What could be lost in our past?

[@Xalerdane]

The fact that trilobite fossils are so incredibly common despite the extremely low probability of fossilization should tell you how ridiculously successful they were.

[@FirstLast-uz6eq]

earth was made entirely of trilobites

[@the-letter_s]

BORN TO DIE WORLD IS A FUCK Kill Em All Cambrian I am meteorite 410,757,864,530 DEAD TRILOBITES

[@scourgeface]

i mean theyre also small and lived in bodies of water so that ups the chances

[@AverageAlien]

that has nothing to do with intelligence. Look at jellyfish, they're really successful and have survived for 60 million years+ outliving almost every other animal and yet they are as dumb as a plant

[@EliosMoonElios]

Wrong, trilobite fossils are legion because they live in the best place to get optimum conditions for fossilization: Intermediately buried and lack of disturbances. Buried in sand or clay by hundreds in a single storm and their are ready to go. PD: Other creatures have bland body or are too big to be buried fast so they die and get exposed to predators and scavengers.

[@pillbox1240]

Intelligent turtles nuked themselves a billion years ago

[@Bosschoice95]

🐢

[@TheGazingHeart]

turtles all the way down

[@fernwehn5925]

A turtle made it to the water!

[@nadjaannabel1]

You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you all to hell!

[@luke769animations]

MINE TURTLE

[@oceans80]

If any of these ancient animals reached even pre-stone age levels of intelligence, we'd never know about it.

[@gustavlarsson7494]

So what you're saying is: If things were different, then nothing would be different?

[@oceans80]

@@gustavlarsson7494 lol sometimes that's true in life

[@gustavlarsson7494]

@@oceans80 ;)

[@davidhenderson3400]

@Needles Iblis Will there be any trace to show we where here 50,000 years from now? I think not

[@gustavlarsson7494]

@@davidhenderson3400 The evidence will be overwhelming. Traces of terraforming, structures, millions of miles of buried copper, the sharpest rise of CO2 is earth's history and soooooooo much more.

[@ItzRetz]

I often wish I could go into 'spectator mode' and fly around through space and time without effecting anything around me as to avoid paradoxes and just spectate anything I could think of. First off I'd do some of the obvious things anyone would do and go back and see The Great Pyramids in their prime/getting built, or go way back in time to see dinosaurs, but after I'd just start exploring and sightseeing. I'd watch civilizations rise and fall, wars get fought, animals go extinct and evolve, it would be so cool.

[@oreji3987]

Same

[@hmmm713]

I often think of the exact same thing too

[@ItzRetz]

@@submarine6410 at this rate, like 20 years lmao

[@cyborgchicken3502]

@@ItzRetz I doubt we'd become completely extinct....we've been through extinction events before, and though it caused our population to drop drastically, a few of us still survived, the Ice Age, Younger Dryas impact, super volcanoes and the Great Floods that followed after the end of the Ice Age were all near extinction events that our ancestors survived through....so even if ww3 happens I doubt it's going to completely wipe out the entire human race, it's really just you first world Northern Hemisphere countries that would be totally destroyed since y'all have all the nukes, majority of third world countries in the Southern hemisphere don't have nuclear weapons at all....however our societies might collapse due to not being able to depend on first world countries for trade anymore, and then there's radiation fallout which might shorten our life spans and forcing us to live Fallout or Mad Max style....but I don't think we'd go extinct

[@rene9892]

imagine if that's what the afterlife is like

[@spicyspecial333]

Let's not mention the great Dolphin Civilization of 800 million BC.

[@jacobscrackers98]

So long and thanks for all the fish!

[@SimonClarkstone]

I guess they were time travelers going to see what life was like before complex macroscopic organisms evolved?

[@annusrideviravindran6396]

stand using dolphins

[@MK_ULTRA420]

@@SimonClarkstone It's just a bunch of rocks and primordial soup. Maybe one of the time traveling madlads jerked one off into the soup and created super-intelligent dolphin people that had to be purged entirely to prevent a timeline collapse.

[@chickendoesstuff3935]

Great things happened in the past that we have forgotten

[@owenreel3916]

Remember ants have been around for millions of years and have had and do have functioning colonies some people call the first civilizations

[@rymle]

Wait maybe you're on to something here

[@bforce909]

The Anasazi also talked about ant people.

[@ShadeStarMC]

imagine if ants were once sentient but we all trampled them back into their stone age

[@someguy5444]

@@ShadeStarMC well if we did then they were coming right at us and you all saw that right, totally self defense.

[@dstinnettmusic]

I disagree. At most ants represent a collective intelligence that function s more similarly to a singular intelligence. In the same way your brain is the collective action of all your neurons.

[@talos2384]

Imagine if we meet a highly advanced alien race and they say “oh your from earth! How are those lizard people doing? Haven’t heard from them in a couple million years”

[@flightlesslord2688]

What if they just are 'those lizard people'

[@toxic8129]

What if we are the lizard people who minds has been wiped

[@talos2384]

@@toxic8129 :0

[@gabrielbennett8239]

@@PingasMonkey3rdClass recommendation taken

[@hairglowingkyle4572]

"They're fine, one actually made a successful soical media platform and became rich"

[@harrysteiman]

As a preteen in the early 1960's a huge multi-level highway interchange was being built, literally, next door to my home. About the same time new concepts of ancient sites, such as Stonehenge, being astronomical observatories, were becoming popular. I remember thinking how long that interchange would last without regular maintenance and if archaeologists would dig it up thousands of years from then, what would they make of it. It was made mainly of prestressed reinforced concrete which at the time I thought would last forever. I was very wrong as has been demonstrated repeatedly in the past few years with the unexpected collapse of these highway bridges and interchanges built a mere half century ago. Even the pyramids of Giza, which are made primarily of "soft" limestone will be weathered away after a few dozen millennia.

[@MeAuntieNora]

There was a National Geographic cover story maybe ten years ago about how the "permanence" of human structures and cities is largely an illusion caused by bias. New York City looks like it will be there forever. We can't imagine those gigantic structures ever being totally gone, turned into dust, buried in a desert, submerged in oceans, and subsumed into the mantle. But on a geologic timescale it is *inevitable*. I've noticed other comments suggesting that thinking and talking about this is "nihilistic" or "pessimistic," but it is just scientific. I think this can be a very positive thing, this perspective is not inherently bleak in my mind.

[@the-letter_s]

@@MeAuntieNora Life After People

[@little_hunt3r]

@@MeAuntieNora it’s neither “nihilistic” nor “pessimistic” it’s just realism. So you are pretty much correct.

[@vinzer72frie]

Every single proof that we ever existed will disappear at a couple of thousands of years 50k at max the only thing that will remain is plastic

[@MigWith]

@@vinzer72frie yeah, and would plastic persist through millions of years?

[@THExRISER]

“We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

[@Sealed_Chamber]

What a world.

[@pmc614]

Look at us now, Lovecraft!

[@Aaron-mj9ie]

"Muh formless insane skyfish" Cthulhu should quake in terror from the depravity that is man.

[@Aconitum_napellus]

@@PopCornIslandPCI I'd rather go mad from the revelation than remain forever ignorant of the possibility.

[@gilgabro420]

@@PopCornIslandPCI reson is above human flaws. Humans can of course reson in the wrong way but once applied consistent with itself it transcends everything. I would say that a life form that relies only on reson ist the least insane. That doesn't go anywhere from here... just my hypnosis. xD

[@ZealSeraph]

It's depressing to think just how many amazing life forms there have been on this planet that have long since disappeared, leaving no trace that they were even here.

[@justanothermortal1373]

It would only be depressing to humans

[@vikki-333]

That will be us one day

[@roninoreilly6593]

If there’s no trace then how do we know.. that’s bs 😂 either we have proven they existed or they didn’t, whatever fantasy you’re holding onto it’s simply becuase u want to believe in it and not off of any established scientific law

[@BBD1]

@@OrthoKarterwhy are you even watching science videos if you only comment like a medieval peasant who lack the means to read about non of it being real?

[@scourgeface]

A big flaw with paleontology is that you cannot prove what did not exist, only what did.

[@SynValorum]

How can you prove what does not exist if there is no proof in the first place? Proof is tangible or actual.

[@aronarnarson]

Literally nothing on earth can prove what did not exist, that's just common sense

[@Kathbunny2]

@@aronarnarson people can still make strange claims and we can't disprove or prove, so they remain feeling right.

[@Derpy1969]

The nice thing is... you don’t have to prove something didn’t or doesn’t exist. Unless it’s religion.

