Were Advanced Civilizations on Earth Before Humans? The Scientific Inquiry
The rise of the internet has dramatically reshaped how people access information and interact with each other. While online platforms have made learning and communication more convenient, these same tools are often used to spread unusual conspiracy theories that sometimes capture widespread attention.
One intriguing concept—introduced by scientists and rooted in real scientific inquiry—asks whether another advanced civilization could have existed on Earth millions of years ago. Despite the lack of direct physical evidence, such as fossils or artifacts, questions remain about what signs might still linger, and how geological processes over vast timescales could erase the traces of even the most remarkable civilizations.
Key Takeaways
Digital communication has revolutionized society and shaped modern beliefs.
Detecting evidence of ancient advanced civilizations is challenging due to geological changes and fossilization limits.
Alternative scientific methods may provide insight into civilizations lost to time.
The Internet’s Role in Modern Life
Benefits of Digital Spaces
Widespread access to platforms like Wikipedia, Google, and YouTube has transformed how people gather information and learn. Shopping habits have evolved significantly due to online retailers, with many opting for digital storefronts over traditional stores.
Social networks have heightened the emphasis on personal image and the desire to showcase idealized lifestyles. The convenience and reach of the internet have made interactions and information exchange faster and more accessible than ever.
Area Example Platforms Main Effect Education Wikipedia, YouTube Easy access to knowledge Retail Online stores Changed shopping habits Social Life Social media Focus on digital presence
Spread of False Information
The internet has also created places where unfounded ideas and conspiracies can spread quickly. Communities sometimes gather around unusual beliefs, such as extreme conspiracy theories about world events or science projects.
These digital groups can support each other's views regardless of evidence, helping misinformation to grow and persist. This environment has enabled claims—ranging from outlandish explanations for historical events to theories about scientific institutions—to reach much wider audiences than ever before.
Common Types of Internet Misinformation:
Conspiracy theories about political or scientific events
Claims unsupported by credible evidence
Amplification of fringe beliefs through community-building
The rise and reach of online networks continue to shape conversations and perceptions on a global scale.
Infamous Web-Based Conspiracies
Claims Linking the Iraq Conflict to Science Fiction Portals
Some circles on the internet propose that the Iraq conflict was not about traditional motives, but about hidden technology. According to this idea, global powers invaded Iraq to block the use of a so-called "portal device" believed to enable interplanetary travel, inspired by science fiction. Proponents argue this secret objective was cloaked by conventional justifications, like weapons of mass destruction.
Main assertions:
Existence of advanced ancient technology in Iraq
Fear of it sparking a threat beyond our planet
Lack of public evidence to support the claim
Particle Physics and Theories of Summoning Deities
Another widespread belief centers on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Certain groups allege that the facility's real purpose is not scientific research, but rather the invocation of ancient mythological entities. Ancient Egyptian gods are often named in these narratives, with the collider viewed as a kind of modern ritual apparatus.
Theory Element Scientific Use vs. Conspiracy Claim LHC Particle Physics Summoning mythological beings International Collaboration Secret cult activity Advanced Technology Hidden spiritual motives
Renewed Popularity of Flat Earth Perspectives
The rise of social platforms has led to a growing number of people embracing the view that Earth is not a globe but flat. This belief once held historical significance, but has been widely rejected by the scientific community for centuries. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, online communities promoting the flat Earth concept have grown, numbering in the hundreds of thousands globally.
Flat Earth Movement:
Uses social media to organize and spread ideas
Claims mainstream science is hiding the truth
Remains a minority belief despite its online visibility
The Lizard Elite and Worldwide Manipulation
One of the most well-known internet legends contends that world affairs are secretly directed by shapeshifting reptilian beings. These alleged creatures are said to control major institutions and leaders. Although there is academic work discussing theoretical ancient reptilian life on Earth, internet versions of this idea generally rely on unproven and sensational claims of secret rule by alien lizards.
Quick Facts Table:
Claim Evidence Presented Scientific Support Shape-shifting reptilian rulers None None Ancient civilizations of lizards Mostly fiction Hypothetical only Influence over world events Anecdotal None
The debate occasionally references speculative science about prehistoric civilizations, but these are frequently conflated or misunderstood in online forums. Most scientific discussions do not support the more extreme aspects of lizard elite narratives.
Unpacking the Silurian Question
Early Development and Scientific Basis
The Silurian Question gets its name from a race of intelligent reptiles featured in British science fiction, but its scientific core is far from fictional. This idea explores whether an industrial civilization could have emerged on Earth long before humans appeared.
