Earth's previous generation of overlords

As the previous generation of the Earth's overlords, dinosaurs ruled the Earth for 160 million years, compared to the time when humans appeared on the Earth for only a few million years, which can be said to be very short, but in this short time of a few million years, humans quickly became the new generation of the Earth's overlords, and its degree of domination of the Earth is far more than the dinosaurs.

The reason why humans are so successful, an important reason is that humans have higher intelligence, so we naturally have a question, why humans can have higher intelligence within a few million years, while the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for 160 million years, but did not evolve into higher intelligent creatures?

First of all, it is unfair to compare human beings with dinosaurs, because dinosaurs refer to all species in the phylum Chordata, the order Ornithischia and Lizard-rump, and there are thousands of known species of dinosaurs.

In contrast, humans are only one of the many species in the order Primates under the phylum Chordata and Mammalia, so it is only fair to compare the entire order of Primates with dinosaurs.

From the above chart, we can see that the order Primate appeared more than 60 million years ago, that is, after more than 60 million years of evolution, the primate order appeared in the human, a higher intelligent creature, so that the appearance of humans does not seem so abrupt.

Of course, after all, dinosaurs ruled the earth for 160 million years, which is much longer than the existence of primates, in such a long time, there have been no dinosaurs that can evolve into higher intelligent creatures, which still seems very embarrassing, why is this? This is explainable.

According to the modern theory of evolution, organisms in the process of reproduction from generation to generation will occur genetic mutations, and therefore produce subtle differences, after which the natural environment will be selected, in the process, the genetic mutations suitable for the environment will be retained, while the genetic mutations that are not suitable for the environment will be eliminated.

In simple terms, the direction of biological evolution is to survive better and reproduce more smoothly. Since evolution is a subtle and gradual process, if a trait can be enhanced a little bit to give a more obvious advantage, then this trait can be enhanced continuously in the process of biological evolution.

The majority of early primates were herd animals living in trees. Compared to the solid ground, the environment in trees was more complex, and without the support of the ground, they needed to use more flexible limbs to grasp branches and tree trunks, and they needed better stereo vision and spatial perception when moving in trees.

To more quickly and accurately find the fruit on the tree and other food, they need a stronger ability to distinguish the color and shape of objects, in addition, they also need stronger communication with the same kind of ability to adapt to group life.

These abilities can be enhanced by a larger brain capacity and a more complex nervous system, which means that all other things being equal, a primate can survive better and reproduce more smoothly if it gets a little boost in this area.

When the ancient ancestors of humans formally parted ways with other species on the evolutionary path, their intelligence level was already the best among many species on earth, and this is also the basis for the evolution of higher intelligence. This is an indispensable basis for the evolution of higher intelligence.

Due to changes in the natural environment, human ancestors were forced to enter the unfamiliar prairie, where the environment was more complex than that of the trees. In the crisis-ridden prairie, human ancestors without sharp teeth and claws and strong bodies could only survive by using tools and teamwork, in which the level of intelligence became more important.

Therefore, in the evolution of human ancestors, their intelligence has been improving (specifically, their brain capacity is getting bigger and bigger, and their nervous system is getting more and more complex), and eventually evolved into higher intelligent creatures.

Then look at the dinosaurs, in the 160 million years of dinosaur domination of the earth, the earth's plants are mainly gymnosperms, and gymnosperms do not produce fruits that can be used as food, in this case, even if part of the dinosaurs can climb trees, they can not live in the trees for a long time as primates.

Of course, dinosaurs also do not need to go to the trees to find food, because in the era of dinosaurs most of the time, the Earth's climate are warm and humid, which allows plants to grow in large numbers on the surface of the Earth, it can be said that everywhere is a vibrant scene.

In such a natural environment, herbivorous dinosaurs could easily obtain food, and for them, intelligence was not very important, as long as it was enough, and relatively speaking, "a little bigger" than "a little higher intelligence" could enhance their survival advantage.

On the other hand, as the size of herbivorous dinosaurs became larger and larger, the size of carnivorous dinosaurs had to evolve to become larger and larger, and as for intelligence, it only needed to be a little higher than the herbivorous dinosaurs.

In this case, "a little bit bigger" became the main theme of the entire dinosaur era, of course, there are still some small dinosaurs in the dinosaur era, but for them, intelligence is not particularly important, rather than "a little bit higher intelligence", it is better to be "a little bit faster". It is better to be "a little faster" or "a little wider", so some of them even flew into the sky and became the ancestors of birds.

In summary, the higher intelligence of human beings did not come out of nowhere, it is a "quantitative to qualitative change". In contrast, the natural environment of the dinosaur era did not provide the impetus for dinosaurs to evolve into higher-intelligent creatures.