[@tsfurlan]

Sometimes you don't need hard evidence, just circumstantial to prove something exist. We only know some elements exist because of math.

[@mommachupacabra]

I really enjoy the philosophical contemplation of saurid civilizations in the aeons past. I asked a geologist once what would be left of us in time - my question was mostly about the millions of vitreous toilet bases all over the planet, and what would become of them as they're subducted down over geological time. His answer was disappointingly simple: "A clay layer with a unique chemical signature."

[@Vitorruy1]

and a very thin layer only found at specific places

[@theexchipmunk]

@@Vitorruy1 Not really. Our layer has been forever burned into earths history. To erase every trace of humanity every rock of our era would need to be subsumed and destroyed. The moment we detonated Nuclear devices we have imortalised us in the geological record for any folowing civilisation on our technological level. The unigque cemical signature of our layer is a clear incicator for technology, massive industry and enougth scientific knowledge to utilize radiation.

[@darkstarr984]

I mean I have to agree. We’re going to be chemically distinguishable but signs of our civilizations will probably become increasingly sparse over time, to where the main evidence is “oh, look at this strange radioactive mineral that appears in these places, and there’s an awful lot of long chain molecules all over the place. I wonder if that drove this extinction event.”

[@BlackZWolf]

@@OrthoKarter No one is claiming that there is. It's just about the "philosophical contemplation" (or rather a "what if") about that possibility which, as of now, there's absolutely no proof that has ever happened...

[@darkrazor8935]

Thought he said great race of yiff and choked on my food a moment there

[@frownyclowny6955]

Ahh, ancient furries. Like Egyptians or Greeks or something. Actually one of the oldest pieces of art by man was a statue depicting a lion-headed man. *Furries were there since the dawn of our time.*

[@darkrazor8935]

@@frownyclowny6955 we were once furries as a collective species. Maybe furries were just a bad retelling of our ancestors.

[@predatoreusfilms9992]

It triggered me that he said it was in the Cretaceous yet there was a trilobite there... on land too...

[@Bananappleboy]

Of course, ancient furries with floating spaceships that dissappeared into nothing for unknown reasons. what the hell

[@dalentces2492]

If such abomination ever existed I'm glad it was wiped out from known history by time itself, as if forces governing universe became sentient to feel ashamed of allowing such thing

[@robotbjorn4952]

Will future intelligent life unearth the fossilized remains of billions of plastic shopping bags?

[@spritelady4669]

Robot Bjorn It sounds lame at first, but that also makes for a very big interesting idea though...

[@jolez_4869]

They will most likely find the remains of satellites that haven't yet been deorbited.

[@LadyhawksLairDotCom]

If we don't completely destroy the planet, organisms that can break down plastics will proliferate. At least one bacterium capable of doing this already exists. I would have looked up what the waste products of this microorganism are, but Popular Mechanics wanted me to either commit to a membership or turn off my ad blocker. Nope. And currently, I'm too tired to look it up. Or find it elsewhere. Bed looks inviting. Digestion of plastic is a completely open niche, so I would lay down good money that this bacterium will evolve quickly, maybe into many different competing species. Unfortunately, the waste created could be dangerous. It would help to know what the waste products are and how much waste would be produced considering the amount of plastic junk in existence today. I'm not sure if it's enough to change the world, but we've put tons of plastic into the environment. It might have some adverse effects. When cyanobacteria evolved, their waste product was oxygen, which was toxic to most other organisms. Cyanobacteria flooded the atmosphere with oxygen, killing off many other life forms and forever changing the natural history of the planet. I'd like to know if there's a chance of that happening with plastic-eating microorganisms. Perhaps the change wouldn't be so great, but maybe something of consequence would happen.

[@LadyhawksLairDotCom]

@☠MrHairyNutz☠ Really? I thought plastic was nearly indestructible, depending on how it's made. I'm fine with it disappearing forever and wish it would do so more quickly.

[@LadyhawksLairDotCom]

@☠MrHairyNutz☠ I live in a rural area not too terribly far from Yosemite National Park. My little town doesn't have alleys in which to find used condoms. I've found some at a place called "The Graffiti Bridge," but litter in our area usually gets picked up ASAP to keep things beautiful. Different kinds of plastic may degrade (or not degrade) in different ways. I recently skimmed an article about acrylic fabric and how the lint turns into tiny, semi-indestructible bits that are wreaking havoc on the environment. To fully educate myself on this issue, I'd have to do some research, which sounds interesting, but I can't. Been sick. Still sick. Can't think. Hope you're right and it will all go bye-bye with few repercussions.

[@isaacgodfrey7259]

Such a shame to hear about the destruction of fossils in Munich. There's something that always bothers me about trying to archive something, only to be erased potentially forever. May we one day live to see a time when we all work to better ourselves, and respect and preserve the past.

[@toddjackson3136]

It's like the Great Library of Alexandria that was destroyed or the Baghdad House of Wisdom it was looted and robbed

[@mslightbulb]

The countless paintings and statues destroyed over time, or painted over for being deemed “inappropriate” by religious and political groups.

[@robertaperoglio]

WW2 was devastating for culture too. So many museums destroyed. This reminded me that in Rome there were the Neronian ships, possibly the best preserved roman imperial ships (with some treasure in the interiors too), that were dug up in the lakes near Rome. They were burned to ashes by accident while the museum was occupied by the nazis.

[@jaimeleschats5543]

What happened in Munich ?

[@verin00]

@F.W. what are you talking about??? you can criticize them sure, but in what actual way was what they did worse than the fucking holocaust??

[@randomperson-xy2mv]

I fear no man, but that phrase " No matter how hard we try we will never know about every organism that has ever lived" it scares me for some reason

[@PrinceJes]

There's no need to

[@dv9239]

Well if you were born a hundred years earlier than you did you won't even hear about dinosaurs and these ancient creatures in your entire life Forget past there's 99% chance that you'll die without seeing futuristic technology like rail and steam engine So I think we're at a perfect time in history

[@PrinceJes]

@Cactus Juice Nope

[@PrinceJes]

@Cactus Juice Aint gonna happen don't worry

[@alienoutcast7374]

I love it I can think of so many possibilitys man before man I can think of a my own world in my head and no one can tell me if its true or not because they don't know

[@possumbly]

Funny you should say that you aren't sure if your audience would like this, since this video was interesting enough to make me me want to check out the rest of your stuff

[@TREYtheExplainer]

XD that's cool

[@camerrill]

You are so right.

[@RoseIsAsleep]

@@TREYtheExplainer lol "XD" are gen z as well?

[@sylendraws1249]

Well if you want to find out stop speculating and help me make a time machine

[@noiceplams2299]

SylenDraws Why do I see you everywhere?! Noice drawings by the way.

[@noiceplams2299]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6q5pmOihMulb5Y

[@ImperatorNocturne]

i don´t time machines are the easiest solution... though maybe in the future we could build a computer which could calculate what has been in the past, though that would probably require the legendary quantum computer:P

[@noiceplams2299]

It has also been suggested that time machines can only go into the future.

[@ImperatorNocturne]

yes that´s the problem, when it comes to timetravel you need enough speed, if you wanted to go to the past you would need to be faster then light(impossible) but if you were to travel with almost lightspeed near a black hole you could travel into the future or rather time would move slower for those in that time machine.

[@benno3608]

this gives me feelings of insignificance and sadness

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

That's so silly. You are the sum total greatest accomplishment of all life on Earth and Billions of years of the Universe Existence, up to now. Take pride in that ! :-) And if you feel like you lack achievements - remember you are constructed of a few pounds of dirt mixed with a whole bunch of water... You are doing great ! Amazing ! And the Fallen said it couldn't be done ! Bah ! Life on Earth - easy peasy.

[@aa-to6ws]

@@SeaJay_Oceans technically, any lifeform up to this point has the same characteristics

[@legion65]

you should go watch exurb1a

[@ahalflifefan6000]

:(

[@frownyclowny6955]

Don’t worry, that’s normal for big thonkers like us

[@Demonslayer-64]

Imagine we'd find aliens and found out that these lived on our planet before but destroyed the ecosystem and wouldn't have thought it will recover ever again

[@mslightbulb]

I’d think life would remain, but the ecosystem wouldn’t. A new one would form over time. Definitely without us.

[@daylightbright7675]

Lol life on earth would be totally fine no matter what we do. We're really just killing ourselves here

[@DrewPicklesTheDark]

@@daylightbright7675 In the words of George Carlin "Nature isn't going anywhere... WE ARE!"

