what if the dinosaurs that went extinct 66 million years ago were able to survive the asteroid well with a few evolutionary modifications anything is possible today we're going to modify the dinosaurs that went extinct giving them all new traits in order to survive some might get big some might be small and some will even get extreme rock armor capable of surviving the asteroid impact this is what if and here's what would happen if dinosaurs had evolved to survive the asteroid okay first let's revisit the mass extinction event that got us here in the first place
because Clues to dinosaurs survival lie at the scene of the crime why is that well because we know some animals survived well 75% of all species on Earth were wiped out 25% found a way what special superpower did each Survivor have was it their bodies was it what they ate or how they lived and keep in mind it wasn't just the initial impact that did all the damage there was a second Extinction event right after this killer asteroid starts as a small dot in the sky but before you know it the massive Rock has struck
Earth creating a huge crater the enormous force from the asteroid created a tremendous amount of heat it was like billions of nuclear bombs exploding the heat raised the temperature of the land and it caused the Rocks underneath the Earth to melt tossing tiny molten particles into the air these rained back down as hot deadly shards a massive impact a super hot Earth and molten rock rain well that's the first killer and then for those that some how survived this there was a second horror on the way the massive cloud of Ash that enveloped the Earth
blocked out the sun causing an impact winter this lasted anywhere from 2 to 10 years no sunlight or food for many of the creatures on Earth this would have been a nightmare to get through but some animals did manage to survive shrews Turtles crocodiles and some other creatur creatures were able to get through both of these Extinction events so if we applied some of their survival traits to the dinosaurs would the dinosaurs be able to avoid getting wiped out okay it's time to do a little Jean splicing let's take a look at our favorite dinosaurs
and see how they might have evolved to survive the asteroid from T-Rex to Tiny Rex okay let's start with my favorite the Tyrannosaurus Rex weighing in at 7,000 kg the T-Rex had a pretty difficult time surviving the asteroid as terrestrial creatures many T-Rexes would have died in the original heat pulse that radiated through Earth either that or it would have been shredded by the rain of molten rock coming down from the sky well not this time we're going to help the T-Rex survive we'll take some lessons from the Morgan yukadon a small mammal that lived
in Burrows and scurried around underfoot during the Age of Dinosaurs we'll give our T-Rex some really thick Armor All Over its body to combat the hail of shards and those puny arms well let's beef them up a bit by increasing their length and size as well as giving them some bigger claws this would allow them to dig burrows for Extra Protection will this be enough well let's see what happens when the asteroid strikes again our modified T-Rex looks to be doing great The Heavy Armor is protecting him from the shards and he's running into his
burrow for shelters he's 12 M long so this burrow is a bit on the big side but so far so good okay now that the initial impact is over a heat wave is happening widespread fires are raging across earth our T-Rex though is still comfortable hiding in his burrow waiting for the fires to and now although the T-Rex had a high energy requirement and had to eat relatively frequently it should be able to survive a bit of starvation for now I mean a hungry stomach beats going extinct right after the initial Devastation subsides our T-Rex
emerges from his burrow only to find that Earth is now 6° colder and much darker this means finding food is going to be a huge issue at first our T-Rex could scavenge some asteroid kill but with most other large land creatures now gone how would this enormous carnivore survive well it's going to be virtually impossible without food that is unless we give our T-Rex one more modification unfortunately it'll change almost everything we know about this dominant dyo let me explain almost every creature that survived the impact winter had this one common feature they were on
the smaller side in fact of the mammals that survived the largest one was no bigger than a rat so sorry Rexy but we're going to have to shrink you down from a size 16 to a size zero okay now your tiny rexs and oh one more thing we're also going to modify your diet drastically you're going to be an insector since there are are no large herbivores to eat you'll have to settle for feeding off the swampy carcasses of insects oh how the mighty have fallen but at least he should survive let's see what happens
when the asteroid strikes again okay tiny rex runs into its burrow like before and stays there for a while it's now safe to come out for a while he's able to sustain himself on the remains of dead animals and after that well there are swarms of insects hovering over the decaying vegetation everywhere that's what our tiny Rex eats and he survives long enough to pass his Jeans On to the Next Generation giving rise to a new generation of armored burrowing insector tiny rexes honestly they're pretty cute toothless Velociraptor all right let's look at another star
of the Jurassic age Velociraptors what would it take for them to survive well these dinosaur lived in Central and Eastern Asia during the late Cretaceous Period they were about 1.8 m long and weighed about 45 kg about as much as a chimpanzee they were pretty good at pouncing quickly on their prey and liked eating small herbivores there's one other feature that they had that's given us an idea aidea to build on and that's that Velociraptors had fluffy feathery arms now you might be thinking why didn't I see that in Jurassic Park well when the movie
was made scientists hadn't yet figured out that dinosaurs had feathers now Velociraptors had one other feature just like birds they had thin hollow bones filled with air sacks a powerful mechanism for staying well oxygenated they could get oxygen both while inh inhaling and exhaling now despite all this Unfortunately they couldn't fly which may have been the key factor in their downfall all right time for us to give our Velociraptors a few key modifications that could help them avoid Extinction now similar to our T-Rex we'll shrink them down then we're going to give them wings so
they can take flight when the asteroid strikes this was one of the reasons Birds survived some of them were able to fly away and avoid the initial blast but just being able to fly won't be enough these creatures will have to adapt and find food to survive the impact winter what would they eat H well we'll have to give our Velociraptors a taste for bird food they could swoop down and prey on the small mammals scurrying about or they could search for seeds and nuts which will still be around after the massive fire s now
