Scientists at NASA are asking whether humans were the first advanced species on Earth and looking at scientific evidence about whether other civilizations could have existed in the 400 million years during which complex life existed on the planet.
University of Rochester physics and astronomy professor and co-author of the paper titled “The Silurian Hypothesis” Adam Frank pointed out that a civilization millions of years in the future might find it hard to recognize traces of our civilization if it went extinct now, NBC News reported.
In the same way, we may not be able to recognize an earlier civilization from millions of years ago, Frank said. “Our cities cover less than one percent of the surface,” Frank said, according to NBCm making previous cities theoretically easy to miss. Fossilized bones would be a sure sign of possible civilization, but the fossil record is spotty even just over the last 100,000 years.
The term “Silurian” refers to an advanced race of (fictional) lizards portrayed on the show “Doctor Who,” but denotes an ancient civilization that could have existed millions of years ago and gone undetected by science until now.
Other possible ways to detect civilizations that existed long ago could include looking at plastic residue or other synthetic molecules that last a long time as well as radioactive fallout in case a previous civilization was able to develop atomic weapons or nuclear technology. Widespread extinctions and rapid environmental changes could be other red flags, based on our own current experience, NBC News reported.
Frank and other study participants didn’t find any of the abrupt geologic events from the past 380 million years to fit a clear technological profile, but thought more research was needed to make a firm determination, NBC News reported. Frank would also like to look on the moon, a sentiment shared by Penn State University astronomer Jason Wright and other researchers.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.