what life will be next after humans are extinct?

When humans finally become extinct like the dinosaurs, what species do you reckon will come next?

Here are some links on the subject:-

www.madsci.org...

www.scienceforums.net...

What do you reckon?

That's easy - bio-mechanical self-powered reproducing nanobots.


...Now I'll check out the links. Cool thread.

Well, given the fact that humans will likely become extinct due to our inability to keep our environment clean, I should suspect that roaches will be the only ones to survive. Or in the case of nuclear holocaust... roaches win again.

Microorganism. The only life-form that can defeat the mankind today are the microorganism. Maybe some form of colective inteligence.

Well if we haven't made them extinct before we go, I would think that intelligence would be a factor, so let's go with the Dolphins. Very intelligent, social creatures.

There is too many variables of what species would become dominant after man is gone.
I will speculate that man kinds demise will come from ecological disaster. Global warming causing crops to whither and lakes to dry up. So with out drinkable water all that will be left are the underwater creatures. This would leave the Dolphins as the smartest species.
I wouldn't think that dolphins could evolve to become the worlds next civilization based on that they still have many natural enemies.
I guess life would have to come to land and start over again. Reptiles would stand a better chance ruling the land over mammals in this case as Reptiles strive in a hot climate.

My best guess is the moldy thing growing in the old tupperware bowl thats been in the back of my fridge for so long I'm afraid to even touch the damn thing!

Either that or robots that look a lot like the human cylons on the new battlestar gallactica. I'm not one to reference fiction as possible fact but the damn show seems almost prophetic if you look at it right.

But something cybernetic.

Spiderj

IMO of course and as always

At the risk of coming off too philosophical, this is one of the long-term reasons we need a space program. An asteroid wiping out Earth would not be the unimaginable thing if there were a viable colony of humans on another planet, either within or outside of our own solar system.

Assuming we don't blow ourselves up or poison ourselves, I think that the way that we evolve will be unique for two reasons.

(1) So far, the evolutionary paradigm has been "successful critters adapt to the changing environment, unsucessful critters don't adapt". We've changed the paradigm; we're the first critters who change the environment to suit ourselves.

(2) Animals have sustained or improved chances for racial survival by attempting to improve themselves via a one-on-one mechanism. The female would choose the "best" male; or the lions would "choose" the strongest prey critters by eating their slower and stupider brethren.

We've changed that paradigm too; first, we select for weakness by curing and ameliorating genetic flaws that, under a "natural" scenario, would rseult in the death of the weaklings. Second, we have the ability (for the very first time in our species' history) to effect major genetic "improvements" via gene splicing, bio-engineering, etc.

What does this mean for our race's (and all the other critters we impact) future? I don't think anyone could answer that question.

The ability to change the environment eliminates a major evolutionary driver, so we could theoretically "stagnate" evolutionarily for millions of years. On the other hand, our ability to scientifically determine racial weaknesses and fix them via genetic engineering could lead to a race of people who could live for millennia, incorporate subordinate and supplemental hearts, make the vermniform appendix go away, etc., etc.

Time will tell, children, but we won't be around to see it!

"And so I say to you pimps and hos, 'Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose'."

Well first it was the Invertabrates that ran the show on earth. Infact All of our spine ancestors alsmost became extinct at one time. Then Vertebrates ruled the earth. Then life entered the Dinosaurs and they ruled the earth. Then came the time of the Mammals and they ruled which gave way to the apes or us ruling the earth.

As for what will rule the earth after us I think it could be the non-organics or robots in the future. If I had to pick a organic though I think the Bugs will get another chance at it. Things like Scorpions will laugh at our human Doomsday.

Possible ways that we may get extinct must be examined before answering this question.

Nuculair holocaust? Only a few creatures living on the mainland would survive. More complex creatures that survive would adapt to the radioactivity. It will take earth aprox 200 millioen years to recover if the nuculair war is very intense.

Other possibility oil crash coupled with climatic changes. Humanity would be easily the most affected species as we are very dependant from oil and if the economy crashes the population will decrease to aprox 200 million. After that the climatic changes kick in and humans still trying to recover from this will get killed of. Of the other species some will get extinct but the majority will stay.

Supernova: Only oceanic creatures will survive. It will take the earth perhaps 500 million years to recover.

Meteorite strike. Depending on the size. If its rather small about 1 km then humans would get extinct most other species would survive unless already threatend. If its really big then mammals might get extinct. We could get a new triassic in which several species will compete to be the new dominant species.

All that i can think of now.