Laura Vanessa Rodrìguez Rodrìguez                                                               1104

Laura Sofia Gomez

What would have happened if the dinosaurs hadn`t died on the planet?

65 million years ago, dinosaurs had a bad day. A huge asteroid measuring 6 miles in diameter roamed the solar system for millions of years until it crashed in the Gulf of Mexico to end the dinosaur reign of 170 million years. But what would have happend if the asteroid had not impacted? Would the dinosaurs still live and dominate Earth?

"They are not extinct!" Exclaims Francisco Ortega, a paleontologist and professor of Evolutionary Biology at the National University of Distance Education (UNED) when asked. "We have about 10,000 species of dinosaurs living with us, inhabiting forests and cities, as pets, as food. In fact, it's hard to look at the sky and not see a dinosaur. "

And so it is. Birds are the dinosaurs of today that shrank for 50 million years to become the size of a bird. In fact, they represent a very specialized group of dinosaurs that have adapted to the flight. "I know that this idea is not yet widespread among the general public, but paleontologists are clear," says Sinc Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, PhD in paleontology and professor at the University of the Basque Country.

There are many theories of this, some of the (they) are: It is likely that if the asteroid had not impacted the Earth, the dinosaurs would still be the dominant being on the planet. In that case, the large mammals with which we are familiar, such as elephants, would never have evolved

Other is "If there had not been a crisis of diversity in the Cretaceous, most probably (probably most of) the mammals would not have had the chance to evolve as they did and surely the process leading to the appearance of humans would not have happened," argues the UNED paleontologist .

Another interesting question is whether humans would have appeared and evolved to our current state and could live in harmony with the dinosaurs. But imagine that somehow, we managed to evolve in a world dominated by dinosaurs. How could we interact with them? Well, it's very likely to be the same way we do with the animals that share our world today. Of course, some things would be different, for example, in the absence of mammalian cattle, there would be no such thing as dairy or wool, but we would probably use dinosaur skin as a substitute for many current materials. On the other hand, heterodontosaurus, a small, bipedal and herbivorous dinosaur, would be the ideal mascot for children.