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To be fair, what do they need to evolve for at this point? It's hard to imagine an extinction event, short of the sterilization of the planet or the end of Sola
by M_Grey 10y ago
To be fair, what do they need to evolve for at this point? It's hard to imagine an extinction event, short of the sterilization of the planet or the end of Solar activity, for them.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- goatlover 10y agoWater bears shall inherit the Earth.
- M_Grey 10y agoThey already have. :) As a somewhat unrelated aside, I think that if we bite the big one as a species, Waschbär (raccoons) might inherit the Earth. They have that combination of clever "hands", social structures, omnivorous diets that could make it work for them. Still, beneath it all, the water bears will secretly rule, through freeze and thaw.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoSo if the warning is "beware of the Sea People"[0], maybe we really should be wary of the water bears? [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12767821 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12767821
- M_Grey 10y agoThis is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a water bear.
- mrfusion 10y agoMore so than apes though?
- M_Grey 10y agoApes are too restricted in their habitats compared to something like a racoon, and anything which takes us out, is likely to do the same for them... even assuming they survive our influence on their environment over the next few decades. Raccoons meanwhile, have adapted to us.
- mrfusion 10y agoGood point. I've given this issue a lot of thought for some reason. I had crows and elephants on my list. But raccoons actually make a lot of sense.
- M_Grey 10y agoCrows are amazing creatures, but they lack the advantage of hands, and I think that really matters in the long run. If something is going to take our place, they probably need to be adept tool users, so the same issue is there for Elephants, plus they lack the ability to rapidly adapt to new environments and food sources. Maybe Octopodes will make a surprise "come from underwater" victory though, who knows? I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks about this kind of thing by the way.
- mrfusion 10y agoI figured crows feet would evolve to be hand like but that would take a while. I believe elephants can manipulate the ends of their trunk like fingers plus having tusks to hold things against. In any case I'm putting my money on racoons now.
- M_Grey 10y agoGood point about Elephants, I didn't consider that. Thanks for the enjoyable and informative exchange.
- partycoder 10y agoI would say their ability to resist extreme conditions might not be the same as resisting change in general. e.g: absence of food. Tardigrades are known to eat each other and in the absence of food they would probably resort to cannibalism.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- marcosdumay 10y agoThey eat bacteria. The one thing that one can count on outsurviving tardigrades is bacteria.
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- hinkley 10y agoIf your follow on question is, "and I wonder what happens if you transcribe that gene into higher plants and animals" then the answer to that question becomes quite interesting.
- M_Grey 10y agoI suspect that we're going to live to find out the answer.