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> each prior great extinction was accompanied by a replacement of the "dominant" species on the Earth. As the current reigning "dominant" species, this seems li
by dbmikus 9y ago
> each prior great extinction was accompanied by a replacement of the "dominant" species on the Earth. As the current reigning "dominant" species, this seems like something that might be very concerning to humans...
Except this time we are the cause of the extinction. I think that's a pretty important difference.
- jballanc 9y agoI think the jury's still out on whether or not this is actually different from the past extinctions. Yes, there was an asteroid impact around the time the dinosaurs went extinct, but every year there's some new paper or some new bit of evidence that points to the possibility that the asteroid wasn't the only factor in the K-Pg extinction. It's quite possible that dinosaurs had some role in their own extinction as well. What is different, in this case, is that in all past cases if the dominant species played a role in bringing about a mass extinction it was almost certainly an accident. We have the (possibly small) chance of potentially averting our own replacement as dominant species, if we're smart...