Dinosaurs ruled the earth for 170 million years, but they did not evolve into higher intelligent creatures. Why?

Since the Cambrian explosion, the sun and the moon have rotated, the sea has changed, and the overlords at the top of the earth's food chain have been replaced generation after generation. In this battle, there are the herbivorous overlord Lystrosaurus who reached the top by luck, and there are also sharks who have been working hard but are always the "second".

Conceptual image of "Water Dragon Age"

In short, species are constantly evolving under constant succession. Among them, the dinosaurs should be the ones who have been on the throne the longest. They can also be regarded as the "previous kings" closest to humans. According to the existence time of dinosaurs on the earth and the statistical time, this guy should have ascended to create civilization long ago, but in fact he did not.

So, why did dinosaurs rule the earth for 170 million years but still not evolve into highly intelligent creatures? If dinosaurs had created civilization, what kind of era would it be? If dinosaurs had not become extinct, what kind of situation would humans face?

The Glorious Dinosaur Dynasty

When dinosaurs ruled the earth

Humans have always been very curious about the ancient creatures that appeared before us, and the most popular one may be "dinosaurs". This creature once ruled the earth for 170 million years, and its physique and combat power are several times that of humans.

In fact, if we put all the overlords of the earth together for a decisive battle, then humans, the only ones who created civilization, would probably be the first to die. After all, our bodies are too fragile.

Human and dinosaur size comparison chart

Dinosaurs mainly lived from the middle and late Triassic period to the end of the Cretaceous period. During this period, the dinosaur family not only became extremely large, but also spread all over the world.

The more famous dinosaurs include Tyrannosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Diplodocus, Pterosaur, etc. These dinosaurs are frequent guests in movies. As the overlords of the time, dinosaurs not only have an absolute advantage in size, but also have evolved quite "perfect" attack organs. With sharp claws, fangs and a body size like a hill, they are undoubtedly the best among many creatures.

There are as many as 1 million species of dinosaurs that have ever appeared on Earth.

At that time, carnivorous dinosaurs unsurprisingly became the top of the food chain. Under such circumstances, dinosaurs began to rule the earth, and they sat on the throne of this overlord for 170 million years.

On the other hand, humans have been around for millions of years, and their civilization history is more than 6,000 years. According to this situation, dinosaurs should have evolved into highly intelligent creatures long ago, and even had enough time to create a more brilliant civilization. But why did they not evolve into a civilized form?

Conceptual image of the dinosaur era

Why didn't it evolve into a higher intelligent creature?

I believe that anyone who has watched "Jurassic Park" can feel that dinosaurs are very smart creatures. Although there are some exaggerations in the film, it is impossible for them to rule the earth for so long without some skills. Therefore, most scientists believe that dinosaurs are not stupid because of their huge size, but are very smart.

But why, after such a long period of accumulation, has it not evolved into a higher intelligent creature? Scientists have given the following reasons for this question. You can see which one has a greater impact.

Most carnivorous dinosaurs were smarter than herbivorous dinosaurs

First of all, we need to understand that the essence of "evolution" is continuous gene mutation, and it is actually quite difficult for these gene mutations to spread from individuals to the entire population and become a population advantage. Moreover, the choices made by each organism in evolution are very different.

Obviously, the dinosaurs, which had become the overlords of the earth at that time, could already be at the top of the food chain with their powerful military strength, and they also had the wisdom to hunt. In this case, from the perspective of dinosaurs, there was no need to choose to evolve wisdom.

The evolution of dinosaurs

In addition, except for herbivorous dinosaurs, most carnivorous dinosaurs like to be alone, whether hunting or enjoying food, and have a strong sense of territory. In this case, dinosaurs cannot become a "social creature", and will not produce more ideas about creating civilization under the collision of group wisdom.

Secondly, the environment in which the dinosaurs lived was not optimistic. Although the dinosaurs ruled the earth for 170 million years, the earth's environment did not provide much help for the development of the dinosaurs during this long evolutionary process. It can be said that in addition to helping it ascend to the position of overlord, the harsh environment has always prevented the dinosaurs from evolving into intelligent creatures.

Schematic diagram of the evolution of the earth's environment

After all, if you want to become an intelligent creature, you must first evolve a brain, and a large brain is also a disadvantage for dinosaurs that need to run quickly to hunt. In addition, in order to adapt to the environment of the earth, the dinosaurs at that time were so focused on how to "defend themselves externally" that they had no time to consider evolving their brains.

Finally, there is biological competition. Although it may cause a species to become extinct, it may also make it stronger. During the years when dinosaurs ruled the earth, they did not face much biological competition, so the direction of evolution was to continue to strengthen on the original basis, without having to think about whether to come up with something new.

Predators at the top of the food chain have no natural enemies

In summary, the evolution of organisms is affected by many factors. It is not the case that as long as they exist for a long enough time, they will definitely evolve into highly intelligent organisms or create civilization. In fact, if the history of human evolution were to be repeated, we might not be able to reach this point today and create such a brilliant civilization.

However, many scientists believe that based on some of the unearthed dinosaur fossils, if the extinction disaster had not occurred, they might have evolved into highly intelligent creatures, which they call "dinosaur people."

The conception of the image of "dinosaur man"

Dinosaurs evolved into "dinosaur people"

There have been many different opinions in the scientific community about what caused the extinction of dinosaurs. The most widely accepted one is the asteroid impact. The violent impact caused a large amount of dust to be raised, covering the atmosphere and making it difficult for light to enter.

Asteroid impact caused the extinction of dinosaurs

In this case, the climate changed and the survival of the herbivorous dinosaurs at the bottom was affected, leading to a subsequent chain reaction.

When the extinction issue was still undecided, Canadian paleontologist Russell and his colleagues discovered the fossil of a dinosaur in Alberta Provincial Park, Canada, and named it "Trodon". The special thing about this guy is that his head is particularly large, and his brain capacity is obviously larger than his body size.

Restoration of Troodon

Therefore, the excited Russell proposed in 1982 that the body structure of "Trodon" may indicate that they have begun to evolve their brains. If they are given some more time, they may really evolve into "dinosaur people".

Data shows that Troodon was a gregarious creature with a distinct social nature, with an EQ of around 5.3, which means they are very similar to some smart birds today.

Concept art of Troodon

Of course, this name is just to make it easier for everyone to regard them as higher intelligent creatures, it does not mean that they will eventually become the same as humans.

Scientists speculate that if dinosaurs really evolved human-like intelligence, the civilization they created would probably be much different from human civilization. After all, they had the advantage of size, so it would have been easier for them to create large-scale buildings in the early stages.

In addition, it is hard to say whether the dinosaurs would have taken a different path during this process and evolved some characteristics that we cannot imagine. However, the world is full of accidents. During these 170 million years, the dinosaurs did not seize the opportunity. It would definitely be too late to regret when they became extinct.

No one knows what the future will be like with dinosaurs

It is worth mentioning that the extinction of dinosaurs is undoubtedly a good thing for humans, because if they had not died, mammals would always hide in the dark and would not usher in the climax of evolution.

The extinction of dinosaurs was like a foreshadowing of the rise of mankind. If this powerful enemy had continued to occupy the throne, mammals would certainly not have been able to prosper based on their situation at the time.

The birth of mankind is the result of thousands of events

From the above point of view, humans are indeed lucky. Although we have faced many strong opponents in the future, compared with dinosaurs or "dinosaur people", these are already good. Of course, humans admire any creature that becomes the overlord of the food chain, because they represent the absolute wisdom and strength of that era!

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