What If The Asteroid Missed Earth?

[00:00:00]What if the asteroid missed Earth and dinosaurs never went extinct? Let's find out. There is a version of Earth where that actually happened. Where the rock that ended the dinosaurs 66 million years ago just sailed past, missed by a few thousand miles, or punched into deep ocean instead of hitting a coastline loaded with the wrong kind of rock. In that timeline, [music] dinosaurs kept evolving for another 66 million years.

[00:00:23]They filled every role. Some of them [music] probably got smarter. It sounds like the coolest possible Earth. You don't live there and you never could because the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs [music] also cleared the board. It wiped out 75% of all species [music] and in that mass death, something unexpected got room to breathe. Small, furry, mostly nocturnal animals that had spent 150 million years hiding in shadows. They suddenly had space to grow. Those were our ancestors.

[00:00:52][music] The entire primate family tree, every branch that eventually led to apes, then early [music] humans, then you. All of that only exists because the dinosaurs died first. No asteroid means no opening. Mammals stay small forever and primates never spread beyond their tiny corners of the world. The chain of events that eventually put a human brain in a human skull never even starts. So, somewhere out there, maybe there's an Earth ruled by dinosaurs. Maybe some of them got smart over [music] 66 million years of evolution. Maybe they built something we wouldn't recognize as civilization. But, on that Earth, the forests belong to feathered hunters, not primates. The grasslands are patrolled by descendants of Tyrannosaurus, not early humans learning to walk upright.

[00:01:37]Every spot your ancestors needed to fill was already taken by something older and better adapted. Fortunately, there is no timeline where you would get both. No Earth with dinosaurs walking around and humans wondering what it would be like.

[00:01:50]The moment that rock missed, your whole line got erased before it started. Yes, you We right now because a rock hit the right spot at the right angle. That's it. Before you scroll, like and follow.