The core inquiry is straightforward: Were humans truly the first advanced civilization, or could another form of intelligent life have existed millions of years ago? Geological changes over millions of years would erase nearly all direct evidence—structures, artifacts, even fossils—making it nearly impossible to prove or disprove the existence of such a civilization based on physical remains.
Extreme geological processes—mountain formation, erosion, volcanic activity, and plate tectonics—constantly reshape the planet. As a result, remains from earlier civilizations, if any, would be ground to dust or recycled deep into the Earth. The fossil record offers limited help, with less than 0.1% of all species ever living recorded, and a bias towards marine organisms. Most evidence of life remains permanently lost to time.
Leading Thinkers and Their Contributions
Two prominent researchers, Gavin Schmidt (climatologist) and Adam Frank (astrophysicist), were responsible for formulating and presenting this hypothesis in academic circles. Their work was published in an international astrobiology journal in 2018.
Their backgrounds—one in climate science, the other in astrophysics—allowed them to approach the hypothesis from broad scientific perspectives. Schmidt and Frank argue there has long been enough fossil fuel on Earth for any ancient civilization to attempt large-scale industrialization, even as far back as the Carboniferous period, around 350 million years ago.
By raising these questions, Schmidt and Frank encourage a skeptical and evidence-based approach. They focus on what kinds of long-lasting markers, if any, such civilizations could have left, looking beyond traditional fossil and artifact evidence.
Investigating the Existence of Ancient Complex Societies
Considering Non-Human Prehistoric Intelligence
It is sometimes assumed without question that humans are the first or only society on Earth to develop advanced intelligence. However, there is a scientific hypothesis suggesting that highly intelligent species—possibly not human—could have evolved on this planet millions of years before modern humans.
The main concept is that advanced intelligence can arise as just one of many evolutionary adaptations, and there is no scientific rule that says it couldn't have happened long before recorded history. Scientists point out that, since at least the Carboniferous period, there has been enough fossil fuel to support an industrial civilization. This opens up the possibility that ancient species could have developed complex societies and technologies.
Era Fossil Fuel Availability Potential for Industrialization Carboniferous High Possible for advanced civilizations
The destruction and recycling of Earth’s surface through plate tectonics, erosion, and geological activity means that nearly all direct evidence—cities, monuments, or technologies—would be lost after millions of years. After around 4 million years, almost all traces of such civilizations would have disappeared entirely.
Rethinking Evolution and the Fossil Record
Humans often think of themselves as the endpoint of evolution; this belief can lead to misunderstandings about how intelligence arises. Evolution does not target an end goal, and no species is more or less "evolved" than another. Intelligence is simply one adaptation among countless others.
The fossil record does not present a complete archive. Key reasons include:
Fossilization is rare and requires specific conditions, such as rapid burial in anoxic environments.
Some ecosystems, like mountains and jungles, are less likely to preserve remains.
The process heavily favors marine environments; in fact, about 99% of fossils are marine species.
Soft-bodied organisms almost never fossilize, further limiting what is preserved.
Estimated Statistics about the Fossil Record:
Only ~0.1% of all species that have ever lived are represented.
Over 99.9% of species are absent from the fossil evidence.
Because of these limitations, it is highly plausible that even if an advanced civilization existed millions of years ago, its members, artifacts, and cities would likely not be found in the fossil record today. This challenges the common instinct that we would obviously have detected any such society.
Geological Timescales and Traces of Past Civilizations
The Immense Impact of Natural Processes
On human timescales, Earth appears stable, but over millions of years, its surface undergoes continuous and dramatic changes. Mountains are created and eroded, continents shift, and volcanic eruptions can cover vast regions with lava. Oceans may change position or even disappear entirely. Wind, rain, snow, and ice gradually strip away evidence from the landscape.
Plate tectonics play a critical role, with the crust being recycled through subduction and uplift, making it extremely challenging for any evidence of past surface activity to remain intact over geological periods. Natural forces do not preserve the surface indefinitely; instead, they destroy and bury almost all traces of anything that once existed there.
Durability of Human Structures and Relics
Artifacts and monuments from our current civilization may last hundreds of thousands of years, but over millions of years, even robust constructions like the Pyramids of Giza would be reduced to dust.
Structure Type Expected Survival Time Modern Buildings Thousands of years Ancient Monuments Up to several thousand years Fossils (rare, specific cases) Up to hundreds of millions of years (mainly marine) Direct Industrial Evidence Less than 4 million years
Physical remnants left on the surface are vulnerable to erosion and shifts in the landscape. Only under very rare conditions—such as immediate burial in low-oxygen environments—can material persist for extended periods, and even then, it is statistically unlikely to survive the full sweep of geological time. This makes the enduring presence of evidence from any hypothetical ancient civilization extremely unlikely.
