Life Finds a Way - Or does it? (Part 2)

Hi everyone, apologies for the long wait but I've had a lot to do recently. So where were we, dinosaurs right? Okay, where we left off last time we were trying to determine whether or not, assuming we had the technology to create them, a dinosaur would actually be able to survive on the Earth as we know it today. We've already tackled the biggest two so lets get down to it then.

The next big factor that any animal needs, not to survive as such, but to be happy, is company. We are only now beginning to understand the complex social mechanisms that are in other species, not just humans.

For hundreds of years we were arrogant enough to simply assume, without reason that humans were the only animals with a complex social system and that no other animals could even come close. However now that animal psychology is becoming a more accepted field and we are accepting their intelligence we are making striking discoveries. Even Tyrannosaurus Rex is thought to have been a fiercely defensive parent. And if animals need other animals to function properly then whose to say that dinosaurs were not the same?

It is pretty generally accepted that triceratopses traveled in herds, so what would happen if one was brought into the world today with all of the genetic instinct of a herd animal, but no herd? Well it would most likely suffer from extreme loneliness, and like a chained dog it may experience fits of anger, frustration and fear. So if we were going to bring dinosaurs back we would most likely need to bring back more than one of each kind, forming a dino-colony of sorts.

Now we need to think about the biggest factor, how has the Earth itself changed in the 65 million years since the dinosaurs roamed alongside early life and would dinosaurs have adaptions still relevant to survive today?

So how exactly was the Earth different that long ago? Well to make it simpler we'll think about the end of the Cretaceous period when a meteor is said to have wiped out the dinosaurs, as dinosaurs saw a lot of change in the millions of years that they were on earth. At the end of the Cretaceous period the continents weren't all that different to ours. But was different was the surface itself. Primitive flowering plants had begun to flourish and due to the much warmer climate there were no ice caps, resulting in a world of forests surrounded by shallow seas. The land was much lower as this is when many mountain ranges began to form and all of this was ended when a big lump of rock fell out of the sky!

So how do we compare today? Well for one it is a hell of a lot chillier. The temperature could even rise up to 45 degrees which could extend to the poles due to the much more evenly distributed temperature, so we would only have a very narrow band near the equation where dinosaurs could sustainably live under natural conditions.

However altogether there's not much different enough to have a huge effect. Sure dinosaurs my not be so well suited to digest the more complex plants they may come across today, or may be harmed by foreign chemicals in the water, or diseases unfamiliar to them. But none of these are problems that we humans couldn't fix with some clever planning.

In conclusion although there would obviously have to be a lot of very clever planning and, despite the warning from Jurassic world, a tad of genetic engineering; not only is it possible that a dinosaur could survive today, its not even that big of an undertaking. What we would have to do to support, say a triceratops, is not much more than is done currently by zookeepers all over the world holding foreign animals in zoos. And who knows, maybe one day humanity will indeed resurrect some of these prehistoric wonders to witness the world as we know it today.

Apologies this took so long guys I've been really busy recently. However I'm finally finding myself with more time to write these. I'd like to thank everyone for reading, it means a lot that I can make your days just that little bit more interesting :) researching this has really given me an appreciation for how small we are in the grand scheme of life throughout the history of Earth, a mere smear of a paintbrush on the work of art that is life. So this is me going now, but firstly I would highly recommend Jurassic World to anybody who found this interesting as it is a truly amazing film with some excellent points. Until next time :)