– dinosaurs didn’t go extinct, birds are dinosaurs
– fossil fuels come from fossil plants and marine invertebrates. Dinosaurs are not the source of fossil fuels.
– fossilisation happens regardless of whether or not a species goes extinct, there are fossils of living species. It’s just something that happens to dead organisms in the right conditions
– fossil fuels amass when there’s just giant quantities of dead organic material, like in the Carboniferous Coal Forests. So yeah, they were always going to exist in a world where life does so well.
While this is 100% correct, in a world without the Space Rock of Death, mammals would probably still be underfoot things, so there might not be anything around that cared about fossil fuels right now.
given how many species are near-sapient if not outright sapient, especially among living dinosaurs (corvids, parrots, pigeons, and more), I sincerely would be surprised if nothing sapient evolved even in a world without the Space Rock of Death
#tbf if corvids or octopi or something ruled the world#i feel like they might not be as destructive as humans are. idk maybe its just wishful thinking#id trust a raven with my future
I just don’t like thinking humans are uniquely destructive and/or evil. I mean, single species/groups of species have caused extinctions before (Great Oxygenation Event (maybe), End-Devonian), our level of environmental exploitation is because we’re developing too quickly and nothing can evolve to reign us in fast enough, which has happened with other species too.