Could dinosaurs reappear on Earth? Scientists predict the consequences of global warming
Dinosaurs continue to exist alongside us in the form of birds, descendants of ancient winged reptiles. But could the "canonical" dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus, evolve again if the climate and temperature returned to Cretaceous conditions?
Apparently not, writes Science Focus. At the same time, we cannot predict what living things will appear on the planet in the future.
Much of evolution depends on chance. Natural selection cannot be planned; it occurs to adapt organisms to pressing challenges.
The American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould wondered what would happen if we rewound the tape of the planet's life in some distant time and pressed the "play" button? If this tape reached our days, the world would not be the same, the scientist is sure. Small accidents would have guided life along unpredictable paths that would have changed every time the tape was rewound and played.
The more we study fossils, the more we realize that extinction is forever. If a species or group disappears, it simply does not return. Take trilobites, for example. The climate these days is generally similar to what it was when they flourished in the oceans, but trilobites have never reappeared.
What about something like the dinosaurs, could they have evolved? Quite possibly, paleontologists answer.
A powerful force in evolution is convergence: if different species face the same climatic and environmental factors, they often develop similar traits to adapt to their environment. For example, both dinosaurs (birds) and mammals (bats) independently developed wings to fly.
If the Earth had been in conditions similar to the Cretaceous period, Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops would undoubtedly not have been able to evolve, but other large and clumsy reptiles would have.
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