Is It Possible That an Advanced Civilization Lived Before Humans?

By Susie Green -

The Silurians, a technologically advanced civilization of humanoid reptiles that predated humans and went into hiding before being rediscovered by everyone's favorite time-traveling extraterrestrial in his phone box, are mentioned in Doctor Who. Science has yet to find evidence of them. However, two researchers from the University of Cambridge gave the imaginary species its paper title in 2018. It was titled "The Silurian Hypothesis: Would it Be Feasible to Discover an Industrial Society in the Geological Record?"

Is It Possible That an Advanced Civilization Lived Before Humans?

Geological Fingerprints of an Advanced Civilization?

The article didn't make the case that a technologically advanced civilization existed before humans but instead posed the intriguing hypothetical question of whether it would be possible to discover "geological fingerprints" of a long-gone civilization that vanished millions of years ago.

Is It Possible That an Advanced Civilization Lived Before Humans?

In the paper, one of the key questions was assessing how frequently an industrial civilization could evolve (provided that life has arisen and that some species are intelligent), which is one of the key questions in determining the possibility of discovering such a civilization.

More About the Paper

The only known example is that of humans, and our industrial civilization has only existed for about 300 years (since, for example, the beginning of mass production methods). This is a very small portion of the period that our species has existed and of the time that sophisticated life has existed on the land surface of the Earth.

Is It Possible That an Advanced Civilization Lived Before Humans?

In addition to being an intriguing concept, attempting to find an answer may aid in our hunt for evidence of an advanced civilization on extrasolar worlds. According to the research, humans have altered the Earth's climate and ecosystems, leaving noticeable scars on the globe that will undoubtedly stay for many years. That doesn't imply that these changes will be obvious after a few million years, though. In actuality, the record we leave may only be a few millimeters thick — for instance, in the sediment. Even if we live considerably longer than our current age, this might remain the case.