>survives a mass extinction event >evolves into a species

>>2361402


I know, right?

*high five*

>>2361402
Galactus on a smaller scale.

>>2361402
I can garuntee you Purgatorius would give zero fucks as long as they weren't part of the mass extinction. They sure as hell wouldn't have individuals protesting for the environment or posting about it on forums.

>A phylogenetic analysis of 177 mammal taxa (mostly Cretaceous and Palaeocene fossils), published in 2015, suggests that Purgatorius may not be closely related to Primates at all, but instead falls outside crown-group Placentals - specifically as the sister taxon to Protungulatum. Similar results had been obtained in previous studies with far fewer species.[8]

even if it was primate it still wouldn't evolve into US, learn the difference between stem group and crown group.

>>2361402
Gotta make sure that any organism that develops sapience relative to our own is trapped on this (by then) barren, doomed world.

>>2361668
The world will never be barren and doomed unless some cosmic event or extreme vulcanism forces it to be.
And I really doubt other creature can reunite the same traits to develop sapience.
- dolphins, trapped on the water with no limbs
- corvids, too small, too fast
- chimps and other great apes, need to learn how to walk bipedal, which they barely have reasons to anymore thanks to knucklewalking
- octopie, under water, shitty lifespan
- horses, pigs, dogs, cats, etc, simply not possible

And the clock is running, in 1B years the sun will make complex life impossible, so really, we're the last chance.

>>2361698
I should say, being fast is the reason dinosaurs never did it. If you can outrun your predators you're pretty much golden to survive in the wild.

>>2361698
So, the only way a species can develop sapience is by being the right amount of shittier than other species ?
How sweet.

>>2361698
>corvids too small too fast

The fuck? They can get bigger, and being speedy is seriously not a detriment in any way. I don't see how the small size is currently a problem, they will just make small tools and need smaller things. This would make more complex machinery complicated but - humans have built structures vastly larger than themselves. If corvids started on our path, they could too. Not all technological solutions need be human ones. Corvid technology would undoubtedly be very different from ours because their needs and minds would be different - this doesn't mean they can't be just as advanced or complicated in the future.

Chimps in the congo already show the first basic understanding of fire - they are not afraid of it the way other animals are and can predict its movements. Why must an animal be bipedal to become advanced? What 'reason' did ancient lemurs have to start knuckle-walking instead of continue to swing around trees?

>>2361402
Whatever it takes to prevail.

>>2361699
I see your point but it's a basic requirement of every living organism to need selective pressure to evolve in any way - if we're talking about what organisms will be the next advanced life form we naturally assume that pressure is there. What we debate is what sort of pressure could push them down our path or a similar one, and how they would take that path. What the differences and similarities would be. What animals are capable of going in that direction.

I wouldn't discount octos, if a certain species of them began to develop lungs or airsacs - became more land dwelling for any reason - then they could transition. But I think we also shouldn't assume advanced tech is impossible underwater. There may be ways to do exactly what we do but in an entirely different manner using the different conditions of living in the ocean. We only know how shit works on land, there's probably a lot of other ways to do things we will never think of because we can't see it from that angle.

>tfw your great-great-great-great(etc) grandfather was a fucking squirrel

File: 1492778606583.jpg (192KB, 790x700px) Image search: [Google]

192KB, 790x700px

>>2362646
>tfw every single one of your ancestors was able to reproduce but you might just fail

>>2362741
Sperm donation, rape, surrogate mothers...
Jesus fuck try harder.