The octopuses are most likely to dominate the world after humans, scientists say.

The world’s leading experts claim that the eight-legged creatures are poised to become the dominant force on Earth if humanity dies out.

In the event of human extinction, whether through war or climate change, marine invertebrates are said to have the “physical and mental traits necessary” to evolve into the next civilization-building species.

THE Professor Tim Coulson of the University of Oxford stated that “their dexterity, curiosity, ability to communicate with each other and supreme intelligence,” means they could create complex tools to build a vast Atlantis-like civilization underwater.

And while the octopus is “unlikely” to evolve into a land animal, it was smart enough to “extend” its time out of the water in order to develop new hunting methods, Tim Coulson claimed.

Primates – long thought to be the successor to humans – will face the same challenges and also become extinct, he said.

The professor said the predators – which can breathe for 30 minutes out of water – could, over millions of years, develop their own hunting methods on land in the same way humans did in the sea.