Difficulties in Understanding the Fossil Record
The Rarity of Fossilization and Its Inherent Skew
Fossilization happens under very specific circumstances. Typically, an organism must be rapidly buried in a place with little or no oxygen, which is uncommon in most ecosystems.
Because of these requirements, certain habitats—like mountains and jungles—rarely yield fossils. Erosion dominates mountainous environments, and jungles have active scavengers and soil turnover that prevent preservation. Most fossils actually come from aquatic settings, especially the deep ocean floors, where animals are likely to be covered quickly by sediment.
Environment Likelihood of Fossilization Main Factors Ocean Floor High Rapid burial, low oxygen Mountains Very Low Erosion, lack of sedimentation Jungles Low Scavengers, active soil mixing
Gaps in Fossil Representation
The fossil record does not provide a complete picture. It is estimated that only about 0.1% of all species that have ever lived are known from fossils, leaving well over 99.9% unaccounted for.
Not all creatures have bodies that fossilize well—soft-bodied animals like jellyfish and squid are rarely preserved. This leads to a patchy and uneven fossil record, with marine animals especially overrepresented, and many land dwellers or soft-bodied organisms almost entirely missing. As a result, even if an advanced species existed millions of years ago, their remains would be extremely unlikely to endure in the fossil archive.
Most commonly preserved: Marine animals with hard parts
Rarely preserved: Soft-bodied animals, species from erosion-prone or biologically active environments
These gaps and biases mean it's possible that entire kinds of ancient life—including any past advanced civilizations—could leave little to no easily detectable fossil evidence.
Limitations in Detecting Ancient Civilizations
Detecting signs of very ancient civilizations is challenging due to extreme geological time scales. Earth’s surface is constantly reshaped by natural processes—mountains rise and erode, volcanoes bury landscapes, oceans move, and tectonic activity recycles material. Over millions of years, even the greatest constructions, such as pyramids or cities, would be worn down and erased.
Fossilization presents another significant obstacle. Fossils can only form under specific conditions, typically when remains are quickly buried in oxygen-poor environments. This is much more common in marine settings than on land or in mountains and jungles. As a result, the fossil record is naturally biased:
Environment Chance of Fossilization Ocean floors High Jungles Very Low Mountains Very Low
Only about 0.1% of all species that have ever existed are believed to appear in the fossil record. Most species—potentially including advanced ones—left no fossil evidence at all.
Artifacts and structures don’t fare much better. Pottery, coins, and ruins may survive for thousands of years, but over millions, they are destroyed or buried beyond recognition. Wind, water, and ice erode what once existed, leaving behind few or no traces.
Given these factors, evidence for an ancient advanced civilization—if one existed millions of years ago—would likely be lost. Traditional archaeological methods become nearly useless over geological time, making detection extremely unlikely through direct physical remains.
Alternative Methods for Tracing Lost Civilizations
Researchers suggest that relying solely on visible artifacts or fossils is not enough for identifying ancient advanced societies. Geological activity, erosion, and plate tectonics will erase virtually all traces of structures and items within several million years. Even monumental buildings would be reduced to dust over such long spans.
Fossilization is an extremely rare process, representing only a tiny percentage of past life. Some environments, like oceans, are more likely to preserve remains, but soft-bodied species or those in mountains or jungles often leave little to no record. The fossil record is so incomplete that over 99.9% of all species that ever lived are completely unknown.
Alternative approaches include:
Geochemical Anomalies: Scientists can search for unusual chemical signatures in ancient rock layers that might signal intense industrial activity, such as elevated levels of certain metals or synthetic compounds.
Unusual Carbon Deposits: Layers with abnormal carbon isotopes might suggest the large-scale burning of fossil fuels, potentially linked to past civilizations.
Patterns in Sedimentation: Artificial changes in sediment or unusual concentrations of materials could indicate large-scale construction or alteration of landscapes.
Method Description Limitations Geochemical Analysis Identifying synthetic or rare elements in sediments Could misinterpret natural events Isotope Studies Uncovering abnormal carbon isotope ratios Requires high-resolution sampling Sediment Pattern Review Looking for unnatural shifts or accumulations Difficult to separate from geology
By examining these indirect markers instead of relying only on ancient artifacts or bones, it might be possible to detect the presence of advanced intelligence in Earth’s deeper past.
