What If There Had Been Intelligent Dinosaurs?

Part One

By Romana Annette 12/21/2007

The purpose of this essay is to hypothetically describe an intelligent [i] species of dinosaur, which might have evolved, had the dinosaurs not become extinct.  How would such a species compare to human beings?  There is a tacit assumption, common in philosophical circles, that intelligent, self-aware species are exceedingly rare.  Based upon calculations developed from the Anthropic Cosmological Principles [1,] the occurrence of intelligent species would be negligibly small even in the universe as a whole.

Geological and Paleontological Record

There are those who question the assumptions and the numbers.  Readers should be warned that I am now delving into the realm of crytozoology, extreme speculation, and even extraterrestrials.  The use of Occam’s razor [2] would likely disqualify the likelihood of many of the following ideas, since they do not seem most likely..

There were two major extinction events in the Earth’s history: at the Permian-Triassic [3] boundary, and at the Cretaceous-Tertiary [4] boundary.  In the former, ninety to ninety-five percent of all life on Earth became extinct, and in the latter, all living things over about ninety pounds became extinct.

Throughout the Earth’s history, there have clearly been asteroid or comet strikes, volcanism, and climate change; yet, no theories for either of the mentioned mass-extinction events have yet adequately explained all the details, especially concerning why there were any survivors at all.  For instance, the mammal-like Lystrosaurs [5] survived the Permian extinction and became so common, that one in every two land animals of the time was some variation of a Lystrosaur.  Lystrosaurs were likely herd animals, much like migrating mammals in Africa today.  Lystrosaurs vanished shortly after the first dinosaurs appeared, in the Early Triassic.

Lystrasaur

I am mentioning this, because loss of diversity, as experienced by the human manipulation, can be an indicator for interference by an intelligent species.

It should be noted that the interval and possible lifetime for the evolution of any animal species is three to five million years (which holds for human beings,) with extremely successful species extending to ten or even twenty million years.

Contrary to Anthropic calculations, there are those who say that intelligent species could have repeatedly evolved during the history of the Earth, since it only takes three to five million years to happen.

The fossil record only shows marine animals and land (herding) animals and their predators, along with a few flying pterosaurs and birds found in marine deposits.  There must have been arboreal and mountain forest species, but they are not found in the record.  This is where intelligent species could have lived.  These are often referred to a primosaurs or dinosauroids.

The Late Cretaceous Period was also characterized by a loss in the diversity of species, without any obvious reason.  Surviving species, such as Triceratops and Hadrosaurs were ultra numerous and successful.  Again, this could be circumstantial evidence for the existence of primosaurs or dinosauroids.

There is no fossil record for any advanced technology, which could include things made of stainless steel or titanium.  This implies that any pre-human intelligent species could never have advanced beyond Stone Age or Iron Age cultures.

This idea was treated in a Star Trek: Voyager episode entitled Distant Origin [6,] where a super-advanced species, called the Voth, was discovered, who were descendents of Parasaurolophus [7,] a type of herding Hadrosaur.

A Voth, from Star Trek	Parasaurolophus

This would have been highly unlikely, since an omnivorous species or a carnivorous species would have been more likely, such as a Troodon, which was considered to be one of the most intelligent of the dinosaurs [8.]

A current idea is that a dinosaur such as a Troodon could have evolved into a humanoid dinosaur something like this sculpture by Dale Russell of Canada [9.]  It is controversial because it is very humanoid, which implies a considerable amount of human-based bias.

Troodon Reconstruction	Dinosauroid

However, since dinosaurs were closely related to us, it is not inconceivable that they could have evolved into a humanoid appearance.  A large brain in a heavy head equipped with binocular-vision would have worked best in an upright position

These ideas have also been linked to ancestral and cultural myths [10] concerning a variety of intelligent reptilian creatures.  This mythology has recently been enhanced with UFO and conspiracy theories.  However, one should not allow forms of hysteria to overshadow meaningful investigation.

Definitions

·      i.     Intelligence: in this context, I define intelligence to be a self-aware mindset, where beings question why things are, without simple ignorant acceptance.  This would also include abstract reasoning, the invention of art and music, the use of language and writing, and the use of tools to magnify their impact on the environment.

References

·      1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle

·      2.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor

·      3.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian-Triassic_extinction_event

·      4.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-t_boundary

·      5.  http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/photos/permian-period.html

·      6.  http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Distant_Origin

·      7.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-12/bizarre-dinosaurs/dinosaur-interactive.html

·      8.  http://www.dinosaur-world.com/feathered_dinosaurs/troodon_formosus.htm

·      9.  http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/dinosaurintell.html

·      10.http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Reptilian_humanoids