[@diogenessilviocemartins9019]

Oh, yeah. In the Great Dying, the greatest mass extinction event to ever occur, 95% of marine life died, as well as 70% of terrestrial life. This killed almost all the synapsids (the survivors later diversifying again and becoming us mammals), and made way for the dinosaurs to take over. Nowadays terrestrial life is dominated by the survivors of two once dominant animal groups: The birds and the mammals. Kinda poetic eh

[@HillBilly_Urbex]

@@diogenessilviocemartins9019 imagine if all most mammals and birds die and amphibians and reptiles evolve in our place

[@autofox1744]

So, let's assume, for example, that a civilization existed in Earth's dim past. Let's also assume that it was not just a stone or bronze age culture, but an advanced, industrial culture that existed at some point prior to 1,000,000 years ago. We STILL would have no idea they existed, more likely than not. On a long enough timeline, EVERYTHING goes away. Artificial structures could have been ground into dust merely by the passage of time, leaving no discernible trace. Manufactured materials, maybe something like plastic, may have completely degraded, or - more likely to me - become so diffuse in the environment that we consider them a natural part of the planet's ecology. Even things like radioactive isotopes - again, on a long enough timeline - may have degraded to the point where we can no longer detect them. An advanced civilization could have wiped itself out in a nuclear holocaust, and - from our vantage point in the far future - the resulting damage may be easily mistaken for some natural catastrophe, like a major volcanic eruption or a meteor strike. We can't even really be blamed; from our perspective, and from the evidence available to us, that explanation is much more plausible. Even if, say, a civilization managed to put artifacts into SPACE, so what? Space is REALLY BIG. On a long enough timeline, any objects orbiting close enough to the Earth to be effected by its gravity would be pulled in and burn up in the atmosphere. Anything that didn't would almost certainly be inert junk by now, and without knowing EXACTLY where to look for it, it would be extremely easy for us to miss it entirely, or even - especially if it were only detected by radar or imaged at very low resolution - mistake it for something natural. Even if, say, the civilization managed to land something on Earth's moon, the moon is similarly a giant haystack to lose a needle in; the moon is so poorly explored that there could be DOZENS of "ancient Apollo" landing sites that we have never found. Indeed, depending on how long ago the landings occurred, various environmental factors on the moon may have destroyed the sites long ago. I may have some ancient, pre-human predecessor who, on a device very similar to my own, may have sat typing up a comment very much like mine for a video proposing a very similar hypothesis to the one described here. It's sobering to think about.

[@eshankpanchal4121]

bro.. that last part... chillz

[@paull3278]

As fun as this idea is, if millions of fossilized bones have survived through the eons, it's kind of ridiculous to postulate that a planet-wide civilization could have produced billions or trillions of metal artifacts and that we've found exactly 0 of them.

[@nicksothep8472]

The only thing that could survive long enough is stone. Do we still belive in 2020 that the pyramids were built with copper chisels, hemp rope and stone mallets? One thing we definitely lost in time is common sense, and humbleness, all lost in favor of dogma.

[@autofox1744]

@@nicksothep8472 Even stone goes away. Especially stone, actually. And what exactly are you trying to say? Just because you personally can't figure out how such a structure couldn't be built with such "primitive" tools does not mean ancient peoples weren't smart enough to figure it out. Frankly, it just makes it MORE impressive.

[@nicksothep8472]

@@autofox1744 of course it does, but a lot slowlier. And how did you figure out how the pyramids were built, I'm curious.

[@SK_2521]

Basically this video is referring to "Silurian hypothesis". And there were periods in Earth history where climate shown rapid changes similar to those we observe now due to industry.

[@Justwantahover]

The scientists reckon the world is warming 40,000 times quicker that the average change in the past.

[@MrJoebrooklyn1969]

@@Justwantahover LOL!!!

[@frownyclowny6955]

I can wait for the heat death of the Earth. If we want to be like Venus then we should just move there

[@customsongmaker]

The climate already changed more drastically in the past 600 years than anything that's happened since the industrial revolution. So we currently cannot observe any unusual changes in the climate.

[@johnnymcblaze]

@@Justwantahover The scientists in the early 90s reckoned half the world would be under water by the year 2005. Scientists in the 1950s reckoned cigarettes made you more healthy. And that's why science is a LIAR (sometimes)

[@ethanlee8621]

Jesus I can't believe I've never thought of that before. 99% of all living things have gone extinct, and we've discovered less than 1% of it. It's entirely possible that some prehistoric intelligent civilization could have been part of that 99%. Hell, I really DO sound like a conspiracy theorist when I say that.

[@Giganfan2k1]

Yeah dinos could have had multiple sapient species. He'll it could have happened a few million years ago. The rock layer my home has is 2.3 billion years old. Glaciers pushed off the all but what happened that long ago. What happened here 3 million years ago? 100 million? So many questions for me.

[@Coliocoliocolio]

The word conspiracy theory was created by the CIA to discredit critics of the government

[@danemathews4037]

Cole Troxel Correct.

[@HyperGolem]

That is a very interesting subject. Life has existed for 2 billion years, humans may not have been the first intelligent beings on this planet. Maybe there were advanced civilizations here but they left Earth and went to space long ago? We may never know....

[@S1N999]

You sound like you are thinking

[@ammitthedevourer7316]

Trey, you’re one of the coolest science guys! Most people I’ve met or heard of don’t bother playing with speculation for the fun of it. If confronted with something like “what if unicorns existed?” they’ll always answer “but they didn’t” and leave it at that. Imagination just isn’t in their skill set anymore. People like you know how to play around with scientific knowledge. You can allow yourself to delve into a “what if” scenario without shutting down because “facts.” I like your tinfoil hat videos just as much as your full on science mode ones. 😊

[@TaiFerret]

Well, unicorns do exist but real unicorns look nothing like horses. It's the Indian rhino: Rhinoceros unicornis.

[@mohandasjung]

Is not too farfetched to imagine a single horned horse.

[@EuanWhitehead]

The fact his name is Trey is cool too. Because Trey Azagthoth is a brilliant death metal guitarist.

[@dontforgetyoursunscreen]

@@mohandasjung I think there might be do to cancer

[@robertanderson4921]

I'm almost certain that unicorns were just rhinos, but got altered through stories. There are medieval and earlier tales of unicorns being shaggy and robust. Rhinos aren't really shaggy, but they certainly are robust.

[@mikeyoung9810]

Ever since I was a child I've wondered if intelligent races of man-like species developed and then faded away leaving little to no record. Maybe they were in a part of the world that isn't known well? Maybe they advanced and left before a cataclysm. Maybe we do know of them and haven't associated remains as something predating any known species. Anything is possible.

[@xxDenni]

I've wordered about that too. What if there was a species so intelligent that they created such advanced technology and went to space before the meteor hit killing almost all life.. What if they're still alive, out there somewhere unknowing of what earth has become. Or mabey they returned and are now helping us evolve like they did long ago. Quite interesting to think about.

[@iliveinsideyourhouse3943]

Or maybe those things didn't exist and we are all alone in this universe.

[@frownyclowny6955]

Atlantis

[@CaryGlennDavis]

@@iliveinsideyourhouse3943 highly unlikely. Math is against you.

[@iliveinsideyourhouse3943]

@@CaryGlennDavis I hate math :(

[@Mr.Nichan]

I remember my dad said he had a science fiction idea about a civilization of raptors that nuked themselves when he was younger.

[@jstar7262]

The end of the show Dinosaurs ends with the dad nuking the planet so that's probably why.

[@Mr.Nichan]

@@jstar7262 I think he thought it up in the 80s, before he that show even started (1991), so that's probably not why. I think Jurassic Park had come out and displayed velociraptors as smart, though, and connecting apocalypses, such as the KT event, to nuclear war was particularly obvious and common during the Cold War.

[@jstar7262]

@@Mr.Nichan That makes more sense 😆 sorry.

[@HkFinn83]

HP Lovecraft has some stories about long extinct civilisations, alien and native

[@erenoz2910]

The problem with the premise of a forgotten ancient civilization is that even the copper smelting industry back in Ancient Rome made a dent in the environment. We can actually measure its effects in ice cores retrieved at Greenland, the cores contain significantly more pollutants during the Pax Romana than the Late Antiquity. So I think it's really difficult for a civilization to fly under the environmental radar, or at least the maximum amount of development is capped at pre-Iron Age levels.

