08-26-2014, 03:58 AM
mrlynn wrote:
[quote=davester]
[quote=mrlynn]
I have often wondered whether, had not the dinosaurs been wiped out c. 65 million years ago, they might have evolved into creatures with big-enough brains to be called human-like. Many walked on two legs, with small arms that could have developed opposable thumbs. Some of them may have had binocular vision, not unlike ours. It's interesting to speculate whether their non-mammalian brains might have developed very different kinds of symbology (language, music, art), etc, or for that matter, any at all.
/Mr Lynn
The dinosaurs are still with us but with a different name...birds. Their arms became wings and they (mostly) took to the skies. Birds are evolved theropod dinosaurs (T.Rex was one too!).
True, of course. One look at the iridescent grackles at my bird feeder tells me what the fiercest dinos might have been like, only much larger. Still, if they larger ones had survived, and kept the mammals from filling their niches, I can imagine some evolving in a sentient direction.
/Mr Lynn
Definitely. It's probably just evolutionary chance that a mammal happened upon the ecological niche that favored intellect. Could have been a fish, bird, reptile, whatever. Time and DNA replication together provide the mechanism for creating anything that will give an advantage.