# Pangaea Ultima, the Next Supercontinent, May Doom Mammals to Far-Future **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 27, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789 "2023-09-27T20:30:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/21 "2023-09-27T22:18:04Z")
Just you wait till I finish my graphic novel about them! It is only a matter of three or four years. Really. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/22 "2023-09-27T23:34:34Z")
I predict that we will be replaced by magpies. Corvids in general are very intelligent, but crows will let their assholiness get in their war, ravens just do not give a shit and jays are not quite smart enough. Magpies are just the right balance. And pretty to boot. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/23 "2023-09-27T23:56:55Z")
Mammals supplanted the dinosaurs, it would be a nice irony if the dinosaurs outlast us at the end. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/24 "2023-09-28T15:44:15Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Lizard Catroaches Someone should ask one of those AI graphics programs to draw up a portrait of one. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/25 "2023-09-28T16:14:10Z")
In the unlikely event that we don’t render ourselves extinct long, long before then, we should be so incredibly evolved that it won’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/26 "2023-09-28T20:46:57Z")
Forget humans. Think about 250,000,000 years of computer evolution. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/27 "2023-09-28T21:53:02Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > and ants. I don’t know what else, but this yes, the ants. Might not be intelligent like a human is (maybe a collective intelligence?) but they are certainly among the more successful creatures at present. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/28 "2023-09-28T22:23:03Z")
> [@DorkVader](#): > > maybe a collective intelligence? I always thought _Gödel, Escher, Bach_’s Aunt Hillary (a collective sentient in the form of an ant hill) a fascinating idea for an intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/29 "2023-09-28T22:29:42Z")
The desert last time: > [@Was Pangea largely desert?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-pangea-largely-desert/697206): > > When all the continents were smooshed together into Pangea, was the interior of the super-continent largely desert? Wouldn’t the moisture in winds coming off the oceans fall as precipitation long before the wind reached the centre of the continent? And a follow-up: would there have been much life in the oceans on the other side of the world, without continental shelves or coastal areas? Coastal areas were livable, interior had an average temperature of 40 C. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/30 "2023-09-28T22:30:34Z")
This article reads like a high school student’s science project, that his mom helped him on. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/31 "2023-09-28T23:31:53Z")
Most of Scientific American in the internet era reads like that. The SA of my youth would be embarrassed to see the trash they sell now. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/32 "2023-09-29T00:02:52Z")
Naturally, there is [a Wikipedia page on the subject](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea_Proxima). I like the name Pangaea Proxima better than Pangaea Ultima. The Wiki page says that the Indian Ocean is expected to become encircled by land, and cut off from the world ocean. > South America is predicted to be wrapped around the southern tip of Africa and Antarctica, completely enclosing the Medi-Pangaean Sea, which will become a supertoxic inland sea that begins to poison the surrounding oceans, lands and atmosphere, leading to another great extinction event. I am curious as to why they expect it to become “supertoxic”. The Great Salt Lake, the Dead Sea, and the Aral Sea don’t seem to be particularly hazardous. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789/33 "2023-09-30T22:47:34Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I am curious as to why they expect it to become “supertoxic”. Those lakes do not capture about a quarter sverdrup of drainage, as would the enclosed Indian Ocean. And the Southern Ocean would at that point be cut off, leading to hugely non-trivial climate effects that would probably “help” it get especially nasty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pangaea-ultima-the-next-supercontinent-may-doom-mammals-to-far-future/990789.md?page=1)