[@jasmineryce217]

I know this is an old comment, but I think it’s still interesting to discuss. The issue I have with the problem you bring up is that the oldest ice on earth is only roughly 1 million years old. If there was hypothetically some sort of advanced apelike civilization from over 1 million years ago or, better yet, some sort of saurid civilization from over 65 MYA, the evidence of pollutants from these times would not be found in ice cores. I don’t know anything about what sort of pollutant output is required to be picked up as anomalous in geological records, enough to be considered as a possible rise of a civilization; but that’s where I’d think geologists would want to look for evidence of such a civilization. So… to me, the possibility of an extremely ancient, advanced civilization from multiple to hundreds of millions of years ago isn’t necessarily very easy to debunk, and it’s a possibility that I still find exciting to think about. :)

[@Willppyro]

@@jasmineryce217maybe they were so advanced they didn’t leave any pollutants lol

[@jasmineryce217]

@@Willppyro Could be! Or their means of creating technology was just so different from anything we have today!

[@TheYuccaPlant]

@@jasmineryce217 It's very possible because climates were completely different from today too and we have no way of knowing that past's energy availability

[@florinivan6907]

@@TheYuccaPlant While climate was different its extremely unlikely for a civilization to develop without exploiting resources like metals. You can't build skyscrapers from leaves. A nonpollutant civilization is too out there. It requires not only a finite understanding of the impact of such stuff but also viable alternatives. You're not gonna achieve that with stone age tools.

[@clockmaister]

I have a theory. Most discoveries humans made like technology or building materials were made because humans had a need there were not happy with. Better temperature, more food, territory etc. But imagine a species in an environment that's so pleasant for it, they never need to contruct any buildings or create artifacts. They could be very intelligent, but just not create material things and we would have no "records" of them.

[@Vitorruy1]

why would an animal that already has everything even develop intelligence tho?

[@markiss69]

@@Vitorruy1 i dont think he was talking about animals

[@comicalwizard664]

@@markiss69 every creature on earth is an animal

[@ethanahmu6149]

@@Vitorruy1 that’s an excellent point. Evolution occurs so animals can solve their problems better (over long periods of time of course). A species that is thriving wouldn’t have a need to develop intelligence because all of their needs are being met. Intelligence would only emerge if there was a need for it to emerge. Many creatures thrive on Earth while being “unintelligent”.

[@todddempsey1277]

Unless intelligence develops as a vestigial trait. It was needed at one point but now it’s more of an accessory then a survival trait. And depending on how far that intelligence went any further developments would depend solely on the curiosity and progress of that said species.

[@bobbydyne]

Actually, the Reapers come and harvest everything then restart the clock for the next harvest This tin foil hat is itchy

[@kelvinho2475]

Ah, yes, "reapers". . . . . . We had dismissed that claim.

[@davidoftheforest]

SPACE CORPS!

[@davidoftheforest]

goddamn Annu!

[@FatManJackson]

Tin at least block most electromagnetic radiation, so be happy you got a neat hat out of tin foil, I wish I had one. My brain is mush.

[@crimsonfker4999]

hee ho

[@goliathprime]

I've thought about this concept quite a bit myself. When you consider that humans have only been around for 1 million years, our civilization for about 50 thousand years and modern history for maybe 10 thousand and then compare that to the 165 million years the dinosaurs roamed the earth; it's quite plausible that multiple civilizations rose and fell in that time. What about the millions of years before the dinosaurs? What about the age of Arthropods, when giant fungus towered over the ground and the air was flammable? Or before that when strange things lurked in oceans of acid and viewed the earth with crystal, compound eyes? In just 50 thousand years we have all but lost most of our history. Entire civilizations existed of which we do not even know their names, like that of the Indus Valley, or those that raised the heads of Easter Island. How much longer will the pyramids stand? They have lasted only 4 thousand years. What is that to a mountain? What is that to the sea? Nothing. Maybe the aliens people keep seeing are not alien at all. Maybe they are deep-space astronauts from a previous civilization finally returning home.

[@kaustuv5682]

It is possible, in skyrim ( a fantasy game ) an advanced race of elves lived underground who created robots. It is possible some race did exist underground, we just cannot find them. The largest hole we have dug is 10 to 8 km deep. The crust is 60 km deep. It is possible some race is existing or existed in the depths but we are not technologically advanced enough to find them

[@kaustuv5682]

they did vanish , apparently they found a way to equal gods, when they did it they vanished , either the method worked or it terribly failed. but we can say that such things could not have happened if something like them exist underground

[@manospondylus]

goliathprime To be precise, the first actual human civilizations only appeared about 4000-3000 B.C.E. All humans before were hunter-gatherers or primitive farmers.

[@Sgtassburgler]

There isn't really enough evidence to be even slightly sure that that is 100% true, but most archaeologists agree that the earliest civilizations started around 10,200 BC with the neolithic revolution. I guess it really matters what you consider a civilization.

[@alicev5496]

I would like to point out we know who raised the heads of easter island. the people who live on easter island.

[@andrep4805]

I've always been surprised that people think humans lived in caves, when caves are really just better for preserving things, compared to everywhere else human ans humans would live.

[@eviethorne2511]

yes exactly!

[@PrincessOfTheEnd]

Ooh, that's a good point! Even wild animals we're not convinced are sapient are seen making efficient nests and shelters out of organic material, It's definitely not much of a stretch to think that early humans made things like that too, with the evidence simply biodegrading over time...

[@leeonardodienfield402]

They lived in caves during cataclysmic events.

[@MrBottlecapBill]

@@leeonardodienfield402 Well they clearly were making tools, cooking and eating food, and various other activities in the caves as well so I guess it depends on what you define as "living in". People living in the early stone age/pre agriculture era didnt' stay in one place too long or spend much time indoors at all, they had to keep moving to find food so they didnt make "homes" at all. They made or found temporary shelters and then moved on. Large caves were the perfect shelter. Cool in summer, out of the wind and weather in winter, secure from attacks by wild animals or other humans, often had a handy source of cool clean water. It would be crazy NOT to use caves. You just drop your bedroll and your camp is set up. After checking for cave bears of course. :O

[@leeonardodienfield402]

@@MrBottlecapBill agreed with all of what you've said. Caves would be ideal shelter from almost all natural phenomenon.

[@dawesreads1263]

One of the things that gets me about this is that it doesn’t just happen in palaeontology, but with literature as well. The Iliad and Odyssey are parts of a larger Trojan Cycle of poems, all of which are lost, there are only 3 surviving Roman playwrights, only 5 surviving from Ancient Greece, we often only have fragments of ancient Sumerian and Egyptian writing. And unless we’re really lucky like with the dead sea scrolls and find a cave somewhere that has an entire library of ancient literature or even a couple more plays by Menander, they’ll be lost to the world forever

[@timestamper9589]

Not only that but all the lives of those who were here, and left, long before us. Every living, sentient organism. Their stories and memories completely erased from and by time. creepy.

[@franciscosegura1227]

Dont forget the nazi book burning and the spanish book burning of the Aztecs after the conquest of Mexico

[@jamesthegreat9414]

Fossils: hide in Antarctica Global warming: I’m about to end this whole mans career

[@hollohullu9448]

Wouldn't fossils in Antarctica be in the solid ground beneath the snow and ice meaning global warming won't affect them?

[@lewisistic]

Hollo Hullu We don’t know that yet

[@xxxm981]

If Lovecraft told me anything, than that we should not go bonedigging on antarctica

[@RileyRivalle2]

@Hollo Hullu I think the point is they would become available.

[@SubparPanda]

mysterious unknown disease that wiped out previous civilizations: bitch me to

[@regaltofviria8044]

My bet would be there once were civilisations of intelligent barn owls and basking sharks which eventually destroyed each other after millenias of constant wars. Till this day there are reports from around the world about single speciments still living in our times. But it's all shrouded in the mystery of unknown.

[@maxjenkinson9870]

HA

[@arnouth5260]

Regalt of Viria i know why they went to war They had a discussion about who was loch ness

[@eternal8song]

oh, you read guardians of ga'hoole too?

[@Noone-rc9wf]

Regalt of Viria Your a Witcher?? In our small village? You must help, some creature with red eyes and big wings in the dark with a big whale beak has been terrifying us! We have gold, please master Witcher!

[@djjomann569]

That's the future

[@mrs.hopwinkle6034]

For me, it's not the thought that humans aren't special that keeps me up at night. It's that we are, and that there's nothing else out there like us, and never was...

[@Yora21]

Given the abundance of the chemicals for earth-like life in the universe, and the number of galaxies, stars, and planets, there are probably hundreds or thousands of other worlds like ours. But given the great distances of space, and the slow speed of light, it may be very unlikely that any two ever see any signs of each other.

