/sf/ - Science Fiction

Writing on a book or an essay, anon?

My top two would be:

>Squids

They are insanely intelligent. Seriously, look it up; they have mammalian levels of intelligence.

>Monkeys/Apes

Again, very intelligent, and they are not far removed from humans, from an evolutionary viewpoint. We're not descendants of any contemporary apes, as far as I know, but maybe a certain potential for civilization is still in the contemporary ones.

>Crows

Pretty much the smartest birds that exist. They haven't conquered some habitats yet, but they could if they were smarter. What this means is that they actually have a reason to become more intelligent in the future, particularly if certain circumstances forced them to emigrate.

What I singled out was rats, as they breed too fast, are too resilient and hence don't need higher intelligence to overcome adaptionary problems.

>>656

elephants

and they would be taller, bigger, and have two trunks

this is assuming humans go the way of nuclear war

1.

Ape for obvious reasons.

2+.

BIRDS! I believe in 15 million years the world would be flooded with trees that there would be a lot more oxygen on earth that most species would evolve larger.

>>663

>BIRDS! I believe in 15 million years the world would be flooded with trees that there would be a lot more oxygen on earth that most species would evolve larger.

Birds have several different limits for size. Some of the largest birds known have trouble maintaing any speed except when descending because it takes a lot of enegy to fly.

Then there are size or warmth exchanges, catching your food, the dynamics of feathers

>>657

This guy got it, squids are crazy smart. They can also travel some distances on land. Some of them are even known to go on land for prey. Also imagine if the big fuckers would travel up from the depths.

>>656

In a few hundred of thousand of years atmospheric carbon would be low enough for the extinction of plants.

Maybe bacteria?

>>704

You mean hundreds of millions.

There are another three zeroes

In terms of "world domination" humans are perfect because if we don't like a habitat we make it habitable: we don't need millennia to adapt to it.

Gotta remember that evolution isn't out to create the "ultimate predator," it's just out to continue the species (in its current habitat.)

Crocs do a great job around rivers but naturally would be useless in a desert.

This does imply that birds would have an advantage in terms of getting around the whole globe: but even then birds would be adapted to the locations they stick to.

Scavengers would love a world with more of every animal. (Dead)

>>844

Sounds pretty damn cool. There was one story in an anthology I've read. It was about how humans in millions of years might live. I should check it up some time, because it was beautiful.