The pages of science fiction imagine huge spaceships in which our descendants will
travel around the galaxy in comfort.
“Smart” houses on Earth will select the ideal
temperature for people, do the cleaning, order food and prepare dinner.
They will even have the ability to repair themselves in case of
failure.
Unmanned vehicles will calculate the most optimal route and instantly deliver passengers
to anywhere in the world.
We often see similar pictures of the future in films and
books, but for some reason they don’t include any
details about animals.
What will their future be like?
Who will the beasts, birds and pets be in a thousand years?
Will there be a place for them on such an advanced and technological
planet? Technological progress has brought us so many
new inventions in the world of entertainment!
One of the latest is the online game Crossout, available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One!
It is a third-person vehicle shooter where every vehicle you see has been crafted by
another player.
You can build almost anything you can imagine, from buggy to tank to a hovering weapon platform!
So right now, click the link in the description and download Crossout for free!
Thanks to Crossout, we have a special gift for viewers of Ridddle: a choice between a
shiny vehicle cabin or three extra weapons to start with as a bonus.
Call your friends and join the fight together in PvP against other players, or take on the
game's story campaign or raids in PvE.
And getting into Сrossout is so simple, even your neighbor’s pit bull can figure it out!
Take, for example, a couple of German shepherds, who likely eat more than
one person in a year.
However, genetic engineering will help solve such problems
by controlling size.
So, by blocking the growth genes, scientists have already been able to
create horses the size of dogs and dogs the size
of a kitten.
This makes it so that pets do not consume so much food.
If this trend continues, then soon there may be, for example, a pet
mini whale that can fit in the palm of your hand.
In turn, owners who might be satisfied with smaller pets will expect a full upgrade of
abilities and appearance.
How would you like a pet that glows like neon?
South Korean scientists have answered this question and
developed cats that can glow in the dark.
Maybe you want to have a personal mini-park from
the Jurassic period?
Then you just need to ask paleontologist Jack Horner, who plans to create
a chicken with teeth that looks like a dinosaur.
However, there is another option for the development of pets - a switch to robots.
In fact, we are already seeing this process happening
today.
For example, in Japan, they released the NeCoRo device, a robot which
is covered in soft fur and is very similar to a cat.
Thanks to a special sensor, the robot can purr softly or growl with displeasure.
In total, the model can make 48 different sounds recorded
using real animals.
Dog lovers will be attracted by robot Rex
, who knows how to move his ears, bark and wag its tail.
Robopes, a robotic dog, knows 80 commands and even gives
out a bark when a stranger enters the room.
Anyone interested in more exotic animals will surely like the 3-pound, 3-foot tall
BionicKangaroo.
This kangaroo robot can jump to a height of 40 cm (15.7 inches) and a
length up to 80 cm (31.5 inches.
Thus, familiar furry friends will be almost completely
replaced by robots and genetically altered creatures.
But what will happen to wild animals?
Many of the current species that you can observe in the wild or in zoos will eventually
disappear forever.
Among them are tigers, of which there are only about 4,000 remaining
alive today, followed by the Maui dolphins, whose number does not exceed 55.
Also, rhinos, gorillas, orangutans - all that will remain
of them will be educational videos on Youtube.
Man is to blame for this.
We are constantly altering environmental conditions and destroying the
habitats of wild animals.
Some creatures are especially sensitive to human intervention.
The problem arises from so-called food specialization.
Large mammals, in particular predators, have developed features over many, many years
of evolution that allow them to eat only a specific type of food and live under strictly
defined conditions.
But there are also other creatures that can survive for millennia under
just about any circumstances, including those that prefer to live close to us humans: rats,
cockroaches, spiders and reptiles ... These are
creatures that many of us would like to avoid however, they will likely take the place of
today’s majestic predators.
Only, what they will look like in the future will depend on the food available, the
landscape of the planet and the climate.
According to one scenario of the distant future, a
new ice age awaits us.
At such extremely low temperatures, only the largest organisms can
survive, requiring the ability to maintain body heat.