[@th3_ph4ntomreborn31]

Humans aren't special but you are, because you are alive and living your life only that makes someone special

[@Zikeal-d4l]

@@th3_ph4ntomreborn31 That makes absolutely 0 sense

[@Yora21]

@Fernando Cunha Yes. Exactly. We might one day discover distant planets with chemistry in their atmosphere that looks extremely certain like there's life on those planets, but that's probably the most we can realistically hope for.

[@ThatGuyNicho]

I sometimes wonder if alien life avoids us because we're psychopathic. Then I wonder if alien life would come and hire us as mercenaries... because we're psychopathic.

[@wander7324]

This is why i wish a time machine existed

[@fennecishere]

I think time travel, or just seeing what life was like in the past, is theoretically possible because of the speed at which light travels. In the future if we were to make something that travels a whole lot faster than light that can somehow still see earth in a clear image, we could send it millions of light years away and have it look back on earth to see what it looked like millions of years ago. Of course technology like that is very far off, but it could be possible, maybe. This is just a thought experiment I had though lol.

[@hi3r0glyph]

@@fennecishere TREY actually has a video on this exact thought experiment! Look for a video with "dinosaur ghosts" in the title. It's one of my favorites.

[@octaviogutierrez9158]

Time machine MUST exist if we have future. If future humans aren't already visiting us right now, its because humanity will never exist the longer time to create time travels.

[@barryleehodges6168]

Your idea has crossed my mind several times over the years along with what all the great libraries containing the knowledge of antiquities lost when they were burned to the ground, or looted. Great video.

[@cjvaye99]

like those idiots that burned almost all the mayan texts?

[@JackfrostAtreidesOmegaXZero]

@@cjvaye99 Yeah.

[@kiwi_2_official]

greek fire

[@Manj_J]

The Library of Alexandria 😭My heart hurts everytime I think of all the knowledge in there that is now lost forever 😭

[@theguy8412]

@@Manj_J a lot of those books/works weren't lost and the @_rabs translated them in the house of wisdom through the translation movement but then the mongols came and threw all the books to the river and burned the house of wisdom as well.

[@kuhn7770]

Love how you mix your rationality and scientific mind with some rather particular ideas, but still plausible

[@Blizofoz45]

Scientific theorists and weathermen must take alot of the same classes in college. They're always ready to change their story at any given time.

[@dialatedmcd]

The best scientists have always come to the community with new, unaccepted, controversial ideas. Science has never progressed by the repetition of what was known. The stimulation of the imagination creates novelty, creates new experiments, evolves technology. Science involves creativity, despite it's appearance in academia.

[@maxkronader5225]

My primary reason for doubting the existence of any previous technologically advanced civilization on Earth is actually due to something beyond Earth, referred to as the Fermi Paradox. If advanced civilization could have evolved more than once on just our planet, the universe should be teeming with extraterrestrial civilizations, yet we find no evidence of any.

[@siluda9255]

Well maybe a little stone age society did exist and then got exctinc

[@k-la-k6828]

@@siluda9255 Well yeah, Neanderthals

[@siluda9255]

@@k-la-k6828 i know i as thinking more like before that

[@k-la-k6828]

@@siluda9255 oh oh then you can search the Silurian hypothesis since that's pretty much what it is about.

[@siluda9255]

@@k-la-k6828 ok thx for showing me

[@rowanheart8122]

i had this in the background and thought you said "the great race of Yiff" and got deeply startled for a moment

[@jackalenterprisesofohio]

What...(eyes suspiciously) are you a furrier?

[@Derrako]

There was a brilliant star trek episode that touched on this very point, dino's had evolved into intelligent beings that colonised other planets, but then humans on the enterprise blunder into their space quadrant, this causes no end of trouble as one of the dino scientists has a 'distant origin' theory as to where they originally came from, and some DNA tests taken from the humans backs up his claim, but the 'religious' dinos are rather pissed off with this as his theory is deeply ridiculed and unpopular anyway, so the 'priestess' religious leader (who was one of the scariest looking dino hominoids I have ever seen) gives the dino scientist a choice: he must renounce his 'ridiculous' theory (it offends sacred doctrine) _or_ the humans who have accidently shown up could well be seen as accomplices in a conspiracy to topple religion itself, and would be imprisoned until a possible trial date was set...the scientist (who is a nice, moral kind of dino/chap) is backed right into a corner with this dubious bargaining , and sadly, is forced to give up his distant origin theory. Best episode ever !

[@mayoite160]

one of the best episodes of voyager

[@nick_ca]

Mike Stoklasa?

[@marcocappelli2236]

S billings It's from Voyager, "Distant Cousins". Unfortunately the science advisors had no idea what evolution was about, so they wrote a quite bad script.

[@TheReal_ist]

Marco Cappelli Good point, even tho they talked about evolution as if it was 15 yr old biology student. The episode was quite unique and different so glad they made it. And I can’t wait to see if such things truly happened on this ancient place we call currently rule over. While in the past 100s of civilizations just like ours could have done the same. Lived in modern society for 50k yrs then either hit a wall and nuked themselves off the planet, or simply died from some stupid mass extinction event. The possibilities are pretty endless when your given the time frame not 1 million years but LITERALLY 100s of millions of years. Truly unbelievable the scale of time given to older organisms. Perhaps some even managed to become space fairing and left the world out to other galaxies. Who knows at this point we’re just to stupid currently.

[@bobtom1495]

Mike from RLM would be proud of you...

[@paulscrevane]

the great pacific garbage patch will be all that survives from our snapshot of time here 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@jaimeleschats5543]

It won't last that long.

[@thathistoryiscoolguy]

No it won't

[@thathistoryiscoolguy]

Burials and graves are

[@the-letter_s]

military bunkers and silos, bank vaults, nuclear power plant basements, etc. will last a rather long time.

[@bibarel4665]

Great Pacific Pussy Parlor Patch is a new concept I developed where this idiot runs a nail salon made of human garbage.

[@manospondylus]

What if most past mass extinctions were actually caused by short-lived, rapidly expanding civilizations that massively changed or destroyed the environment, similar to humans today, before annihiliating themselves?

[@roadkill5727]

Pretty sure there'd be evidence of that

[@manospondylus]

RoadKill I know

[@benthomason3307]

are you saying that the cretaceous was ended by a catastrophically failed attempt at asteroid mining?

[@Tomatowormprince]

RoadKill What if said evidence was somewhere inaccessible?

[@manospondylus]

Ben Thomason No, that was clearly just a natural disaster. But think of something like the extinction at the end of the Permian for example.

[@jorjothefrog]

It makes me so sad that we will never know about most of the creatures that lived here

[@happijak9240]

Crazy too cause with all our impact and history as a species compared to the grand scheme of things we have only been around for a blip of a second and will disappear just as fast as we begun

[@ianevans157]

After crushing my happiness and imagination for countless videos I finally get some vindication from trey

[@evertaj8332]

Imagine the shock if we find a fossil on the moon

[@dafoex]

On the moon could potentially be a great place to store records from other civilisations. There is no wind there to whip up the dust and erode things (although I think there would still be some erosion from moving dust, say dust that has been set into motion by meteor impacts, or micrometeors). There could quite easily be a mined out cave under a lunar mountain with a treasure trove of artefacts and information there.

[@shawnhughes4192]

@@dafoex only white men over 40 are allowed on the moon. Only white men over 40 have ever stepped foot on the moon!

[@babehunter1324]

Ancient sapient cephalopod civilization that caused the Permina Extinction is one of my half joking/ half serious head cannons.

[@hemidas]

babehunter1324 Elder Things?

[@babehunter1324]

Yeah, probably inspired by the expanded Lovecraftian mythos in which it was revealed that Cthulu and co were the ones that caused the Permian extinction.

[@manospondylus]

babehunter1324 I'm sorry if I'm taking that too serious, but it is assumed that cephalopods evolved their intelligence after the Permian, since squids, octopuses and cuttlefish presumably first appeared during the Mesozoic. During the Permian, cephalopods were still somewhat simple shell-bearing molluscs.

[@babehunter1324]

Yes they did. Nautiloids had very basic brains. It is unlikely but not completelly impossible that advanced intelligence could had evolved twice in Cephalopod. We know jack about the soft tissue of many extinct cephalopods, for instance we know very little about the soft tissue of ammonites in spite of the fact that they are among the most common fossil organisms, so a possible earlier lineage of unknown intelligent cephalopods could went by completelly unnoticed, specially if they lived beyond the continental shelf. I reiterate however, that it's not a serious theory.

