Around 66 million years ago, a deadly 6-mile-wide doomsday asteroid collided with Earth and resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. The asteroid impact was so powerful, and it resulted in the formation of a 110-mile-wide, 6-mile-deep Chicxulub crater. The cosmic collision also caused deadly tsunamis, and due to the accumulation of debris in the atmosphere, the sun was completely blocked which resulted in the trigger of a scenario which scientists call the 'nuclear winter'.
What if the asteroid impact never happened?
The extinction of dinosaurs from the surface of Earth played a crucial role in the evolution of mammals that includes humans, which is the most dominant species on the planet now. However, several experts believe that this will not be the case if this asteroid had missed Earth around 66 million years ago.
"The mammal cohorts of the dinosaurs were small, furry nocturnal creatures. They lived in the shadow of the giant reptiles for more than 135 million years. Without the catastrophic asteroid impact and removal of the dinosaurs from the scene, it is unlikely that the inconspicuous mammals would have ever evolved into the large and diverse animals that fill the world today," said Michael Robert Rampino, a professor at the New York University, Gizmodo reports.
Rampino also argues that dinosaurs could have undergone major changes due to evolution in these millions of years, and they might have acquired grasping hands and a large brain.
Human evolution would have been hindered
Humans are now the dominant species on Earth. But it would not have been possible if dinosaurs continue reigning the earth for these many years. Human evolution would not have happened, and most of the human ancestors would have faced the killing spree of deadly predators like Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex).
"It is a unique history, such that one event of a consequential scale changes everything that follows. How could one think that the first hominin that stood up on its hind legs some 7 million years ago—nearly 60 million years after a dinosaur-killing accident—would have evolved again if dinosaurs were left unmolested? Not a chance. Well, the answer, in short, is we humans probably never would have evolved to ask such a question," said Paul Sereno, a Paleontology Professor at the University of Chicago.
Humans would have gone extinct
As humans would remain as a primate species in the presence of killer dinosaurs, Steven Speilberg's Jurassic Park movie franchise would not have become a reality, and humans will be running for their lives to save themselves from dinosaurs.
In the modern world, several species have gone extinct due to poaching activities conducted by humans. However, if dinosaurs were still present on the planet, the entire human species might have gone extinct. Alexander Pearce, an Irish convict notorious for cannibalizing his fellow prison escapees, had claimed that human meat is delicious and it tastes better than fish and pork. If dinosaurs find human meat tasty, they would have continuously hunt us, thus causing the extinction of human beings from Earth's surface.
