If the human race died out which animal do you think would?

Question

have the best chance of evolving to become the dominant species on the planet?

Answer 1

Well, the cockroaches have the most chance of surviving,they are tough little b******s.

So if they lived for like a few mil years they would probably evolve in size and destroy any other race.

Answer 2

Dogs.  They're smart and resourceful.  Despite having no opposable thumbs, they would make the most of their situation.

Answer 3

Hyenas. Pigs.

Answer 4

the history channel made a show called life after people and it showed everything that would happen after 100s of years but it never said anything about animals evolving to become dominant. they all just lived together. i think insects or sea animals will live the longest they have been inhabitting earth even befor the dinosours

Answer 5

Probably monkeys. Assuming we killed oursleves somehow and the other animals weren't killed.

Answer 6

Cockroaches.  Nothing can kill them.

Answer 7

Gorilla's chimps, orangatuns, etc.

Answer 8

The man! no doubt....no actually monkeys but men next :D xx

Answer 9

It would be the monkey all over again.  They are smarter than any other animal

Answer 10

an ant-eater!

Answer 11

All the insects would survive mostly. The History Channel did a great show on this about a month ago.

Answer 12

some kind of primate...

Answer 13

The Salt Water Crocodiles who are already well evolved and very cunning  and rising sealevels won't muck them up - it will increase their range  plus they can also move pretty fast on land.   Oh if we are counting insects then I agree with the person who said cockroaches but also I am thinking what if the funnel web spiders evolved into bigger arachnids - Ooooooooh!!!   Too scary!!!!

Answer 14

The dominant class of organisms on this planet are bacteria.  They are ecologically efficient, vastly outnumber most if not all other kinds of organism, can live almost anywhere (without bothering to build shelters. they reproduce constantly, and every species on the planet depends on them in one way or another. Plus, they are not hindered by what we call "intelligence".  It is very unlikely that any single species will ever displace them as 'most dominant'.

Answer 15

I can't imagine anything that would take out humans and leave anything of consequence intact.

Answer 16

Because sea animals are denied the ability to use fire & very few animals have the manual ability to make & use tools, unless they found some method of overcoming these disadvantages, they would not likely evolve to become the dominate animal.

The most obvious would be another primate, possibly the bonobo.  However, the elephant, due to the ability to accomplish intricate tasks with the trunk, is another candidate. Insects have some attributes that may allow them to develop a collective intelligence & one couldn't rule out either bees or ants developing queens with high intelligence & the ability to create special workers to accomplish specific tasks.  A number of insects exhibit a high ability to adapt & evolve to meet changing conditions.

Answer 17

well it cannot be defined outright - we need to figure out how the human race was eradicated in the first place? was it a global disease? or biological warfare? or extreme weather conditions? perhaps a collision with huge meteors in space or perhaps our nearest star (the sun) died.

by understanding how the human race was extinguished we can clearly say which will be the dominant specie.

the dominant specie will be a unicellular (or a multicellular) organism. we have to understand that after the eradication of homo sapiens living conditions might also be too harsh for other creatures to live - who knows there's no creature to speak of - but the remains of this catastrophic event will just be for plants? :-)

Answer 18

If the human race died out, then most certainly the primates and the other land mammals would go along with us.  It would have to be something from the ocean...probably the porpoises.

Answer 19

Wow, I'm really suprised nobody has already stated the answer I'm going to state.  Rodents, specifically rats.

The only thing that could wipe humans entirely out, is a very large astroid.  Even if a disease came along and killed 99% of the humans, it still leaves a huge breeding pool.

An astroid is the ONLY thing that could wipe humans entirely out.  

The only critters that would survive, would be small, warm blooded animals that live undergound, insects, and a few reptiles that can survive under the mud, or underground (crocks can survive underground), and of course some fish.

The rodents that live in communities, co-operate with each other (rats can hunt together), and store food, would have the very best chance.

Rats are extremely smart.  They are omnivores.  They have great memories, and actually learn and figure things out.  Rats would fill our shoes in a shockingly fast time.

~Garnet

Answer 20

Insects ... especially cockroaches

Answer 21

Dolphins!

Cockroaches has always been dominant so they don't need to change their looks.

Answer 22

p**s ants.  seriously, you kill them and they just keep coming back.

Answer 23

Dogs. They are just biding their time playing dumb now.

Answer 24

I would think the insects, or perhaps birds.

Historically, the fish already had their reign, then the reptiles, now the mammals, so the birds or insects would logically come next.

Answer 25

sea horses

Answer 26

Maybe chimps if they raise their intelligence a little.