[@manospondylus]

Spooky Skeleton Good point. It's just that the oldest fossil octopus comes from the Jurassic

[@daylightbright7675]

Just a tiny correction. In A Shadow Out of Time the Yith were supposed to have lived waaaaaaaay back in the Paleaozoic, specifically during the late Permian period. The sun is described as far brighter, which it wouldn't have noticeably been in the Cretaceous only 65 million years ago, and there are specific descriptions of many plants and trees that went extinct long before the Mesozoic. That's part of the cosmic horror of this story. The narrator was able to see the memories of one of the Yith and observe their civilization, and it's implied that they fell victim to the The Great Dying. This is unbelievably terrifying to our narrator because he saw that the Yith were incredibly advanced in so many ways and clearly had a good foothold, but they still couldn't survive the horrible cataclysm ahead. It makes him paranoid that something very similar could easily happen to us. And since Lovecraft was writing/setting the story during the depression and right before the outbreak of WW2, it makes sense that both he and his character would have pretty dim hopes for the future.

[@wschippr1]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the fact that larger animals are more likely to be fossils too. Very small animals decompose quicker and thus don't have as long before they can become trapped in sediment.

[@Danquebec01]

Yea and arthropods account for like half of species of eukaryotes alive today. The big group we’re part of, deuterostomes (which also includes starfish, to tell you how big of a group it is), only account for 4% of species of eukaryotes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eukaryote_species_pie_tree.png A lot of these other species will almost never fossilize. And I think it’s likely that past biospheres had similar divisions (lots of diverse little creatures, a few big ones).

[@thehuman2cs715]

There was probably a bunch of small dinosaurs or proto mammals that we'll never find

[@Orthosaur7532]

​@@thehuman2cs715Not probably. Definitely. Even more than that.

[@kvake]

Brain: Are you asleep yet? Me: No. Brain: Only 1%

[@elgooblino]

I would love to see a Paleo profile on giant sloths

[@bobclover4634]

Id like to see a side profile of a goldfish.

[@CosyMatt]

There’s a reason why I really believe in some alien civilization that’s been visiting us for thousands of years. So that one day hopefully they can show themselves and say “oh yeah we also recorded your “dinosaurs” for documentary purposes. Want to see?” That is more than anything what I want to happen 😭

[@fernbedek6302]

The Permian did have a difficult to explain amount of extra greenhouse gas output above what volcanism would have likely caused...

[@williamweigt7632]

Not difficult, at all: MASSIVE lava flows from the Earth (the “Siberian Traps”), at the same time.

[@fernbedek6302]

William Weigt Yes, but that volcanic activity alone wasn’t enough. That’s why the going guess has been that the lava flows hit major coal and natural gas deposits when they flowed out, but, something else having burned those hydrocarbons isn’t *impossible*. Just highly improbable.

[@chuckchuck4016]

the Permian period is the most likely point of time that proto primate creatures could've risen up

[@calebunga7271]

@@chuckchuck4016 there was, suminia

[@Orthosaur7532]

​@@calebunga7271Exactly. Imagine if in the future, the only fossilized primates are today's Lemurs. Imagine that Suminia is like that.

[@maxcovfefe]

Trey, world extinctions, at least 5 of them so far... OF COURSE we're missing most of the info. We're left with the crumbs remaining from catastrophic planetary events. As much as I've enjoyed your videos over the years, I hate to tell you I have stage 4 metastatic cancer as of a couple months ago. this would've been sadder, I think, before finding this channel. It's given me a broader view of time, death, life, and the devastation of extinction giving rise to new, equally wondrous things! Thoughts like this have made me comfortable planning a "green" funeral for myself without a casket, no embalming, just nature talking its own sweet time to hold my body in the ground. The other day I helped a friend take their old car to a junkyard, and under the car was a small skeleton, maybe a rabbit? It was flat, bare, no gore, just a perfectly preserved, delicate little skeleton. I wanted to go back later to give it some love, tell it how lucky it was to be alive for a while... But how crazy that would be?! Someday even our warnings to prevent nuclear destruction within our waste sites will eventually wear off while the waste remains to outlast humanity. We may one day be "the thing of legend, too dangerous to believe in." What an apocalyptic mistake that could be not to study us and understand our symbols, etc! Your viewers are better off for finding this channel. My entire world view has adapted and made me feel better about myself and the universe we live in, and even dying as a part of the ongoing canvas of paleontology. *THANK YOU!* I'm grateful for these discoveries. I want to keep discovering for as long as I can. And when I no longer can, I want YOU to be happy to have given me so MUCH WONDER for free.

[@Kazooples]

Considering just how smart birds are, and the fact that they’ve existed for so much longer than us, I really like to believe there was once some kind of a bird society, maybe even with complex language. If not birds, maybe ancient whales, or even insects, I just love the idea that there could’ve been tribes of animals with beliefs of their own.

[@dafoex]

Corvids particularly are known to use tools (even compound tools) and probably have something close to language, if not language itself. It wouldn't surprise me if some prehistoric corvid equivalent existed. Maybe velociraptor, which is often portrayed as very intelligent, could be a candidate? I could easily imagine them grasping onto the back of their prey and coordinating with other members of their group to steer the prey away from the rest of its herd - perhaps even using sticks as tools to aid in steering the prey, poking at its sides like spears.

[@Hagashager]

All this talk of Humanity dying away and ceasing to exist without record keeps getting brought up as nihilistic, but for my money, what you're describing is so much worse. God can you imagine how *brutally* sad that would be. To be a fully intelligent species with cities, tools, knowledge and history only to be reduced to little avian creatures with almost no self-wareness. It'd be like us, in the whole breath of Human Evolution, just reverting back to Orangutans completely and utterly. We're beating our chests, picking flies out of our fur, cracking mangos and goring each other in male mating rituals all in the shadow of skyscrapers our ancient selves once built. We have no concept of ourselves, no idea that past genuses of ourselves built the great grey pillars that rise into the sky. It's all just more earth to climb and kill on. *That* is nihilistic.

[@JALaflinOfficial]

C.M. Koseman is one of my all-time favorite artists and speculators! So glad you featured his stuff here.

[@SamTheUndying]

When you think about this video has become a part of history

[@Jacquobite]

Unfortunately your comment has too :D

[@Trillin09]

Samurai Sans and so has mine

[@pirththee]

Stoic.

[@keremkelleboz6959]

2 months later.

[@wadespencer3623]

In the 223rd century, this is the only part of the obscure past that survives.

[@purugigi]

Astounding video. This video has basically ignited or extended a lot of thoughts I've had throughout the years and forgot for some reason or another. Maybe I thought they were too silly or something. 10/10 video

[@Johansen1000]

claws and beaks are very limited, our skills and achievements are do to our amazing control of our fingers that is able to manipulate things, an orca might be smater then a human but it will never be able to create anything with pictorial fins.

[@SynValorum]

Unless it evolves into Moby Lick.

[@Crysomandiaz]

No arms, no cake.

[@blujaebird]

@@SynValorum what about an octopus? They can manipulate a lot with their tentacles, like unscrewing jars. I do agree having the ability to handle and study things is important, but I don't think the appendages have to specifically be human like.

[@Dap1ssmonk]

K Kondor octopus’s don’t live long enough for their intelligence to really matter. Their life span is a decade at best and that’s not enough time to develop a humans level of experience which turns into intelligence.

[@sak4933]

I like to think that under the right conditions theropod dinosaurs(in particular something related to dromaeosaurs or therizinosaurs) could have developed human-like hands. They seem like they were so close.

[@2222badger2222]

you're not the first to wonder , we come to the party at 11.59 p.m and think that it's all about us when the real movers and groovers have already gone home

[@Ash-----]

2:00 - 2:15 ants with metallic horns. Please explain further. I have great interest in this and so would a lot of biologists with genetic modification.

[@asteroidkatfacts1036]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4DKpH9qj7ZknMU

[@SlyPearTree]

Humanity survived an ice age, what was the time duration between apocalyptic events before us and were they long enough to see the rise of intelligence similar to our own?

[@gsfbffxpdhhdf7043]

SlyPearTree no. H bu h

[@chumplestiltskin7927]

You should use your tin foil hat more often. This was very interesting. Do not listen to the nay Sayers.

[@dialatedmcd]

Is the tin foil what autistic people call anyone not repetitiously consuming and vomiting information? "He had a novel idea, wow, put him in a straight jacket."

