Could We Know if Another Intelligent Species Ruled Earth Before Humans?

How long would it take before all traces of us disappear

Hiya!

Humans have long wondered if we’re the only highly intelligent species in the universe and assume we’re the only ones to have ever existed on Earth. So far, we haven’t had any (public) knowledge explicitly indicating that we’re not alone in the universe — and it might be a while before this truth is known for sure, if it ever is.

This makes sense, considering we don’t have the technology needed to go galavanting around outer space looking for signs of life. So far, we’ve only kinda explored the Moon and Mars. Our only option is to wait and see if alien life comes to us. But is it possible advanced life occurred on Earth before humans came into existence? Perhaps, millions of years ago? A billion? If so, could anything of that period survive?

A Blink in Time

Modern humans, aka Homo Sapiens, have only been around for about 300,000 years — which really isn’t very long in the grand scheme of things. Another human species, named Homo Erectus, arrived a million or two years before us and were around for over 1.5 million years before their demise.

Still, within our relatively short time on Earth, Homo Sapiens evolved differently than our other Homo relatives. Now, being the last human species standing, we like to believe we’re the only species to achieve such feats. Period.

Archeologists have unearthed astounding evidence showing ancient H. sapiens achieved monumental feats against the odds and sometimes seemingly defied known laws of physics — I mean, how did ancient humans construct the Great Pyramids, Tikal, or Stonehenge?

Our ancient human ancestors were brilliant mathematicians, scientists, innovators, and thinkers. We know this because we’ve found some of what they left behind — tools, images, written language, bones, structures, and even entire cities. Some of which are thousands of years old. Now, as technology advances, we’re finding even more.

Advancing Technology

You probably don’t remember, but while wondered about our oceans back in August, I said that only 20 percent of our oceans are mapped. Meaning 80 percent of our oceans remain a mystery! Then I told you about Project Seabed2030, which uses sonar technology to map the ocean floors entirely by 2030.

Sonar is super cool because it uses sound waves that travel to the ocean floor, then bounce off the seabed, allowing experts to create an image of the landscape in areas where humans can’t get to. Think we’ll discover something incredible down there? Perhaps evidence of billion year old civilzation? We haven’t yet, but who knows?

Oh, and have you seen any of National Geographic’s documentaries with engineer Albert Lin? I just binged a bunch of them because what he’s doing is impressive. Using a technology called LiDAR, which is similar to sonar but uses lasers instead of soundwaves, Lin can strip away vegetation to reveal what’s underneath — like hidden ruins and uncharted cave systems.