to pick those seeds out from dead forests we'd better give them a beak too a key evolutionary advantage and sorry Velociraptors but we're getting rid of your teeth in this new post-apocalyptic world you're not going to need them this will make sure you live to see another day yeah this toothless Velociraptor with its wings is definitely making it through the asteroid Okay so we've looked at the land and at the air well now it's time to look at the sea Michael Spinosaurus Phelps the spinosaurus was a large semi-aquatic dinosaur with a massive Sail on its
back it's kind of an oddl looking creature 15 1/2 M long with small hind legs a predator who swam after fish it wasn't really well adapted to land in fact this dinosaur was already extinct by the time the asteroid hit but let's assume for a moment that it was around during the late Cretaceous Period because we think with a few modifications we could help it survive the asteroid and this time we're going to look for some aspects of a creature that survived all five mass extinctions the Sharks and you'll see why in a second unlike
the shark the sad thing about the Spinosaurus well it was a crappy swimmer the fin on its back was seriously destabilized ing it made for a very difficult swim okay so that 335 kg big back fin it's got to go or maybe become a much smaller dorsal fin let's streamline its body and shrink it a bit while we're at it so it can glide kind of like Michael Phelps now another problem with the spinosaurus well we've got to swap out its whole breathing mechanism like the Velociraptor it has lungs and a network of sacks inundating
its hollow bones we're going to replace this whole system with gills and not your standard five gills but a set of seven so it can get enough oxygen whether it's in shallow water or the deepest ocean now finally we'll give our Spinosaurus a swim bladder it's a gas-filled sack which it can inflate or deflate whenever it likes this way it can roam through different depths of the ocean but one last last trait before we go the spinosaurus was known for only eating a couple of things during its time well our Spinosaurus it can't be such
a picky eater whether it's turtles or shellfish sea snakes or smaller Spinosaurus they're going to eat whatever served for dinner okay our new and modified Michael Spinosaurus Phelps is all set built to survive the asteroid it'll dive deep when the top layer is overheat it can swim near and far and in the beginning it'll eat all the dead fish that sink to the bottom later it'll eat anything we're good to go the butt breathing analaura genetic splicing now sharks survived but Turtles did too is there a dino that could learn a few evolutionary tricks from
the turtle or the crocodile well let's look at the anosa the armored dinosaur with bony plates on its body and a a powerful club likee tail these large beasts were herbivores eating tough leaves pulpy fruits Ferns and shrubs they were also super slow moving creatures but come to think of it that might actually be a good thing because being sluggish is part of the evolutionary success story of both the turtle and the crocodile for the ankasa surus to survive the asteroid we're going to need one major change instead of being strictly land dinos we're going
to need them to be semi-aquatic now coincidentally semi-aquatic was my favorite '90s band oh wait that was Semisonic okay in the hours after the asteroid strikes as the Earth becomes super hot we need a few anosa uses near the shore to slip into the water now they don't need gills but like a turtle will make them good at holding their breath underwater for a long time like 45 minutes this will get them through the first phase when Earth is scalding hot now given that any kind of food is going to be a problem for a
while after the impact our osaurus already has the evolutionary trait that's going to help it survive yeah its sluggishness is just what we need right now just like a turtle the less energy it uses the longer it can go without food now in addition let's make our anosa surus cold blooded so its body temperature is determined by its environment this way as the Earth gets colder during the impact winter the ankasa surus temperature can drop too and its metabolism can slow further the less energy it needs the better maybe it hangs out underwater for a
bit broom ating this is the type of hibernation turtles do and this is where the last body feature comes in we're going to modify our anosa surus so it can breathe through its butt I know sounds ridiculous and sounds like maybe something beas and Butthead would say but stick with me here turtles have CLA openings through which waste comes out you know they're rich in blood vessels so they double up as a way to get oxygen when the turtle is underwater breating there there you have it have it a new generation of butt breathing ankasa
surus which are semi-aquatic they're also sluggish cold-blooded and can Retreat underwater to broomate this is all happening as they're protected by their bony plates maybe they'll curl their tail under their armor for protection when they sleep so now that these dinosaurs managed to avoid Extinction what does the future of Earth and mammals look like well what was formerly known as the T-Rex is now equivalent to a small reptile one that feeds on insects to survive not scary our toothless Velociraptors continued to evolve along with birds and in the ocean Michael Spinosaurus Phelps could evolve into
a powerful fish competing with big sharks and whales the new butt breathing anky well it doesn't scare anyone either think of it as a new kind of elephant like creature dos and relatively harmless hundreds of thousands of years later the dinosaurs that survived along with the mammals entering the scene would continue to evolve side by side by wiping out the larger creatures and shrinking the T-Rex the mammals and dinosaurs of the time would be on a more even footing but tiny Rex lacks one important thing a big brain a other small mammals at the time
like rats and squirrels would be significantly smarter than tiny wrecks they'd also have better senses ones that could allow them to get around in the dark better so there is a possibility that the tiny reck would go extinct due to the stiff competition at the time but let's assume they're able to still evolve similar to our own timeline future generations of mammals would have evolved into intelligent Apes Tiny recks Might Have Become middleweight wrecks by this point like maybe elephant or Hippo siiz but there's a good chance that the smart Apes would escape from middleweight
wrecks just by living high up in the trees then we'd get to tumans eventually giving rise to humans now in the early years humans would hide from heavyweight wrecks but over time we'd invent weapons and begin to hunt them now would our re-engineered dinosaurs ever grow to be as large as they were in the Cretaceous Period give them another 100 million years and they just might unless we humans make them all extinct that all depends on what happens in the future but that's a story for another what if
