OVER the years scientists have produced theories about what aliens could look like.
But researchers now claim that extra-terrestrials may even have evolved in a similar way to organisms here on Earth.
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What do aliens look like?
University of Oxford theory
A 2017 study from the University of Oxford suggested that the process of natural selection which created species we see here on Earth is likely to have taken place on other planets too.
Natural selection is a process outlined by Charles Darwin which suggests that the species which are best suited to their environment are most likely to survive to pass on their genes.
On Earth, this has led to the evolution of humans over billions of years.
But on another world, scientists belief that life is likely to look radically different depending on the conditions on the planet.
Sam Levin, a researcher at Oxford’s Department of Zoology, said: “We still can’t say whether aliens will walk on two legs or have big green eyes. But we believe evolutionary theory offers a unique additional tool for trying to understand what aliens will be like, and we have shown some examples of the kinds of strong predictions we can make with it.
“There are potentially hundreds of thousands of habitable planets in our galaxy alone. We can’t say whether or not we’re alone on Earth, but we have taken a small step forward in answering, if we’re not alone, what our neighbours are like.”
He touched on events known as “major transitions” – which have driven the evolution of different species.
It happens when single cell organisms evolve to become organisms made of several cells.
Scientists believe that this eventually led to the rise of humanity as know today.
Levin added: “By predicting that aliens have undergone major transitions – which is how complexity has arisen in species on earth, we can say that there is a level of predictability to evolution that would cause them to look like us,”
Arik Kershenbaum’s theory
Zoologist Arik Kershenbaum, meanwhile, used his knowledge on the evolution of animals in the wild to dentine what aliens could look like.
“If you follow things back far enough, there’s a connection between any two individuals from any species,” he told the Times of Israel.
Written as part of his book – ‘The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens and Ourselves’ – he studied the way in which several animals adapted to scenarios over a period of time.
“If the problems animals face on Earth are similar to difficulties other planets will have, and there aren’t an infinite number of solutions to particular problems like getting energy from the sun and stars, planets will tend to evolve similar solutions to similar problems on different planets.”
An alien tried to have sex with me after morphing into my husband and climbing into my bed
