Who's next to take our place?

[Keanumoreira]

M'kay, so I've been studing histroy lately, European histroy to set the reins straight, but there's also past events, ideals, ect. So, I've been wondering about the future too, and questioned who would take our place as the world's dominant species when we finally take to our graves.

 

So, imagine, if you will, that a worldwide virus, only fatal to humans, killed every last one of us. Who, then, would take up the seat for Earth's next ruling species? Besides monkeys and apes plz.

 

IMAO, Elephants would defiently be a possibility. The saying: "An elephant never forgets" isn't an exaggreation; they can remember things better than any known species on the planet other than us, sometimes over ruling that. They have been known to perform rituals over their fallen and rediscovered family members, passing on their bones from one another by trunk to grieve their loss. Infact, some have been known to break into buildings to retrieve these bones from their family members.

 

But that's just MO. What do you think?

[HappyHerring]

Something small, versatile and adaptable. It should be widespread so as to allow a variety of new forms to evolve & compete.

 

I hate to say the obvious but what about the rodents? 20 million years down the road I suspect we'd have a flowering of forms much as there were after the previous mass die-offs.

To those who say that the death of humanity is not a mass die-off then look at the state of the world now, if we went pearshaped there would still be degradation continuing for ceturies for certain and millenia almost certainly. Our actions in careful breeding of those animals we chose to let live around us would probably curse virtually all to a painful and squalid death along with us.

 

Let's hear it for the rats!

[Harbringe]

Absolutely Ants ,hands down winners .Even now if ants could unite under some kinda ant banner they could easily eradicate us from this planet ,we're lucky they can't get their act together.

 

That's why I always take care to never step on them ,should they ever smarten up I wanna be on their good side.

[AliasTheory]

A strong generalist species as opposed to a specialist species would be best. Technology is our way of adapting and why we as a species have been successful.

 

I would say cockroaches. These things are all over my house here in Hawaii...probably in the walls or something. They prefer warm areas but can live in many different environmental conditions. These suckers also eat and consume nearly anything generally speaking, mostly organic, and can survive for up to three months without any food or water. They can also go without any air for as long as an hour and have high radiation tolerance (Fallout!) And cockroaches can lay several hundred offspring over the course of their lifetime, some species only needing to be impregnated once. There's also the ability to carry around so much bacteria and germs to cause illness. Been around for around 300 million years, way longer than us. And then there is the famous, "they can live for a week without their head."

 

Elephants would defiently be a possibility. The saying: "An elephant never forgets" isn't an exaggreation; they can remember things better than any known species on the planet other than us, sometimes over ruling that. They have been known to perform rituals over their fallen and rediscovered family members, passing on their bones from one another by trunk to grieve their loss. Infact, some have been known to break into buildings to retrieve these bones from their family members.

 

How does this imply survival as the most dominant species? If anything, I would say they are a keystone species and don't really have that many predators other than human beings.

[HappyHerring]

Harbringe, I think you have a point. By the way I've never trusted ants with squints. I'm not sure why but they just look dubious. Not that I'm being squintist(?).

 

I still hold out for the mammals or perhaps the lizards. I'd love there to be a vast gothic empire of toads & frogs or a hegemony of newts & salamanders but unfortunately they look like they are already on the way out, or at least enduring a crash from which it'll take a vast amount of time for a diversification from the surviving species.

[Keanumoreira]

A strong generalist species as opposed to a specialist species would be best. Technology is our way of adapting and why we as a species have been successful.

 

I would say cockroaches. These things are all over my house here in Hawaii...probably in the walls or something. They prefer warm areas but can live in many different environmental conditions. These suckers also eat and consume nearly anything generally speaking, mostly organic, and can survive for up to three months without any food or water. They can also go without any air for as long as an hour and have high radiation tolerance (Fallout!) And cockroaches can lay several hundred offspring over the course of their lifetime, some species only needing to be impregnated once. There's also the ability to carry around so much bacteria and germs to cause illness. Been around for around 300 million years, way longer than us. And then there is the famous, "they can live for a week without their head."

 

Elephants would defiently be a possibility. The saying: "An elephant never forgets" isn't an exaggreation; they can remember things better than any known species on the planet other than us, sometimes over ruling that. They have been known to perform rituals over their fallen and rediscovered family members, passing on their bones from one another by trunk to grieve their loss. Infact, some have been known to break into buildings to retrieve these bones from their family members.

 

How does this imply survival as the most dominant species? If anything, I would say they are a keystone species and don't really have that many predators other than human beings.

 

Well I was going into intelligence as in the next civilization, but I guess survival can lead the way 2...

[Keanumoreira]

Something small, versatile and adaptable. It should be widespread so as to allow a variety of new forms to evolve & compete.

 

I hate to say the obvious but what about the rodents? 20 million years down the road I suspect we'd have a flowering of forms much as there were after the previous mass die-offs.

To those who say that the death of humanity is not a mass die-off then look at the state of the world now, if we went pearshaped there would still be degradation continuing for ceturies for certain and millenia almost certainly. Our actions in careful breeding of those animals we chose to let live around us would probably curse virtually all to a painful and squalid death along with us.

 

Let's hear it for the rats!

 

That's a good point, I never thought of that.

 

According to Charles Darwin (At least when his ideas were modernized) humans did (Supposedly) come from ancient rodents. Of course, it was never proven...

[AliasTheory]

Well I was going into intelligence as in the next civilization, but I guess survival can lead the way 2...

OK then-

 

If you are referring to species dominance as in influence per unit of biomass rather than survival, then elephants are a good answer. They shape the environments by eliminating trees making savannas simply, savannas. I assumed survival from the earlier answers, which was a mistake. There's also Florida alligators, which keep other population levels in check while creating homes for others in the environments via burrowing.

 

But in totality, to predict another species would be a bit hard. The full extent of their influence isn't evident enough.

 

Also, if you are wondering how I know this stuff, I took advanced placement environmental science.

Edited December 12, 2010 by AliasTheory

[Keanumoreira]

Well I was going into intelligence as in the next civilization, but I guess survival can lead the way 2...

OK then-

 

If you are referring to species dominance as in influence per unit of biomass rather than survival, then elephants are a good answer. They shape the environments by eliminating trees making savannas simply, savannas. I assumed survival from the earlier answers, which was a mistake. There's also Florida alligators, which keep other population levels in check while creating homes for others in the environments via burrowing.

 

But in totality, to predict another species would be a bit hard. The full extent of their influence isn't evident enough.

 

Also, if you are wondering how I know this stuff, I took advanced placement environmental science.

 

Intelligence superiority, survival dominace; it goes both ways I guess.

[marharth]

I would say its impossible to guess...

 

Evolution takes a long time, no way of knowing what will happen in that time.