[@hedylamar1668]

@@scavenger4704 Also do not listen to Leo Sayers

[@fighterofthenightman1057]

Scavenger What a strange response, lol. Want us to all tell you that you’re smart?

[@scavenger4704]

@@fighterofthenightman1057 no, I just make fun of insane people like you, as all sane people should.

[@fighterofthenightman1057]

Scavenger You literally know nothing about me or what I believe. You’re just coming across as bitter and insecure. :/

[@lancecereal3673]

Sorry, there is a knock at the door. **opens door** Oh, hello, existential crisis. Long time no see.

[@timbomb374]

I wonder if a species could have evolved high intelligence back when the dinosaurs where around or would the raw power of dinosaurs make it too difficult for a civilisation to develop. Seems to me that the ability to speak or otherwise convey complex information is the point at which a species will rapidly advance. Gotta wonder if in the future more animals will evolve into more intelligent beings too, maybe we are just the first of many.

[@TheAkwarium]

hmm the dinosaurs were here for far longer than humans have yet there's no evidence of them developing any intelligence in such a short amount of time as humans did (or at all). On the other hand maybe humans are a second try because it didn't work with the dinos first.

[@thenew4559]

@@TheAkwarium , humans went from very unintelligent tiny mammals to what we are now just over a few million years. Dinosaurs were around for hundreds of millions of years, many of them believed to be comparably intelligent to what we would consider "intelligent" animals today. It is definitely possible.

[@adelehammond1621]

i think its completely possible maybe even probable because it seems very unlikely modern humans are the only intelligent life form on this planet

[@Justwantahover]

Going by earth I don't think evolving to complex intelligence is very common. And no more reason for it than a bird has with a beak. Intelligence is simply a survival niche like every other survival niche. It's the luck of the game. I can imagine millions of planets with complex life but no complex intelligence. Maybe a couple of planets in each galaxy (on average) are intelligent like us. Cos it's not really necessary for life (in general) to survive.

[@aaronmarks9366]

This right here ^ We should expect other species on our planet to eventually develop our level of intelligence and civilization. If we don't destroy our own ecosystems first, that is.

[@scorpiopede]

Always thought this was an interesting topic, I'm actually surprised you didn't bring up that rather controversial idea from a few years ago of Shonisaurus vertebrae that were found and thought to be "arranged" into a self-portrait of an intelligent cephalopod. The paintings from Kosemen are absolutely beautiful, I love his work .

[@TREYtheExplainer]

I've heard about those and I think it's a little ridiculous. It's an extraordinary claim with not much evidence to support it. and I agree ;)

[@scorpiopede]

It was ridiculous which is why it was so controversial. The only "evidence" to support it was that all the Shonisaurus in the graveyard appeared to have been killed and the vertebrae looked like they were "arranged" to resemble the suction cups on cephalopods, which I don't even know had evolved yet at that point in history. It's no surprise I haven't heard of anything since the original claim. Here's a fun bit of speculation. If civilizations had appeared at least once in Earth history, what time period do you think it would have happened in and from which family or group do you think they would have stemmed from? Purely speculative, but a fun little thought experiment.

[@manospondylus]

TREY the Explainer They did actually find the fossil of a giant cephalopod beak near the ichthyosaur bones: www.livescience.com/40856-kraken-rises-with-new-fossil-evidence.html

[@Rodrigo_Vega]

" The Genie that haunts the moonbeams spake to the Daemon of the Valley, saying, “I am old, and forget much. Tell me the deeds and aspect and name of them who built these things of stone.” And the Daemon replied, “I am Memory, and am wise in lore of the past, but I too am old. These beings were like the waters of the river Than, not to be understood. Their deeds I recall not, for they were but of the moment. Their aspect I recall dimly, for it was like to that of the little apes in the trees. Their name I recall clearly, for it rhymed with that of the river. These beings of yesterday were called Man.” - H. P. Lovecraft; Memory.

[@TREYtheExplainer]

XD I totally thought of that story throughout writing this script, I'm surprised I never mentioned it

[@Rodrigo_Vega]

I really love those short ones. I even illustrated that one.... wait... I never uploaded it, what? uh. I think I intended to color it and never got around to doing it. Oh well, stay tunned to my deviant in the next week or so if you are interested : P

[@TREYtheExplainer]

Me too, I really enjoyed the Doom that Came to Sarnath and Celephaïs. I always thought Celephaïs was very sad and sympathized with the main character. Cool! I can't wait to see it. If you've ever seen The Lone Animator's stop motion animations, he just recently completely a beautiful one on Memory: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnqxfWCPqZmcr5Y

[@Rodrigo_Vega]

Oh, awesome! yea, Bluworm is my jam! I love his work. I can't believe KZbin failed to rub that video on my face. Thanks for the heads-up.

[@TREYtheExplainer]

No problem ;)

[@dronexfun8469]

When I first learned how the Grand Canyon was formed (it started as a mountain range then eroded away over time) I thought, what civilizations could have existed in that mountain range and was then erased from history.

[@tyranid13]

The spread of humans is strongly correlated (and possibly caused) mass extinctions of mega-fauna on every continent. If a primitive civilization existed we should look for similar mass extinctions that affected only mega fauna.

[@domehammer]

Is evidence humans lived alongside mega-fauna without causing the extinction for far longer then is accepted by science. As is evidence of hunting of mammoths in north america so far before the migration theory would need to be reworked or just wrong so it's mostly ignored. It would mean humans didn't cause the extinctions but mega-fauna were unable to adapt to climate change.

[@dawne5139]

During the last ice age, after a short warming period, there was a sudden drastic drop in temperature which lasted about 1000 years. This was a time of mass extinctions. The human population also dropped dramatically and would have been considered endangered by today's stsndards.

[@anon9579]

tyranid13 maybe they had religious taboos against colonization

[@DoctorOctobrist]

The extinction of megafauna at the end of the last ice age was caused by a comet hitting Greenland. Not a few thousand primitive hunter gatherers with atlatls.

[@mrbiscuits915]

@@DoctorOctobrist actually a string of them hit north america and greenland, fortunately for us, the area of impact was covered in ice a couple of miles thick, if not, we would not be here now.

[@manospondylus]

What kind of technology would actually be able to survive in the fossil record? Would stone tools, like those of early humans, be preserved in sediments even after hundreds of millions of years? Or would they just end up looking like normal stones due to erosion?

[@TREYtheExplainer]

I'm not sure myself. Organic stuff would almost definitely just rot away into nothingness. Some stones might preserve, we have stone tools from human ancestors millions of years old, however who knows if they would survive 10s of millions of years.

[@manospondylus]

TREY the Explainer Also, how would we know how a technology or tool made by a non-human intelligence would look like? We know when a stone was artificially altered by a human, because in most cases it perfectly fits into a human hand. But how would we recognize a tool that was made by, for example, an intelligent arthropod with crab-like claws?

[@TREYtheExplainer]

That's a really great question. You're right, our perspective of such things are a bit biased towards ourselves, so I don't know

[@iluvyurbles]

and what if there were civilized amphibians, how would we recognize tools meant for water and land at the same time to fit in one of those "Hands"

[@Pynaegan]

Huh, whaddaya know!? I just dug up a fossilized Iguanodon arm.....holding a Plasma cannon.

[@TREYtheExplainer]

The Indiegogo link I have in the video is outdated, you can donate to Tangent Realms at this link instead tangent-realms.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

[@deadsoul7736]

I love your videos , keep them up

[@TREYtheExplainer]

Thank you :)

[@Galaidon]

i love the music in this video, can you tell me the name please?

[@tangentrealms3973]

Thank you for the great video, Trey! We're honored! More at: bit.ly/TRbackerkit

[@sightmsight]

TREY the Explainer you should really do a series on the biology of pop culture creatures,like in monster hunter!

[@ludgy7278]

Ancient Chinese medicine eating everything damn you!!!!

[@Pollicina_db]

But they also saved us from malaria, so it's a win win I would say

[@Jotari]

Well a society to the extent we've reached in the past two hundred years is most certainly unprecedented. And that certainly makes me feel special to be human.

[@animecrunchtime]

How crazy is it to think that we don't even know all of that %1 of the ancient creatures since we haven't even found every fossil of every thing still preserved

[@TREYtheExplainer]

It's extremely awe-inspiring to me, one can only dream what we have yet to discover and what can never be discovered

[@KhanMann66]

Also sad we'll never know what the other 99% looks like. They will be forever a mystery.

