Were dinosaurs more evolutionarily advanced than humans???

I know this is a hard thing to apply a metric to, but I was thinking to myself “were they really primitive?? Or are we more primative evolutionarily???

If we are assuming that major extinction events wipe the slate clean, which I know isn’t 100% the case..

So the dinosaurs had like 135 million years of evolution as they “ruled the earth” and humanity has only had 65 million years of evolution that led to our dominance.


So does that mean the dinosaurs were actually more advanced physically because they have had longer to adapt to their environment???


I’m asking a weird question That I don’t even know if there is an answer to....



But when you compare the pre extinction event animals they seem better adapted to fit their environments..

If you brought them to modern times they jump straight to the top of the food chain..

When I was blessed enough to raise chickens, I always thought they looked like little feathered T-Rex's running around the yard. A few years later, it came out that was pretty much true. The more ya know.

or maybe they were really really stupid to start with
and ended up just stupid.

The term "evolutionarily advanced" is rather meaningless. Every living thing is as "evolutionarily advanced" as every other living thing. They evolve with their environment. If they don't, they cease to exist.

If you brought them to modern times they jump straight to the top of the food chain..

Tell me, have you been going to the movies recently?

If you brought them to modern times they jump straight to the top of the food chain..

No, no they wouldn't.

The difference in the environment between 65 and more million years ago, and now, would be a bit much for them to adapt to. Not to mention man is the predator of record now. For better, or for worse, T-rex comes down a distant second.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

I think you have oversimplified this.

Dinosaurs are still here as birds, they are not extinct, just evolved. When you use the word dinosaur you are describing many species, some as diverse from one another as a mouse is from an elephant.

Mammals have also been here a long, long time. To compare, you would have to compare mammals to dinosaurs, not dinosaurs to humans.

Mammals came on the scene in the Late Triassic.

I would hate to be a T-rex with an itch on my ass.
This is where I see humans to be more advanced.
We can scratch our ass.
And we have guns.
And beer.
I vote humans, in a relatively short time, have beat the dinosaurs in the game of evolution.

originally posted by: skunkape23
I would hate to be a T-rex with an itch on my ass.

I guess you've never seen a T-Rex scoot across the carpet.

a reply to: skunkape23

Imagine, if you will, a drunk Apatosaurus...











The mind boggles.

originally posted by: Blaine91555
a reply to: JoshuaCox

I think you have oversimplified this.

Dinosaurs are still here as birds, they are not extinct, just evolved. When you use the word dinosaur you are describing many species, some as diverse from one another as a mouse is from an elephant.

Mammals have also been here a long, long time. To compare, you would have to compare mammals to dinosaurs, not dinosaurs to humans.

Mammals came on the scene in the Late Triassic.

Great post.

Intelligence is an amazing thing.

dinosaur = bird
Bird = smart - brain-to-body ratio is 1:12 while for humans it is 1:40.
Some birds can talk and ride bikes.

a reply to: kyleplatinum

Yes as far as intelligence, birds would be the state of evolution of that for what used to be dinosaurs. Birds like Ravens and African Grays are extremely intelligent. I recall seeing estimates comparing it to a 2 to 3 year old humans. There was a famous African Gray that used to be in the news often, that could both understand and speak in sentences and differentiate items by color or the material they were made of.

Misconceptions about evolution

Species evolve to fit their environmental needs and other factors. It isn't about being more or less evolved, but about being suitably adapted for the circumstances an organism finds itself in.

As far as I know, we haven't unearthed any dino-skyscrapers or dino cellphones so probably not. Besides, we were using them as garbage disposals and at the rock quarry so how smart could they be?

a reply to: nfflhome

Intelligence isn’t the only form of evolution..


There is a physical side as well..

I’m kinda thinking that dinosaurs were more evolved than modern animals because they had more time to evolve..

That is why a T-Rex would obliterate a polar bear.


We just evolved down the mental path..


Just to put a random number on it but maybe.....


Dinosaurs were a 10 in physical traits and a 3 in mental traits and we are a 2 in physical traits and a 7 in mental traits.

If you look at it like that they would be a combined 13 to our combined 9.


Meaning they were more evolutionarily advanced over all.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

That is why a T-Rex would obliterate a polar bear.

I wonder how long T-Rex would survive on the Arctic ice. I'm sure they would have many babies and thrive. Or not.

Again, "evolutionarily advanced" is a meaningless term.

originally posted by: underpass61
As far as I know, we haven't unearthed any dino-skyscrapers or dino cellphones so probably not. Besides, we were using them as garbage disposals and at the rock quarry so how smart could they be?

Reminds me of Weird Al's "Bedrock Anthem":

Specifically the lines:

Got a pterodactyl for a windshield wiper

and

Where's Wilma? Anybody seen her?
Got a baby elephant vacuum cleaner

a reply to: seagull

Kinda like Batman , Only if we have time to rig the game..

Even then.. when would man have taken dominance if t-Rex’s were still running around??


Like 1850??? lol


Would we ever have if dinosaurs didn’t die out???

There is one anthropologist who thinks the short faced bear might have stopped any earlier crossings of the Bering land bridge.. appearently humans don’t cross until right after it goes extinct.

well a T-Rex would eat a short faced bear for breakfast.

So humanity might never have made it to primacy in the first place.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Think about your question... were they more evolutionary advanced than humans..

If we look at the ability to adapt and be one with your surroundings, then yes,, basically everything is more advanced than us, we are the scum of the earth, and because of a a series of unfortunate genetic mutations, we have bought thousands of years of time for the human race, but eventually we will die of because of disease or war, because we are a mistake, a dead end.

a reply to: Blaine91555

But not the big ones..

The big ones , which were the dominant species were all killed in the meteor strike..


All they think survived were small burrowing animals.. the mammals became us. The small lizards/dinosaurs became birds..


Every extinction event tends to kill off most effective predators and leaves what was previously the trash.

That’s why I am moving from extinction to extinction.

What survives the extinction event is almost always the little creatures getting pooped on before said event.

originally posted by: JoshuaCox

Would we ever have if dinosaurs didn’t die out???

There is one anthropologist who thinks the short faced bear might have stopped any earlier crossings of the Bering land bridge.. appearently humans don’t cross until right after it goes extinct.

well a T-Rex would eat a short faced bear for breakfast.

So humanity might never have made it to primacy in the first place.

Maybe, but I bet it would have more to do with small raptor dinos (chicken or ostrich-sized) eating the little shrews and weasel-like things from which we descended than it has to do with the potential of T-rex eating our larger sloth-like ancestors.

What I'm saying is that we may have never got out of the shrew/weasel stage.