Man has been the dominant species on Earth for millennia: we have developed vehicles that have taken us to the four corners of the globe and techniques that have allowed us to settle in contexts as disparate as tropical rainforests and frozen steppes. We developed agriculture and medicine, which allowed us to extend our life expectancy and increase our numbers.
But if all this ends, which species will “inherit” the Earth?
This question lends itself to an interesting thought experiment, which many have attempted to develop. There are many possible answers: it could be another species of hominid, perhaps a descendant of chimpanzees or bonobos – after all, they are among the most intelligent animals similar to us. It could be a species of insect, like cockroaches, which are known for their resistance. Some believe that the best placed species is a very different species, but one that combines endurance and intelligence. A marine animal which has the particularity of having nine brains: the octopus.
>> Worthy of a science fiction film: the genetics of the dogs living around Chernobyl are changing… And it may not be because of the radiation! <<
Tim Coulson, a biologist at the University of Oxford, is among those who believe that these animals are the ones who, hypothetically, would have a head start in the race to develop a terrestrial civilization if human civilization disappeared. was close.
An animal that has 9 “brains”
When we talk about octopuses, we are not talking about a species, but an entire taxonomic order, the octopods, classified into taxonomic families and genera. In total, several hundred species of octopus are known, each exhibiting specific characteristics ranging from size to intelligence.
Octopuses, as a whole, are therefore theoretically capable of adapting to many changes that could drive humans to extinction. In other words, they are very durable. Living underwater also means additional “protection” against changes that could lead to the ruin of our species.
>> In 1940, a creature snuck onto an island in the United States and devoured everything. Today, two of the species most feared by humans coexist alone <<
“There are many species of octopuses, not just one (…) and they live in a wide variety of habitats, including deep oceans and coastal habitats“, Mr. Coulson explained, as reported by Popular Mechanics. “If certain populations of certain species may be doing poorly, I think others have a chance of surviving (…) and diverge during evolution to colonize a wide variety of habitats“, he added.
The second factor that makes octopuses candidates for the development of a civilization is their intelligence. It is striking to note that octopuses have nine brains, one in each of their eight limbs and a “central” one which coordinates the activity of the others. Although the term “brain” can be applied to these nerve organs, it is a subject of debate.
Having lots of brains is not synonymous with intelligence; we know that size is not the only determinant of brains. However, we have seen the intelligence of these invertebrates both in laboratory experiments and in the wild. Octopuses are able to imitate their surroundings and even use objects in their environment as tools.
Octlantis
Tim Coulson also examines the disadvantages that octopuses would face in developing their own civilization. The first is energy: every civilization needs energy sources to thrive. Before the advent of civilization, people harnessed the chemical energy of combustion to heat their caves and homes. It was only later that animal traction or wind energy from windmills came to complete this system.
The second obstacle for these animals is their low sociability. Octopuses are not particularly sociable animals, explains the Oxford biologist. At least that's what we thought. About seven years ago, a group of experts discovered in Jarvis Bay, Australia, two curious underwater communities that they called Octlantis and Octopolis. These were two densely populated cephalopod environments in which the animals interacted, but not necessarily in a peaceful and cooperative manner.
>> A half-ton metal ring fell from the sky in Kenya… The country's space agency has confirmed what many suspected! <<
These colonies exhibited dominance relationships between multiple individuals and unique behaviors, such as octopuses throwing shells of other animals to defend their dens against other individuals. Such behaviors have been observed in captive-bred octopuses when required to coexist in densely populated enclosures, but only in the last decade have we been able to study these behaviors in the ocean.
There is a third problem for octopuses envisioned by Tim Coulson. A problem that could possibly determine the ability of octopuses to “supplant” human civilization: humans.
Over the past decades, humans have significantly modified marine ecosystems. Fishing, pollution and climate change are some of the faces of this “human factor”. The development of an underwater civilization seems difficult.
This is why, for now, any hypothesis about which species will dominate Earth in the future is pure speculation. An extraterrestrial observing the Earth at the end of the Jurassic would hardly have bet that the descendants of the tiny primitive mammals who then inhabited the planet in the shadow of the dinosaurs would be the ones to develop a human-like civilization.
Article written in collaboration with our colleagues from Xataka.
