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An odd idea for a story based on a dream I just had:Jurassic Cats

 
 
 
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Potoooooooo

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I had a very odd dream last night that contains the germ of an idea that could make a good story. I my dream I was reading an old sci-fi magazine from the 1930's. It involved the two main characters activating a time machine that is at the home of a stereotypical "crazy cat lady". The machine sends the whole house back to the Jurassic era, the two main characters are able to put the machine in reverse to go back to the modern era but before the do the cats get out of the house. When the narrators get back to the present time they find a very different Earth. No humans, but lots of strange animals and plants. They theorize that the presence of cats in the Jurassic impacted the development of the early mammals&birds and led to different evolutionary paths being taken.



Now waking up and thinking about it some more led me to a few questions you all might be able to help with.



1) Would cats be able to survive in the Jurassic

2) What impact would they have (either through predation or competition) on the animal life of that time?
 
Potoooooooo said:
I had a very odd dream last night that contains the germ of an idea that could make a good story. I my dream I was reading an old sci-fi magazine from the 1930's. It involved the two main characters activating a time machine that is at the home of a stereotypical "crazy cat lady". The machine sends the whole house back to the Jurassic era, the two main characters are able to put the machine in reverse to go back to the modern era but before the do the cats get out of the house. When the narrators get back to the present time they find a very different Earth. No humans, but lots of strange animals and plants. They theorize that the presence of cats in the Jurassic impacted the development of the early mammals&birds and led to different evolutionary paths being taken.



Now waking up and thinking about it some more led me to a few questions you all might be able to help with.



1) Would cats be able to survive in the Jurassic
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Probably; They are very adaptable and breed fast, they can hunt and eat a very wide variety of small animals, and whenever they have been introduced into new environments, they have thrived. I can't think of any particular danger in the Jurassic that would make their total eradication particularly likely, as long as you start with a few breeding pairs.
2) What impact would they have (either through predation or competition) on the animal life of that time?
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If Their introduction to Australia and New Zealand is anything to go by, their impact would be huge. They are such effective hunters that they are quite capable of driving many small species to extinction.

The Stephens Island Wren was almost completely eradicated by a single individual cat - Tibbles, who belonged to the Stephens Island lighthouse keeper - And this was, for some time, believed to be the only known instance of a single individual wiping out an entire species; however it now appears that the last few individuals were finished of by other feral cats, after Tibbles was removed.

A breeding pair of rats in the basement (not an unlikely occurrence) would also have a huge impact. Cats and rats, between them, are quite capable of radically altering any ecosystem into which they are introduced for the first time.
 
I think a housecat if it knew how to hunt (not all do) would be a devastating predator in the Jurassic. They are warm blooded, I don't think there were any substantial warm-blooded predators back then.

Of course a housecat couldn't take down anything but but bigger versions would evolve.
 
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