Thought experiment to assess ability to detect evidence of a prior advanced civilization
Not to be confused with Silurian period.
The Silurian hypothesis is a thought experiment[1] which assesses modern science's ability to detect evidence of a prior advanced civilization, perhaps several million years ago. The most probable clues for such a civilization could be carbon, radioactive elements or temperature variation. The name "Silurian" derives from the eponymous sapient species from the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, who in the series established an advanced civilization prior to humanity, not from the eponymous geological era.
Astrophysicists Adam Frank and Gavin Schmidt proposed the "Silurian Hypothesis" in a 2018 paper, exploring the possibility of detecting an advanced civilization before humans in the geological record. They argued that there has been sufficient fossil carbon to fuel an industrial civilization since the Carboniferous Period (~350 million years ago). However, finding direct evidence, such as technological artifacts, is unlikely due to the rarity of fossilization and Earth's exposed surface. Instead, researchers might find indirect evidence, such as climate changes, anomalies in sediment, or traces of nuclear waste. The hypothesis also speculates that artifacts from past civilizations could be found on the Moon and Mars, where erosion and tectonic activity are less likely to erase evidence. The concept of pre-human civilizations has been explored in popular culture, including novels, television shows, and short stories.
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The Silurianhypothesis is a thought experiment which assesses modern science's ability to detect evidence of a prior advanced civilization, perhaps several...
human soldiers. The story is the first appearance of the Silurians, for whom the Silurianhypothesis in science is named. A nuclear powered cyclotron facility...
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reappearing well into the Silurian, which suggests that the taxa survived in small numbers in refugia. An alternate extinction hypothesis suggested that a ten-second...
into six geologic periods (from oldest to youngest): Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Carboniferous Permian Some geological timescales divide the Paleozoic...
components of marine faunas during the Silurian, from which the majority of eurypterid species have been described. The Silurian genus Eurypterus accounts for...
inconsistencies between the current available data and the prehistoric overkill hypothesis. For instance, there are ambiguities around the timing of Australian megafauna...
record of myriapods reaches back into the late Wenlock epoch of the late Silurian, although molecular evidence suggests a diversification in the Cambrian...
sarcopterygians. The earliest sarcopterygian fossils were found in the uppermost Silurian, about 418 Ma. They closely resembled the acanthodians (the "spiny fish"...
extant. The modern bony fish, class Osteichthyes, appeared in the late Silurian or early Devonian, about 416 million years ago. Both the cartilaginous...
trilobites during the Silurian and Devonian periods include: Dalmanites (Early to Late Silurian) Calymene (Silurian) Encrinurus (Silurian) Exallaspis (Middle...
such as "Silurian". The poet Henry Vaughan called himself a "Silurist", by virtue of his roots in South Wales. The geological period Silurian was first...
life. Fossil plants with anatomically preserved xylem are known from the Silurian (more than 400 million years ago), and trace fossils resembling individual...
extremely common fossils throughout the Palaeozoic. During the Ordovician and Silurian periods, brachiopods became adapted to life in most marine environments...
minor mass extinctions (the Ireviken, Mulde, and Lau events) during the Silurian period. It had a major effect on the conodont fauna, but barely scathed...
CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Turner, S. (1999). "Early Silurian to Early Devonian thelodont assemblages and their possible ecological significance"...
progressively amalgamated into the continent Kazakhstania in the late Silurian. Whether these blocks originated on the shores of Gondwana is not known...
of prehistoric fish known from Paleozoic fossils which lived from the Silurian to the end of the Devonian period. While their endoskeletons are mainly...
index fossils from the late Cambrian to the Triassic. Many Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian agnathans were armored with heavy bony-spiky plates. The...
the hypothesis, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The hypothesis of...
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