affect every other
animal, especially those it hunted.
If old archy didn’t go extinct, that would mean terrible things for modern birds.
Perhaps there wouldn’t even be modern birds, or all birds would somewhat resemble it.
And that’s scary as hell.
In terms of how it would affect humans, Archaeopteryx would have needed trees near by to hide out
in.
Without trees, or tall structures to climb, archaeopteryx wouldn’t have a place to retreat
to.
Maybe this would mean that the structures early humans lived in would take a different
shape.
We could have been ground dwellers, popping our heads out like gophers to make sure there
were no archaeopteryx around before we went hunting.
And then theres the idea that maybe humans would have hunted archaeopteryx.
Instead of chickens, we would eat dino birds.
I mean I don’t have any idea what dino birds would taste like but I would imagine it might
taste kind of like a chicken?
Then theres the thought that…Perhaps eventually archaeopteryx would have evolved to be able
to fly like modern birds.
I mean, we’re talking about millions and millions of years, maybe eventually it would
have been able to fly.
And that opens a whole other hypothetical can of worms.
Definitely an Alfred Hitchcock sort of scenario.
On the flipside of things, Maybe there would have been a way for humans to train archaeopteryx,
kind of like how they train hawks.
Perhaps this could be useful in battle.
Can you imagine if the Spartans had killer dino birds that they could sic on their enemies?
Maybe the ancient Egyptians would have an archaeopteryx god, and they would worship
them the way they worshipped cats.
Moving on into modern day, if archaeopteryx were still around, it would undoubtedly change
the look of human cities.
Instead of living on land, imagine humans building huge underground networks of tunnels.
To wrap things up here, if you really want to get technical, archaeopteryx didn’t go
extinct at all.
It just evolved into our feathered friends.
For now, I’m charlotte dobre, and you’ve been watching life’s biggest questions.
If you enjoyed this video, you should also check out, what if terror birds didn’t go
extinct, or our playlist biggest what ifs.
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