As a result of natural selection after the ice age, the planet will be inhabited by giant
rodents, reptiles, arthropods and mollusks - all
of whom man will find difficult or impossible to exterminate.
British scientist Dougal Dixon showed how they might look in the book The
Wild World of the Future.
So, according to Dixon, the desert will shudder from the trampling of a huge tortoise,
weighing up to 150 tons.
It will be heavier than the largest dinosaurs and much bigger than
an African elephant.
This tortoise will wander through the desert, devouring a huge amount
of greenery with a scissored beak and powerful jaws.
No one will dare to interfere with the giant tortoise due to its colossal size and
“armored” scaly skin.
But most animals, just as today, will have to fight fierce battles to stay alive, using
some "weapon gnarly “weapons” for defense.
The giant snails of the future , about 8 inches long (20 cm) and weighing up to 1 pound (0.45
kg), are also no exception to the race for survival.
The mouth of this monster will have a bone core with a notched drill at the end,
which will allow to grind even the toughest food.
However, carnivores will acquire much more deadly features than the snail bone drill.
For example, a huge black bat deathgleaner with a wingspan of 4 feet (1.3 meters) is
armed with insanely strong jaws and huge teeth.
Grabbing its prey, the deathgleaner will thrust long
claws into its prey’s body while forcing it into the sand.
Then, in an instant, it will bite the victim through the spine and have its “warm”
lunch.
Rats will now be able to hunt small animals that large mammal predators ate before.
These rodents will be aided in this by a change to their teeth.
They will develop long, piercing incisors.
The wide molars that they now use to shred vegetation will become sharpened
and will work like scissors cutting off pieces of flesh.
Their tiny legs will become ideal for running with small feet, thick pads and
long muscular legs.
With the help of these mutations, falanxes giant dog-like rats, will hunt
large grass-eating animals, that would formerly have been preyed upon by wolves, in packs.
The lurkfish will be an even more dangerous predator at 13 feet long (4 meters).
Hundreds of electric producing tissues will run down each side of the killer fish.
They will be able to generate a huge charge in excess of
1000 volts - twice as much as the electric eel.
This predator will electrocute any animal to death, except perhaps the enormous tortoise.
Once the tortoise closes its huge jaws on the body of its victim, it will sink its sharp
teeth into its flesh.
After that, it will disappear into the depths of the ocean with the fish-beast, so that
no one interferes with its bloody feast.
The huge 75-foot (20-25 meters) rainbow squid will not be outdone by other huge
superpredators like stripped whales.
While on the hunt, they will put on a real light show,
changing the color of their body.
This will be sure to lure a large predator fish that feeds on
bright silver, red or yellow fish.
As soon as the prey swims closer, the squid will grip tightly at
it with powerful suckers while it shreds the body with razor-sharp teeth.
Another super mollusk, the 10-pound swamp octopus
will choose a no less terrible way to punish its
victims.
Catching its prey, it will inject enough poison into it to kill even an elephant.
The insects of the future will also be different.
So, bumblebees will grow to the size of
sparrows and will manage to survive due to the terrible massacre of their own flesh.
Finding the uneaten carcass of a dead animal, the
bumblebee will rest on it until it dies, after which
the insect’s belly will burst by itself.
From the bumblebee’s body the larvae will escape and burrow inside of the dead animal.
Inside the disc-shaped mouth of the larvae there will be a creepy mill with two pairs
of sharp jaws.
One is for cutting, the other is for grinding.
Thus, the larvae will be able to tear the flesh and suck the decomposing internal organs
out of the rotting animal.
So, that is a glimpse of the bleak future described by Dougal Dixon.
Whether his predictions will come true in real life is
not yet known.
However, one thing is clear - the planet can sustain the existence of most any
creature.
But not all creatures will withstand the conditions on planet Earth.
So if humanity wants to preserve itself as a species, we must
save the environment.
Do you think we could coexist with Dixon’s monsters?
Write your thoughts in the comments.
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