I started pondering this as I was reading about what would happen if the amazon rainforest died.
Mostly it seems that global temperatures would rise due to carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rising. Most animals would die off or be forced to adapt, and humans would suffere a massive die-off world-wide.
Somewhere else, I read that a similar catastrophe is believed by some to be what allowed dinosaurs to evolve.
Now, I severly doubt something like T-rex would evolve again (though its certainly possible, since afterall it did happen once), but if animals like grizzly bears and lions and elephants and such died out, wouldnt that leave niches open for other animals to occupy in the far distant future, and wouldnt reptiles be more likely to survive in the warmer climate than mammals?
The only thing that puts that to question is that to my knowledge most reptiles are struggling, meaning a lot of them (if any) may not make it into the far distant future if such a catastrophe were to happen.
Is it possible? Could dramatic climate change actually cause reptiles to grow larger and take the niches that are now dominated by mammals?
I dont know if such a climate change is coming, and either way i obvously wont live long enough to see this myself, but its a fun idea, isnt it?
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Could Reptiles Conquer The World If The World Becomes Much Warmer In The Future?
Posted on February 18, 2013.
yeah the reptiles will take over the world because that makes perfect sense
Reptiles are ectotherms, and they can indeed achieve gigantism if the weather is warm. The dinosaurs evolved large size during the warm and equable Mesozoic, which was much warmer than today’s climate, even with global warming. 5-10 million years after the dinosaurs were wiped out by a giant meteor the size of Mt. Everest (which is much larger than the one that is the size of 1/2 a football field and which flew by the earth a couple days ago), the weather was still warm, and Titanoboa evolved. Titanoboa is the largest known snake that ever lived. Besides Titanoboa, there were some huge crocs and turtles in South America at the same time. But these giant reptiles became extinct when the climate cooled towards the middle of the Tertiary. The same thing happened in the Jurassic. The climate cooled during the latter part of the Jurassic, and a lot of large dinosaurs, such as the sauropods and Allosaurus, became extinct by the end of the Jurassic. When the weather warmed up again towards the end of the Cretaceous, T. rex evolved.
Therefore it is certainly possible that we will see giant snakes (most likely a python or Anaconda), giant crocs, and giant turtles again if the climate got much warmer. We won’t see giant dinosaurs again of course, since they are all gone. The birds and mammals are endotherms, and giant endotherms do poorly in warm climates. If the weather gets much warmer, we will likely see the extinction of such large mammals as the rhino, the elephant, and possibly even the giraffe. that is because large mammals have proportionally small surface areas, meaning they would have a difficult time getting rid of excess body heat. They would therefore likely suffer heat strokes and die. The big cats, such as tigers and lions, will also be in trouble if the climate gets too warm, because they cannot chase prey around without overheating. They may need to retreat to high altitudes to be able to stay cool enough to survive, but these places may not have sufficient prey for them.
Therefore it is certainly possible and even likely that large reptiles, such as giant crocs, big pythons and Komodo dragon sized monitor lizards may take the place of lions and tigers as top predators if the climate becomes as warm as the Mesozoic. Even wolves may find it difficult to survive in such a climate.
A warmer climate may enable some reptiles to thrive and extend their ranges into higher latitudes but there’s no way they’d take over. Never mind Cal, climate had little effect on dinosaur evolution and extinction. Sauropods–even big ones–did NOT become extinct toward the end of the Jurassic. In fact, one of the biggest sauropods, Turiasaurus, lived around then.
Reptiles wouldn’t take over because even the hottest, tropical environments today are mammal dominated. We don’t see giant snakes and lizards in steamy jungle habitats but elephants, hippos, etc. Endotherms predominate everywhere now just as dinosaur endotherms predominated in the mesozoic regardless of climate shifts.