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Sunday, 13 November 2016

Trumpocalypse: What's next?

Bluey here,

Seems like humans are having a tough old week of it down there. Made me wonder what 'intelligent' life forms might be coming next...

I dug around and came across an informative article on the human website, The New Yorker.

After author, Elizabeth Kolbert, reminded me of my long-extinct Silurian graptolites and the possible stratigraphically significant remnants of Human civilization—structures such as the London Underground—she introduced me to palaeontologist Jan Zalasiewicz's 'giant rats'.

It turns out that Zalasiewicz gives rats pretty impressive odds to succeed Humans, should humans ever decide to destroy themselves:

“Some number will probably stay rat-size and rat-shaped... But others may well shrink or expand. Particularly if there’s been epidemic extinction and ecospace opens up, rats may be best placed to take advantage of that. And we know that change in size can take place fairly quickly.”



'Giant rats' (Source: Looney Tunes)


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