An ice age is a time period where the temperature of the surface of earth drastically drops,
resulting in the expansion of polar ice sheets as well as glaciers.
There have been at least 5 major ice ages over the course the 4.6 billion years our
planet has been in existence.
The last ice age took place during the Pleistocene epoch, which happened 2.6 million years and
only ended around 11700 years ago.
During this time, our planet was covered by huge glaciers.
That’s a really huge chunk of time that our earth was one giant spherical popsicle.
Sorry flat earthers.
But what if the ice age never happened in the first place?
How would that have changed the course of the history of our planet?
That’s the question we’re asking right now, on life’s biggest questions.
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No one knows why the last ice age began.
Scientists believe it could have been a number of factors from changes in ocean current to
composition of the atmosphere, to changes in the position of the earth in relation to
the sun.
During this time period, the average temperature was earth was at between 5 to 10 degrees celcius
colder than current temperatures.
A huge chunk of North America, antartica, Europe, south America and small areas of asia
were completely covered in ice.
In north America specifically, the galciers stretched across Greenland and Canada, and
even down to some parts of America.
Some of these glaciers still remain in Greenland and antartica.
Interestingly, without the ice age, there’s a huge chance that humans wouldn’t exist
at all.
Humans first emerged during the Pleistocene Epoch.
Without it, it can be reasonably assumed that humans probably wouldn’t have evolved from
neandethals.
Scientists think that Theres a huge link between human behaviour and evolution and drastic
changes in climate.
Somewhere between 3 and 2.5 million years ago, the first members of the homo genus emerged.
They had bigger brains.
Between 2 to 1.5 million years ago, we start to see homo erectus.
This was during the ice age.
Homo erectus had even bigger brains and a skeleton similar to our own.
They started creating more sophisticated tools like double bladed axes.
Homo erectus then started to leave Africa and migrate to other areas of the globe.
Scientists believe that a huge factor for this evolutionary change was because the climate
was undergoing dramatic shifts.
Our diet also began to drastically change.
Before 2 million years ago, our ancestors were eating a lot more plants in their diet.
After 2 million years ago, the homo erectus diet was almost a 50/50 split between grasses
and other foods.
More diverse food options could have contributed in an increase in brain size.
It can then be assumed that Without these dramatic changes in climate, humans might
not have evolved into homo erectus.
Most animals that didn’t adapt to the changing climate and change their diet went extinct.
Regardless If humans did manage to evolve, then our ancestors probably wouldn’t have
migrated the same distances in search of resources.
North America might not have been inhabited by humans as early as it was.
Why migrate in search of food when all the food you need is right close by?
By the end of the Pleistocene epoch, humans were found in almost every corner of the globe.
The ice age had a profound effect on human migration, yet we know very little about it.
This is because lower ocean levels that were present during the ice age are now under water.
Humans used to use these migration routes to travel.
Unfortunately, because they are now under water,
Ice bridges created by the ice age would have allowed humans and other animals to migrate
more easily.
Humans might have never migrated to islands, like Australia.
During the ice age, birds flourished, especially birds that flew and could migrate easily.
Birds like duck, geese, eagles and hawks.
Maybe if the ice age never happened, many of these birds wouldn’t have become so numerous.
Some animals that likely wouldn’t have ever existed were creatres like the wooly mammoth,
giant ground sloths and sabre toothed cats.
These creatures emerged during the ice ange and were adapted to the environment.
Many of these animals of course went extinct around 13 thousand years ago.
It should be noted that many animals went extinct because of the ice age, and perhaps
many of them would have existed for far longer, if not until modern day.
There was very little vegetation variation during the ice age.
Most of the types of vegetation that existed were coniferous trees like pines.
Without the ice age, it can be assumed that the planet would have been far more lush because
higher temperatures would have allowed most types of plants to thrive.
One last cool fact, the rise of agriculture occurred roughtly 10 thousand years ago, at
the end of the ice age.
If the ice age never happened, and humans did find a way to evolve, maybe agriculture
would have began much much sooner, and human history and culture would go back much further.
Of course, its extremely difficult to predict what would have happened if the ice age never
occurred.
It did.
But we hope this video has given you some insight, and maybe even inspired you to look
into the subject further on your own.
For now, I’m going to wrap up this video by responding to some of your comments.
Music Note – I. Hate.
Her Voic.
Well I talked to my voice and she’s not the biggest fan of you either.
Ahmad – what if trump and the queen married.
That would definitely be weird.
Batmanfanforever – what if everyone on earth only spoke english.
Well that would definitely make travelling easier.
Adolfo Perez – What If the great depression happened today.
I would imagine it would suck, but that’s definitely a good idea for a video.
Avery lopez – thanks for doing my question.
you are welcome.
We at lifes biggest questions love your suggestions and we do appreciate them greatly.
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