-
Asked by cocohamill2 to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 20 Jun 2011.
-
Steven Daly answered on 18 Jun 2011:
I do not think that there will be a single last animal that will become extinct! The one thing about life is that it is so adaptable that I think there will be life in one form or another right up until the Earth is swallowed by the Sun in about 4 billion years.
-
-
Ed Morrison answered on 18 Jun 2011:
In the past there have been mass extinction events, where many, even most, organisms die out. For example, 250 million years ago, 96% of animals in the sea and 70% on land went extinct. If there is a bigger mass extinction, it’s possible that all life wlil be wiped out in the same go. That would be a shame wouldn’t it?
However, with smaller extinction event, it seems that insects tend to survive pretty well, so perhaps an insect will be the last animal to disappear.
-
Vera Weisbecker answered on 18 Jun 2011:
I’d go with Ed – the last multicellular thing to survive would probably be insects. Or maybe some cavefish deep down in the ground where conditions don’t change much?
-
Katie Marriott answered on 19 Jun 2011:
If one species does survive I think it will be some form of single cell organisms, like bacteria. There are a type of organism called extremophiles that can live in the most extreme conditions such as really cold or really hot. There are extremophiles that can be found at really high pressures under the sea or in extremely acidic/alkali conditions. There is even a type of extremophile that can survive in a nuclear reactor – amazing!!
-
Sam Tazzyman answered on 20 Jun 2011:
Even if there were one last species, I think it likely that over time it would turn into two species, and then into more, since this must be how all the species we see came into being in the first place. Actually the forces that control how many species there are in an environment are not that well known, and people are currently researching into this.
Comments