Were there civilizations on earth before man?

Among the dinosaurs, we know of only about 2,000 reasonably healthy individuals, distributed among relatively few species, from a period of 170 million years.

Long-lived bronze statues

In addition, almost all things produced by civilization break down rapidly due to physical, chemical, and biological reactions. Concrete weathers, iron rusts, and textiles rot.

There are only a few materials left over for millions of years – like bronze, for example. Thus, a statue like that of Karl XII in Kungsträdgården will survive long after Stockholm is gone.

In addition, geological forces are constantly reshaping the planet’s surface. Some surfaces are eroded and washed into the sea as sand and mud.

Others are covered with new layers of soil. The oldest preserved land surface is now the Negev Desert in Israel, which is only 1.8 million years old. Thus it is unlikely that physical traces will ever be found.

The best prehistoric data comes from drilled samples from the sea floor. With them, we have been able to study many ancient climate changes.

Global warming and the effects of human carbon dioxide emissions will be one of the most lasting effects of our civilization, but because the sea floor is constantly being reshaped by tectonic plates, the oldest sea floor on Earth is only 170 million years old.