What if dinosaurs never had to say goodbye to Earth?

How cool would it have been to see a real life T-Rex, if only that fatal asteroid never hit the Earth as the science world commonly believes. If dinosaurs were still alive today, a lot of questions would have come up in our minds like?, would they have evolved like our species, would humans have survived this long?, would we have co-existed with them?

Till 66 million years ago, dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes were the dominant species of the planet Earth. They were considered to be intelligent, adaptable and at times weighing upto two huge jet planes, though it is hard to believe that only one huge, large rock was sufficient enough to wife them from the surface of the earth.

But of course, this was not any ordinary rock like the ones we stumble upon. The asteroid that wiped out the entire species of dinosaurs was 9 miles wide (15 kms) and hit earth with a devastating force equivalent to 10 million Hiroshima atom bombs! The radioactive shocks waves from the hit annihilated everything in all directions. The destruction was so strong that 75% of all species went extinct. The asteroid that wiped the dinosaurs out struck the shallow water of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. If the asteroid landed somewhere off the coast, in a deeper part of the ocean, the water might have absorbed some the blast and the devastating smoke. If the asteroid had missed the earth, dinosaurs would still have to go through many challenging global events to be able to remain alive in the present time.

55 million years ago, the temperatures rose and it was 8°C hotter than it is today. In such a temperature, rainforests and vegetation flourished. Herbivorous dinosaurs would have adapted and thrived to it but would have evolved to look different. Since of that period were less nutritious and easier to digest, meaning dinosaurs were likely to shrink in size because the diet would be less nutritional.

20 million years after that period, that is, 34 million years ago, South America and Antarctica split, creating cooler and drier climates around Earth. It is believed, long-legged, fast moving dinosaurs evolved during this period to move across huge grasslands that covered the surface. Compared the mammals of that Age, dinosaurs had many advantages, like having more teeth and better eye-sight. Scientists wonder if mammals would have evolved at all if dinosaurs hadn’t been extinct, as they were already very advanced. The big animals that we fear today would have been a prey to dinosaurs and not forgetting that humans also evolved alongside wooly mamooths and saber-toothed cats!

But if we actually survived alongside these prehistoric predators, it is highly possible that we could see a real life T-Rex in any of the zoos not like the artificially created ones in the Jurrasic Park. But again, the increasing human population and extensive hunting would have pushed these dinosaurs to the verge of extinction and would have been an endangered species. They would have co-existed peacefully among us with adaption and evolution over time.

To your surprise some actually live among us!! Where do you think pigeons came from? The present day pigeons were once the size of biplanes.