If dinosaurs were still alive today,do you think they would have the same or greater intelligence than us?

Answer 1

Would some lineage of the dinosaura have human level intelligence today? Maybe yes, maybe no. The ultimate goal of evolution is NOT to create humans. If evolution even has a goal, it would be to adapt to environmental pressures in order to survive. Smarter does not necessarily mean better.

Actually, there is a lineage of dinosaurs living today, a group that belongs to the maniraptora, we call them birds. The African Gray Parrot is considered by many to be one of the most intelligent animals on the planet.

Edit in response to the second answerer: Mammals evolved at the same time as dinosaurs, and their brains were no bigger. Also, the whole "bird brain" myth is just that, a myth. Modern birds show as much "intelligence" as mammals: some are really dumb, some are really bright.

Edit 2: Here's a specific example: Troodon was a small dinosaur that looked somewhat like the famous velociraptor. Troodon's braincase held a brain that was as large as some modern birds and mammals. It was potentially quite bright and if its cleverness was a major boon to its survival, and the smartest Troodons were the best survivors, then it's entirely possible that Modern Troodons could be at a human level. It all depends on what random cards a species gets dealt and how lucky they are to survive. There's never a guarantee though.

Answer 2

First thing. We don't have a method for measuring intelligence in any animals except Humans.

We would have to assume that over the millions of years sense the demise of the last dinosaur, some of the species would have to had evolved significantly different from the way they were when they disappeared. There are reptiles around today that were present millions of years ago, alligator and crocodiles for example. Todays animals are different, but none have evolved any kind of intelligence.

So, no, would be the answer. Not the same intelligence nor greater intelligence that humans.

Answer 3

Had dinosaurs being alive, we would not be here, since our mammal ancestors would not have been able to find the empty niches that the dinosaurs left at the end of the cretaceous. Probably some dinosaur family would have evolved into highly intelligent animals such as apes are nowadays, and if the circumstances were correct, into animals with a human like intelligence.

Answer 4

I think that they may have been almost as smart as us back then. Humans have been on earth for 1.8 million years. T-rex lived for over 20 million years. If dinosaurs had fingers and thumbs they may have built very sophisticated buildings ( for an animal) Im not saying they could of built a house or the empire state building. But they probably could of built dens and homes with sticks, logs, and rocks. Again only if they had human like hands. So if they were alive 2day and had evolved something like hands then im sure they would be geniuses! And humans wouldnt be the dominant species. Very good question!

Answer 5

If they were still alive today, they'd still be dinosaurs, and they'd still have brains smaller than our, so, no they would not have greater intelligence.

If they evolved into a species with greater intelligence than us, then they likely would still be around today, but they wouldn't be dinos anymore, they would be a different species.

In some ways, some dinos are still around today, they have evolved into modern birds - at least this is what many scientists think.

Answer 6

I'd say no. They had a couple hundred million years to evolve, and no one has ever dug up a space ship or automobile that was built by a dinosaur. It seems like the development of this kind of intelligence requires very special circumstances. A basic rule of evolution is that a species develops whatever it needs to assist its survival. If having a big brain is less important than, say, the ability to fly or run really fast, then you are going to have an animal that can fly or run really fast but can't do addition or multiplication.

Answer 7

Greater intelligence.

Answer 8

so the story goes: considering the rise of mammals coincided with the decline of the dinasaur, and should the dinosaur never had gone extinct...life as we know it today would be very different. i might even assume that the selective pressures that drove our evolution would drive KT-surviving dinosaurs' evolution...and "humans" today may not be mammals, but reptillian.

Answer 9

A species does not necessarily get smarter as it evolves. For a species to get smarter, there must be a mechanism for SELECTING smarter members of the species for survival (that is, killing the stupid ones). For example, if a species could not outrun or hide from predators, but had to outwit them instead, only the smarter members would survive. Therefore, the next generation would tend to be a little bit smarter than the last.

Answer 10

id would think that if dinosaurs where still alive they would be more dumb than us, because they and there modern relatives have very tiny brains