Recently it was discovered that rats were once the size of bulls (see article). Peter Ward’s Future Evolution outlines the fact that animals are becoming smaller as evolution progresses – that the big species are being made endangered and becoming extinct due to the human footprint on Earth. As our population explodes, farmland becomes scarce, animals become smaller. Even with man's livestock breeding practices, I would venture to guess that animals like horses and hogs may become extinct (even though according to Ward, cattle also count as a “champion speciator”) – whether from disease from their unhealthy human-controlled lives, or because we become unable to consume such unnaturally produced meat. Then there's the inevitable problem: humanity is running out of farmland space. Ward asserts that the biggest animals that will ever exist from now on, exist today, and they will continue getting smaller. The enormous animals of the past were the most enormous that will ever be; the elephants and giraffes and whales of today will never again be rivaled by another creature; evolution through time has seen a reduction in the size of the animals that walk and swim the earth.
In human-centric apocalyptic scenario, small animals that easily adapt rule; they will continue to overpopulate and live off of the waste of human society because it is the one resource that will always be plentiful with the existence of humans. Will our omnivorous nature have us resorting to farming rats? Setting aside the issues of disease, let’s think about this: what will happen if the only animals that can survive human existence are the very animals that humanity loathes? Rat farms, rats for pets, rats transportation? Rat rodeos? Rat hunting? It would seem, that the only way rats would become big is if human population receded somewhat.
"Tyranasaurus Rat." courtesy Bella's spectacular rat-art website.
Phase One of Self-Destruction: Humanity Exhausts all Resources Except the Rats and then Ends Up Declining In Population Due to Plague
You’re not supposed to eat rats. Rats spread diseases. But when the planet is so overpopulated that they have made extinct all other sources of sustenance, people are bound to take their chances. In the face of famine, we will make desperate choices. Let's guess that a third of the planet will be wiped out by plague.
Rats will get more space! They will evolve bigger, in the absence of other animals! They will be pets, they will be ridden, they will be farmed (humanity, avoiding mass-starvation, will face the plague with what they think are new and improved medical advances, but the plague will probably evolve). Perhaps their societies that had been so prevalent in the underground corners of cities, will come above ground and exist alongside humanity.
Phase Two of Self-Destruction: Humanity Exhausts the Rat Resource and/or Blows Itself to Oblivion as a Result of Religious Squabbles
The “champion speciators” are many of the most hated animals on the planet; is this some sort of innate jealousy, with the knowledge that when it comes down to life or death, disgusting, disease-carrying rodents will win? In the wake of nuclear destruction, when the rats and roaches come out to play, what role will they take?
[What if they evolve before humanity ends? Who would rule? Would rats understand the concept of a ruler? Since they are super-survivors, would they destroy humanity? Would they take ownership of the earth and its inhabitants, or would they share it and compete only for survival rather than control? Would there be "new humans"?]
Just as humans become larger by the generation (it's true!), will rats revert to their prehistoric sizes and continue to grow? May the entire scale of life on earth change? Will they occupy the remains of human society in the same way the humans did? Or most importantly, will they use tools, build, develop and progress as a society? Will they have rulers and servants? Will they develop weapons far more destructive than anything humans could have ever come up with, or live in harmony with each other? What is animal nature?
[Something to chew on: what if rats evolved before the end of humanity? What if humans and rats went to war against each other? Who would you bet on?]
More on this later. Definitely.
All illustrations original unless noted otherwise; image credits as follows:
- "Princess Hyacinth" by Alphonse Mucha. Courtesy ABCGallery
- War/Destruction Photos: all courtesy Library of Congress
- Others courtesy:
