08-25-2014, 10:19 PM
space-time wrote:
Suppose that we, humans, never existed as a species; what would life on Earth look like? what species would be most likely to develop a civilization as advanced as ours? what are your thoughts on this?
Where do you want the split to happen? If anytime after 6-7MYA, then just another version of Hom.o or Australopithecus/Zinjanthropus/hominid line of choice. The upright walking and non-specialised hands probably would have allowed one of the hominids to evolve along a similar route that we did.
Earlier? Maybe some version of pre-chimp or pre-gorilla hominoids would go the same way to fill the same ecological niche. But then again, maybe not.
Earlier?? No great apes, eh, just monkey ancestors? Again, they could have evolved another larger-bodied clade similar to great apes or maybe baboon-shaped monkey ancestors could have taken up the ecological niche slack. This is getting very unlikely, however. There's no need for any intelligence greater than a baboon or dolphin or wolf on this or any planet.
Earlier??? Non-primate mammals need a pretty big body-plan reorganization to arrive at the non-specialization from which we humans benefit. Rodents are probably the next probable mammals with reasonable hands for manipulating detailed tools (down the evolutionary road).
But think of the dental bills!