# What other ways (besides the ones humans used) could a specific species become dominant on a planet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831 "2025-12-18T15:59:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/21 "2025-12-19T04:19:46Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Two distinct forms based on the current environment, a carnivore or an omnivore. I guess that’s true of locust as well! The same larva becomes a swarming locust or a normal grasshopper. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/22 "2025-12-19T12:42:10Z")
I think my example of “super-lignin” is quite analogous to your example ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/23 "2025-12-19T13:07:31Z")
I question the entire premise. Fermi was wrong. There is no reason ever expect any species to leave its home system. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/24 "2025-12-19T13:45:15Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > There is no reason ever expect any species to leave its home system. 1. This thread doesn’t mention leaving the home system 2. That doesn’t make Fermi wrong. If there is no reason to expect any species to leave its home species, but there is also no reason not to expect that _all_ species stay home, then Fermi’s paradox is still unexplained, you just added an extra filter that undoubtedly still isn’t a GREAT Filter. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/25 "2025-12-19T16:02:42Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > This thread doesn’t mention leaving the home system Not directly (again, I have not been perfectly clear) but as a thought experiment triggered by the idea of Fermi’s Paradox, I am looking for plausible dominant species that would be uninterested in space travel. I have assumed that any species that succeeded in interplanetary travel would then be trying for FTL interstellar travel of some kind, and if it’s possible would eventually succeed. And if there were enough of those, over time at least one would eventually find us. I guess if FTL interstellar travel is flat out impossible, that would be a different answer to Fermi’s paradox. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/26 "2026-01-02T00:45:02Z")
The first thing a species would need to dominate is hands. Idle hands to be exact. Humans evolved from species that had adopted upright posture to brachiate. But when we came down from the trees (or when the environment changed to having far fewer trees) we continued that posture unlike chimps and gorillas that started hand walking. Now other creatures have hands. Kangaroos do; many dinosaurs did and insects can grow as many limbs as they need. Insect mouths and antennae are just modified limbs. The exoskeleton on insects seems to put a severe limit on size, but that is just relative to us. I see no reason kangaroos could not develop a civilization and I really don’t understand why no dinosaur did. Especially since the age of dinos was at least twice as long as the age of mammals. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/27 "2026-01-02T01:17:30Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I see no reason kangaroos could not develop a civilization and I really don’t understand why no dinosaur did. Especially since the age of dinos was at least twice as long as the age of mammals. Dinosaurs [probably](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_brains_and_intelligence) just weren’t smart enough. Smarter than people _used_ to think, but their brains weren’t as big as modern mammals or birds. Now, if that impactor had missed Earth and the age of dinosaurs had continued? I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they’d _continued_ getting bigger brains and eventually evolved human-equivalent intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/28 "2026-01-02T01:57:36Z")
It raises the question: what circumstance or set of circumstances drives the evolution intelligence and more importantly of intelligence used cooperatively? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831/29 "2026-01-02T02:18:42Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Humans evolved from species that had adopted upright posture to brachiate. But when we came down from the trees (or when the environment changed to having far fewer trees) we continued that posture unlike chimps and gorillas that started hand walking. And yet we now know that Australopithecines and genus _Homo_ were not the only early apes to at least dabble in bipedal locomotion. There were others that preceded them by millions of years that apparently came to nothing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-ways-besides-the-ones-humans-used-could-a-specific-species-become-dominant-on-a-planet/1025831.md?page=1)