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Mammals have ruled the earth for about 5500 years, witnessed the life of almost all terrestrial communities, experienced large-scale climate fluctuations and mass extinctions. Even such adaptable "Earth overlords" may be powerless in the face of the supercontinent 250 million years later.

Wen Jing | Wen Jing

All the continents put together Wigner's "inspiration" and put forward the theory of continental drift. But in his lifetime, this theory was not accepted. It was only 30 years after Wigner's death that the theory of plate tectonics swept the world and people realized the correctness of the theory of continental drift.

In the history of the earth, the land plates have divided and merged into many cycles, either squeezing and colliding with each other, forming mountains, or separating from each other, leaving an ocean. Today's seven continents are like jigsaw puzzles. But the plate is still moving all the time, in the future, another spelling, the earth is a different look.

Christopher R. Scotese, an American geologist and paleogeographer, predicted that in 250 million years' time, the land plates of the earth would be put together again, shaped like the previous Pangaea supercontinent supercontinent. He named the future supercontinent "Pangaea Ultima, or Last Pangaea," and later changed it to "the next generation of Pangaea, or Next Pangaea."

The future continent is not suitable for mammals. According to an article published in the journal Nature Geoscience (Nature Geoscience), scientists simulated the temperature, wind, rain and humidity trends of the "next generation Pangaea" and assessed mammals' heat tolerance, energy balance, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, and so on.

The results show that large-scale extreme thermal events will be formed in the "next generation Pangaea", similar to the Permian-Triassic period, during which the mass extinction of life on Earth occurred, with 96% of marine life and 70% of land life extinction. Excessive concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (which could reach 410-816 ppm per ppm means 1/1000000) can destroy the livability of land mammals on earth and make them extinct on land. Compared to previously thought, as the sun's brightness increases, the earth will be "dried" by the sun in a billion years' time, much earlier.

Because of their outstanding adaptability to the Cenozoic glacial and interglacial environment, mammals have ruled the earth for about 5500 million years-although mammals first appeared 310 million years ago, they became the dominant species on Earth only after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction. Although mammals are adaptable to temperature fluctuations and can remove excess heat through sweat glands, exercise and circulatory system, they also have fixed physiological limitations in the face of persistent extreme high and low temperatures.

Unfortunately, the next generation of Pangaea will be located mainly in the hot, humid tropics, so non-mammals will also have to face harsh living conditions.

Do you want to flee the earth?

If the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is 280ppm, the "next generation Pangaea" has about 25% livable area for mammals, while in the extreme case of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration of 1120ppm, only 8% livable area. Photo: Nature Geoscience in the next Pangaea, large parts of the central continent far from the ocean will become uninhabitable. Moreover, after 250 million years, the brightness of the sun will increase by 2.5%, and the increased solar radiation will also aggravate the deterioration of the earth's ecosystem environment.

It is worth noting that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are not taken into account in the scientists' simulation model. This is a study of long-term climate change. Predictions show that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations may reach 600ppm in millions of years.

Scientists believe that the construction of air-conditioned shelters to regulate the temperature is a way out for mankind. In addition, it is also a way to emigrate to other planets, but it may be more realistic to take care of our planet than to escape to other planets.

References:

Climate extremes likely to drive land mammal extinction during next supercontinent assembly | Nature Geoscience

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