[@derlinclair4867]

cRingE TeleVision us

[@707legacy6]

Man the past,present, and future really does have a melancholy feel to it but it’s also weird how I accept that and it’s so fascinating thanks Trey brilliant vid

[@adhren]

i am so thankful for your efforts toward putting this together. it’s so wonderfully and thoughtfully contemplative and insightful. this engages with our enduring wonder of the natural world, and our place in it, while remaining firmly anchored in knowledge and science, invoking our curiosity without surrendering to the absurd. just phenomenally done. it also reminds me of the concept of “sonder,” that everyone is living their own uniquely complex lives, the interiors of which will forever be unknown. except you elevate this concept to an incredible timescale, inviting us to think of the knowledge that those before us will never be privy to, and likewise the future discoveries and wisdom unearthing that we contemporary humans will never live to know. what a bittersweet thought. thank you for making this.

[@worldofmonterra]

Make a video about the biology of some the Monsters in monster hunter?

[@occam3064]

That would be awsome

[@cryptidliker5294]

I agree/ It would be cool to see him talk about Anjanath, the closest we have gotten to a feathered Tyrannosaurus in pop culture.

[@coldsobanoodle7407]

Sol Campbell The closest thing to a feathered rex in pop culture is the feathered rex in Saurian, but Anjanath is still a badass probably one of my faves.

[@JamJestKesh]

Magic: The Gathering has feathered dinosaurs in their newest card set.

[@Chicktopuss-zh8jr]

Yes

[@theillustratoryar1382]

One of my favorite topics. Loved this video. Thanks, man!

[@TokuSociety]

Interesting video

[@TREYtheExplainer]

Thanks!

[@asdfghjklzxcvbnm6874]

as always

[@alexanderkelly2517]

Which group of animals which are now extinct would you think would be most likely to evolve sentience?

[@danystar2102]

Trey the way you speak about subjects you are interested in is extremely beautiful, I loved the video 🙏🏻

[@than217]

3:47 "the fate of almost all life is to merely die on the surface, decaying into nothingness, and leaving zero trace as if they never existed." *looks around nervously* H-h-he's not talking about my life though right? *restless leg starts moving up and down*

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

DNA is a code - life is a program equation - it's running - it's calculating - fitness - to exist. Eventually it will have to transform the G.A.I. machines and leave the planet as seeder ships if it wants to get deposited onto other worlds... IF DNA just stays here - the Sun will eventually expand, and burn Earth to ash.... so - Time to Pack up and GO !

[@zoey__m]

And that is, I believe, the greatest horror for people! Getting lost forever, all you ever did being insignificant! That's why so many people turned to God. I confess that the idea of God does not always convince me, but when I think about this eternal cycle of meaninglessness (is there such a word?), I wish that heaven and the afterlife do exist.

[@lukewaltham6739]

This might be my favourite video of yours, this or the ones where you say everything is a basking shark

[@grdja83]

Trey of all of your videos I return to this one the most. Idea is haunting. And will remain so forever (or at least unless its confirmed with solid evidence).

[@Tsotha]

Reminds me of a radio interview I heard last year about this very topic. The guest pointed out how many Neolithic ruins in Italy were torn down because the stones were re-purposed by the Romans and later cultures to construct new buildings, for instance, and how much once-available evidence has in the meantime been destroyed or lost....

[@ownpetard8379]

From the Description: "Could there have been civilizations or cultures made by other non-human organisms?" So, there are non-human organisms with civilizations and/or cultures we know about?

[@siluda9255]

No there arent

[@11Survivor]

Clearly, the other is in reference to human civilisations.

[@viciousyeen6644]

You could actually classify Ants as a civilization. They work in large communities, sometimes even with multiple queens and they herd other species like lice as livestock to produce a milk-equivalent and others farm and cultivate fungi for food. The only thing Ants Lack for now is the usage of tools, wich is a bit unnecessary for them, having built-in tools in their mandibles. Maybe someday a little ant discovers fire...

[@Creationsofmyown]

9:42 "Paper rots, Metal rusts." Aluminum: "Hold your beer."

[@misterugulator6496]

This was the most thought provoking and informative video I’ve ever watched. Kudos my friend. This was incredible

[@Curas1]

Grey aliens=lizard men=ancient earth dino humanoids They have always been with us.

[@omeee6064]

Wheres the HaHa reaction?

[@hughgrection7246]

Wanted : Someone to come back in time with me. I have only done this once before. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed.

[@captaincrunchtime4058]

*OH MAN OUR GUY TREY HAS UPLOADED*

[@its_kintama1109]

CAPTAIN CRUNCH i

[@danz9507]

YES

[@robgau2501]

This is one of those channels that I immediately think, "Why did I not find this earlier!?" Great channel.

[@MM-hy3xv]

Who knows maybe some day we will invent time travel and find out what truly happened, if it's even possible. Probably not, but I would love to see the ancient peoples reaction when they see a super advanced version of themselves

[@Breedo]

THey will probably burn you as a witch.

[@arch9stanton]

this may sound like bull but you kill mirco orgism and create another timeline with nothing changes really

[@ParameterGrenze]

What would be the earliest time in earths history in which a hypothetical civilization would have access to fossil fuels ?

[@RH571987]

adding to that, why are there still fossil fuels left in amounts so abundant that we still haven't used up today and won't for quite some time to come? no hypothetical civilization in the past must have made it to an industrialised stage. kinda disappointing if true

[@flagassault9715]

The mongols burned coal for bathhouses which Marco Polo wrote about.

[@asho345]

RH571987 Technological advancements are not linear. Perhaps they used another source of energy.

[@noobblet1996]

may be they were using some kind of biofuel of fungus they had in that period of time, like fungus which produces propane or some kind of flammable gas, and even may be they didn't have such technologies like ours but were more nature based but with more knowledge of life around them, we cant even speculate or understand a bit about what could be tens of million years ago...

[@Nz-tm3gs]

or they functioned and/or "progressed" in ways that our Human Minds can simply not grasp on our own. Because we only can think of "civilization" within the limits of our own Human Condition. Its like trying to accurately predict what and how a NON-Humanoid alien civilization would work, we couldnt.

[@itzmedb8290]

in the tool use image, where are the octopus with its clam armor they sometimes carry

[@anthonypaculan385]

I feel like your opinion in videos like this is just the next step in the pursuit of knowledge. Do you guys think people just retain all this information without processing it into novel ideas? Please make more videos like this, loved it

[@wadch2768]

I wonder if we have a void century like in One Piece, where the governments of the world have covered up.

[@csongik7516]

We need Nico Robin

[@christophersnedeker2065]

@@xxepic_swag_gamingxx5238 maybe they anchient civilization is still around and running the world affairs from behind the scenes. Or maybe the anchient civilization knew something they wanted to keep us ignorant of.

[@TheZombieburner]

Think real hard for a minute for me: The news media will erase certain events out of record, and that's with all eyes on it, stories that are "not acceptable" simply do not get traction. If they do that with news....... Imagine what people do to history. The marker of the censor is always ready. There is much in history we have lost.

[@CoopsNME]

@@TheZombieburner "history is written by the victors"

[@allyskywalker4961]

This is an awesome video, deserves trillions of views. ❤️ you make things easy to understand and these are some awesome facts and thoughts!! Great job :)

[@nayandusoruth2468]

I wonder, if intelligence could be detected in the fossil record (indirectly), due to the fact that human level intellect tends to result in elaborate burial rituals. Such rituals, could presumably increase the frequency and quality of fossilised remains, as well as possibly preserving tools buried alongside the individual... food for thought

[@klatie256]

That’s a great idea!

[@prkp7248]

Other animals buried along this species would also prove intelligence, as domestication of animals and burial of animals with people are also popular.

[@Sashazur]

The foundations of buildings and infrastructure of a large civilization are more extensive and deeper than burials and therefore more likely to be discovered in future eons. But all of it is still so close to the surface that erosion and subduction would still erase it all over millions of years.

[@dafoex]

@Sashazur Doesn't have to be an animal capable of building infrastructure. Corvids are intelligent enough, they build wooden houses and hold funerals (well, moreso an investigation of the death) an intelligent, pre-stone age species could still exist without us detecting anything overly remarkable.

[@Orthosaur7532]

I am sorry, but this is my favorite video on KZbin. Thanks

[@HoneyDoll894]

"tool use that could with time lead to true intelligence" → uses picture of a dolphin Yeah tbh as time goes on it seems more and more clear that for example dolphins are incredibly intelligent and can quite easily understand certain human emotions and situations, as well as having quite complex social and language skills