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New mass extinction event identified by geologists
- acconrad 11y agoTo think that in only 250mm years, virtually all creatures disappeared and then came back to create intelligent life. Now consider that the solar system is 4.6 billion years old, and shortly thereafter were the terrestrial planets. That means there were 18 chances for a mass extinction like this. Now granted many of these planet embryos have fused into the current planets or turned into asteroids and meteors, but what we're left with is the possibility of the rise and fall of intelligent life in our own solar system on different planets (or our own) without a trace. Fascinating and frightening.
- killface 11y agoTo think that human history is maybe 50,000 years old, tops. Recorded history maybe 10,000 years. Then take these events that happened MILLIONS of years ago... There could have been conscious, intelligent life back then, but it just died out and all traces have disappeared in that time.
- Madmallard 11y agoGiven that we have really, really old fossils from tiny creatures that barely leave a trace at all I'd say the likelihood of another species of similar intellect as humans on this planet in its history is very low.