With global warming, it is the survival of Man as a species that is at stake. But if we imagine for a second an Earth without humans, which species would be capable of taking control of the Earth?
Although this question may seem quite fanciful, scientists have nevertheless sought to answer it. A very serious study, carried out at the prestigious University of Oxford, maintains that the ideal replacements at the head of the Earth are… octopuses.
Our cousins the great apes would have made ideal candidates, but according to research by Professor Tim Coulson, it is the octopuses that could take control of the Earth. For good reason, the scientist explains that these animals are particularly intelligent.
Octopuses are particularly capable of solving problems or even manipulating objects, proof of their cognitive capacity above the average in the animal world. In a rapidly changing world, like ours today, the exceptional adaptation capacities of octopuses could be an undeniable advantage over other animal species.
Octopuses on Earth?
Professor Coulson's work even suggests that in the long term, octopuses would have the evolutionary capacity to change habitat and become a terrestrial species. Cephalopods today are already capable of breathing outside of water for short periods.
As individuals become exposed to the outside world, they could develop genetic mutations, leading them after millions of years to permanently leave the marine world for the terrestrial world.
This transformation is a condition sine qua none of the domination of octopuses over other human species in a more or less distant future.
Primates: the big losers?
Although they seem to be the designated successors of the human species, primates and great signs are not ideal candidates for the conquest of Earth. And for several reasons. The main one would be the inability of primates to survive climate change.
With a warming of the global temperature on Earth, monkeys would be among the first victims. Their habitat would be constantly threatened by forest fires and summer heatwaves would decimate them. Faced with such climatic upheaval, Professor Coulson assures that they will not put up strong resistance against the octopuses when it comes to taking control of the Earth.
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