The Future of Earth

While cetaceans in the seas may go extinct, it is not all ceteceans that will die.  Though things do not look good for most cetaceans, they will survive in rivers.  This is known as )))) Current river dolphins Things do not look good for current river dolphins.  Human activity seems like it may finish off the boto before too long.  A similar fate also happens to the other ones that may exist, except perhaps the one currently in the Indus,  which, while endangered, has managed to survive in a river which has been used by humanity since the bronze age, so should be relatively well adapted for water being used for irrigation. Beluga whales While current river dolphins may not survive, ripurian beluga whales do.  Specifically, the ones in the St. Lawrence river.  These belugas manage to get into the great lakes, and from there to the Mississippi river. Getting to the Mississippi Now, you might be wondering why there exist no records of whales of any kind i...

 The absence of humans from the world leaves open our former niche of persistence hunter, which was filled by various groups of  humans throughout history including the Tarahumara, basically, running after a wild animal such as a deer until it collapses from exhaustion, although this selection began only ~2mya.  With humans gone this niche will be filled.  In other places and climates are filled by wolves, dingoes, and african wild dogs.  These creatures already have certain adaptations useful to this, and, as such, are uniquely poised to take up this niches when we are gone. Some of humans' adaptations to this is our upright posture, making locamotion more efficiant and ability to sweat, granted by our lack of fur, allowing us to avoid overheating when people run long distances.  Of these, gradual loss of fur would be advantageous every step of the way, whereas the intermediate stages of centaurism would not grant quite as much of a benefit, so that would ...

It seems to me like crocodiles will be one of the biggest winners of global warming, and are likely to move into new areas, and one big new area they could move onto would be dry land.  It seems as if after every mass extinction there is some form of crocodile that moves to chase prey on dry land.  I predict this happening in two new places: Australia's Northern Territory, and in the  American Deep South. In The United States It is unlikely that all crocodiles will go extinct, especially when some forms, such as the American Alligator have the conservation status of least concern.  These tend to live in the deep south and stand to gain in a way that no mammal can.  The thermoregulatory systems of mammals appear to mostly exist to keep them warm, and these use energy.  As the planet warms, it is likely that it will benefit cold blooded creatures more. Ambushes on dry land It may seem strange to suppose that a crocodile would take over the land when other spe...

When humanity disappeared, it was only them.  They left everything behind.  Skyscrapers sent underwater created coral reefs, and invasive species remained.  One such case was the wallaby in Europe. Feral wallabies lacked predators and like many invasive species before them were unable to be contained.  Back when humans were around, they would try to stop invasive species like this, but support for getting rid of wallabies never materialised.  In fact, attempts were made to prevent attempts to control them, and so, they survived until after the end of the human species.  They were too cute, and over the years, took over.  The Cornwall Peninsula sheltered them as sea levels rose, and they grew larger and larger in a case of insular gigantism.  Smaller ones persisted though on Dover Island, and eventually rafted over to the peninsula across the Straights of Dover.  There they spread across Europe. https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/cou...

Death of the Whales Alright, this is probably going to be controversial, because some species like the bowhead whales are going to be brought up to argue that just because the famous baleen whales are endangered, it doesn't mean that the whole population is.  These include the blowhead, which is least concern, and Southern right whale.  However, the blowhead is likely to get fucked by climate change, and the southern right whale is considered endangered by CITES.   I have a caandidate for this though, and the other filter feeders they share their range with, blue and minke whales, one is famously endangered, and the other is threatened due to human activity.  Under this scinario, blue whales die out dispite our best efforts, and Minke whales are harmed due to human activity, and general whale threats.  General threats such as bycatch are likely to threaten it, and by the time humans go extinct, they will all be in a practically irreversible downward trend, ...

While many may wonder about the future of life on our planet, I have decided to take up the torch myself and illuminate what I believe may be in store for life on the planet.  This work will generally assume that humans go extinct  in the near future, and while I doubt this will happen, it is not needed for a creative exercise such as this that I conform too closely too reality.  Plenty of SpecEvo regarding future evolution are unrealistic.  All tomorrows has an inciting incident where intergalactic aliens come by and fuck with our genome, and I think that humans going extinct in the near future is a lot less of a stretch. Nearly all endangered animals are going to be prohibited from having decendents in this project, allowing for their niches to be filled.  If the animal in question is very common in its habitat but is still on the list (as is the case with the hippo) it may be spared.  Other groups may also be wiped out dispite not being too rare if they ...