Humankind has walked the world for just about 6 million years.
In the 4 Billion year lifespan of the planet, that’s practically a newborn.
Of course, we’ve been busy. We built cities and highways and slowly became the dominant lifeform on this little blue world.
Using our opposable thumbs and massive brains we cultivated the land and conquered the oceans.
We spread through the whole world until our species could be found on every continent.
Humans lucked out in the evolutionary war.
We had the right biology, the right temperament, the necessary mix of ingenuity and tenacity required to claw our way to the top of the food chain and stay there.
However, what if things had gone a wee bit differently?
Redditor Mompkey wondered this very thing on Reddit when he asked:
“Which species do you think would be dominant if humans didn’t exist?”
I would welcome our lupine overlords.
“Wolves. They can, and have, successfully adapted to most of the various biomes on the planet. There’s a reason we domesticated them and took them everywhere with us.” ~ CedarWolf
Some guesses stayed very close to genetic family tree.
“The ‘Pongo’ lineage (orangutans and related species) radiated throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia, before humans (or any other homo or pan species).”
“Many of them were ground dwelling (such as Sivapithecus, in India, for example).”
“If it weren’t for humans (a speciation of chimpanzees; the pan genus), the Pongo genus (specifically a species similar to or such as Sivapithicus; many fossils have been lost and there were definitely more species than we know about).”
“And its various species, would have been the dominant genus, based on the following reasoning:”
“What makes human beings the dominant species is – “
“(1) the combination of opposable thumbs and upright posture, and,”
“(2) sophisticated communication, including oral, and written language.”
“Many other species have oral language, and those languages have not been studied.”
“However, no other species have written language.”
“Written language allows complex ideas (sophisticated technology) to be passed down multiple generations later, so even if nobody that person directly interacted within their lifetime was able to duplicate what that person did,”
“(Say build a chariot, create gunpowder, etc.) someone multiple generations later could read a book and figure it out if they had the desire to.”
“Besides Pongo and Pan, there are various other species of monkeys who could have eventually reached the niche human beings ended up filling.”
“Most of the other primate species are tree-dwelling to such an extreme extent that they’d be unlikely to be very ‘dominant’.”
“Other than possibly other monkeys or apes, that title would end up going to some dog, cat or bear species (tigers, grizzlies, wolves, for example, not including many megafauna which went extinct when humans came into contact with them).”
“An argument could also be made that diseases are more dominant than humans.” ~ Longjumping_Emu_1297
Or,
“Wouldn’t it be just another off shoot of humans like the Neanderthal or heidelbergensis?” ~ SnooHesitations8174
In some instances, size does matter.
“Elephants.”
“Nobody f*cks with elephants” ~ amarghir1234
But not always.
“Probably ants tbh.”
“They just seem like they already took over the world in masses and are everywhere.” ~ItsLenTastic
“Free Willy” would have been a very different movie.
“Orcas.”
“Definitely f*cking orcas.”
“Not only are they smart, they also are apex predators who f*ck up even the strongest of sharks.”
“They have been known to yeet seals 80 feet out of the water.”
“My bets are on the murder oreo.” ~ BigCut5442
Of course, not everyone seemed on board with the assignment.
“Humans are the only species that seek to dominate others.”
“Other animals just want to live in the balance of nature. They’re just trying to survive, they don’t have time to take over the world.” ~ Nisa4444
Others gave multiple guesses.
“1. None.”
“Intelligence is not a goal of evolution.”
“Survival in nature is achieved mostly by being faster, bigger, gathering in numbers, having more offspring, bigger claws, etc.”
“More, not better.”
“Intelligence is only useful for physically weak, highly sociable opportunistic omnivores that are in the middle of the food chain, needing to hunt and avoid being hunted at the same time.”
“Like our ancestors.”
“Human intelligence is a product of the extremely competitive and dangerous environment in which the hominins evolved.”
“They had to outsmart their competitors and prey, take every little chance they had at survival and then some, be tough af.”
“It also helped having appropriate appendages for creating tools, a carnivore diet to feed a bigger brain, etc.”
“It was basically a perfect storm that created humans.”
“2. Another ape. For the same reasons as above.”
“3. Raccoons. They are sociable, opportunistic omnivores, have tiny hands. That would be cute.” ~holeontheground
Flight would be a great advantage.
“Corvids particularly Crows.” ~Outrageous-Monk-6281
This is solid logic.
“Chickens.”
“They just look like they know sh*t.” ~ Morfa_
Whoever has the most teeth, wins.
“Sharks, they are the dominant species on 3/4 of the earth’s surface already, they have survived mass extinctions and would thrive even more without humans mucking up their habitat.” ~ Who_Wouldnt_
Clearly, there were other contenders to the throne.
The dinos could’ve had their shot had they not been taken out early.
Size doesn’t always mean a winning score on the evolutionary battlefield though—after all we’re hardly the biggest animals.
There were lots of suggestions from the mammal kindgom but insects, birds, reptiles and fish had a few strong contenders as well.
What do you think?
Had our luck been a little worse, or our timing a little off, might we have been usurped by bats?
By shrews?
Perhaps it wouldn’t even be an animal that evolved to dominate the world but a plant?
These sort of theoretical puzzles aren’t just for fun, they can open us up to possibilities that we never would’ve considered before.
“What if we hadn’t been the dominant life on Earth” could just as easily be “What if we explored the world” or “What if we could harness electricity.” The answers to those questions had a major impact on our species.
That’s the real power of our species, after all, the ability to think outside our experience and dream of more.
The infinite possibility of “What if.”