How smart were the dinosaurs? – Zoomit

The obtained facts can reveal many points about the influence of evolutionary history on the development of cognitive capabilities. Evolution can come up with ingenious solutions, but it cannot invent anything from scratch. In fact, he has to deal with what he is. Understanding the influence of brain architecture and its limitations for the development of mental capabilities can reveal many points about the evolution of capabilities and behaviors of various animals.

Finally, if we carefully examine the issue, we can also reach many points about the human species. In 1982, paleontology called Dale Russell And Ron Segon, a taxidermist, published a model called a dinosauroid. This model was the first scientific reconstruction of a hypothetical dinosaur that had evolved into an intelligent human-like creature.

For more cultural than scientific reasons, the dinosauroid model was a humanoid reptile. Biologists and artists later came up with imaginative alternatives to the dinosauroid model that were more acceptably dinosaur-like and less biased towards the shape of our own species. This suggests that when people are asked to imagine dinosaur intelligence, they still place themselves at the center of the universe. It could be argued that the bias in imagining humans as the embodiment of an intelligent species reflects the belief that our evolution was somehow inevitable.

However, as Steven J. Gould, the evolutionary biologist noted long ago, advanced human-like intelligence bears no resemblance to many other complex evolutionary adaptations, such as flight or the eye. This intelligence evolved by chance only once in more than three billion years and only because of a set of favorable conditions. On the other hand, there are species on earth like crows to whales and octopuses that are very intelligent despite being different from humans. Maybe one day a bird or another type of animal will find an intelligence similar to ours. The abilities and cognitive developments of dinosaurs could have been very different from ours; But just as stunning.