Philosophy

The Deinonychus is my favorite dinosaur. It was a small raptor, measuring about 3 meters long from its nose to its tail, stood about 1.5 meters high at the hip and weighed about 80 kg. That’s about 10 ft. long, 5 ft. high and 175 lbs. It had sharp, serrated teeth within a very powerful jaw, three sharp curved claws on its hands and a 13 cm (5 in.) sickle-like “terrible claw” on its second toe. Its legs and tail were built for speed.

I believe that it is more vicious than any other dinosaur. But that’s just my opinion; I could be wrong.

However, one thing that I am not in opinion on is whether they could have developed into an intelligent species. Many people believe that the Dromaeosaurids (raptors) or their relatives the Troodontids could have developed into intelligent species had they not become extinct at the end of the Mesozoic Era.

These individuals believe the Deinonychus were intelligent because these dinosaurs hunted in packs and used coordinated attacks against their victims. No one knows to date whether or not their smaller cousins the Velociraptors and other Dromaesaurs hunted in packs.

One cannot claim that these other raptors hunted in packs based solely on the evidence that the Deinonychus hunted in packs. The reason being: Just because one family of animals acts in a certain way, is not proof that all other families of that order are going to act in the same way. For example, the African lion hunts in packs but their cousins the leopards and tigers do not.

But whether or not the other Dromaesaurs hunted in packs or were solitary hunters, it is my belief that the facts of science says that none of the Dromaesaurs or the Troodonts would have become intelligent, no matter how long they lived. That is, they may have been intelligent relative to other dinosaurs but when compared to the genus Homo or even the Australopithecus, they were greatly lacking in the intelligence department. Nor would their descendants have become intelligent.

Before continuing, one should note that alligators and crocodiles did not become extinct along with the all the dinosaurs. Some believe this is because they ate carrion. While others believe it is because they lived off the small fish that inhabited the streams in which they lived and swam. Still others believe that it’s because they are sometimes cannibalistic.

One can only wonder then: If the raptors and Troodonts were so intelligent, then why were they not intelligent enough to follow the example of the alligators and eat dead flesh or fish?

The mere fact that they became extinct is some proof that they were not any more intelligent than present day wolves. This is an animal that hunts in packs and uses coordinated attacks but is not any more intelligent than a dog.

However, a much stronger proof for the inability of the raptors or the Troodonts to evolve into an intelligent species is in their ancestry. Neither of these animals had an ancestry that developed the proper anatomy for evolution into intelligent species. Nor did their descendants, the birds, evolve into an intelligent species.

Most paleontologists believe that the birds descended from the dromaeosaurs, while other scientists believe that they had a common ancestor. Both groups of scientists base their belief on the interpretation of the discovery of feathered dinosaurs such as Bambiraptor, Protarchaeopteryx, Caudipteryx, Confuciusornis, and Sinosaurpteryx. This is good for such helps us discover the origin of birds.

(I don't believe that birds and dinosaurs should be classified in the same class any more than mammal-like reptiles and mammals should be classified in the same class. I look upon feathered dinosaurs as transitional animals between the dinosaurs and birds, just as mammal-like reptiles are transitional between reptiles and mammals. However, I am in favor of giving the dinosaurs their own dinosauria class, while maintaining the class aves for birds. But again, this is my opinion.)

But whichever animal the paleontologists decide is the ancestor of birds and raptors, it was a bipedal animal. Its backbone, as well as the backbone of the Dromaeosaurids, the Troodontids and the birds is perpendicular – or nearly so – to their femur.

This is significant because hominids are not simple bipeds. They are upright walkers! Their backbone is parallel to their leg bone. Upright posture frees the legs for walking. The legs of raptors evolved for both combat and walking. While the legs of hominids evolved for just walking. Finally, hominids do not need a tail for balance as do bipedal dinosaurs.

Upright posture is also more efficient than bipedal locomotion for animals on the road to evolving into intelligent species. It frees their hands for manipulating objects and making tools. Both the raptor’s and the Troodont’s clawed hands were not free to manipulate objects or to make tools, as are the hands of monkeys, apes and hominids.

The hand of the raptor and the Troodont evolved for grasping and clinging onto its prey. While the hands of hominids evolved for tool making. Also, the hands of hominids have a fully opposable thumb; a trait only partially found in other primates and not at all in any other living animal.

The anatomy of the hominids evolved to fill the ecological niche of an intelligent species, while the anatomy of the raptors and the Troodonts evolved to fill the ecological niche of a predator.

When postulating the belief that the Dromaeosaurids or the Troodontids were on the road to producing an intelligent species, one must take all these facts into consideration. Not to do so would be to postulate a theory with only some of the facts.

The ancestor to the hominids was a ground dwelling quadruped that evolved into the trees, developed a backbone that was parallel to its femur, lost its tail and then evolved back down to the ground again. Before doing so, it became a frugivore. Its food was fruits, berries and other such edibles.

An animal does not need clawed hands to hold on to a piece of fruit that is not going to run away or fight back. This allowed the hands to evolve toward a flat fingernail and an opposable thumb. A predator needs clawed hands to grasp and kill its prey. An opposable would probably help here too but not a flat fingernail.

Upright posture and the freed hands of the australopithecines and the genus Homo aided in tool use, which aided in further development of the opposable thumb, which was a positive feedback in the development of a larger, more intelligent brain. The clawed hands of Raptors and Troodonts did not offer them this opportunity.

The ancestors to the raptors and Troodonts did not do this. They stayed on the ground. They did not develop an opposable thumb. They did not develop an upright posture. They did not lose their tail.

Some may claim that the bipedal locomotion of the raptors and the Troodonts could have freed their hands for tool use also. But neither the raptors nor the Troodonts nor their descendants could have used their hands for tool use. They used their clawed hands to hold onto their prey while they killed it by either kicking it with their feet or biting it with their sharp, pointed teeth.

An animal cannot hold a tool in its claws while at the same time holding onto its prey with its claws; the prey will get away. Thus, either the Dromaeosaurids or the Troodontids could have continued to use their clawed hands to hold onto their prey, or they could have started to use them to hold onto tools. Had they chose the latter they would have starved to death!

Man’s ancestors were frugivores and omnivores. This was a positive influence on their teeth and jaw. They did not need large mouths or sharp teeth to aid in the capture or killing of their prey, as fruits and nuts do not run away from those animals that are trying to eat them.

This allowed the faces of the hominids – and to some extent the faces of the other hominoids – to get smaller and flatter. This in turn gave them true stereoscopic vision. Neither the Dromaeosaurids, the Troodontids, nor their ancestors (nor any other dinosaur) had true stereoscopic vision.

For example, the Theropods were carnivores that needed sharp teeth to aid in killing their prey. Their eyes were on the side of their head, facing forward, which only gave them “limited” stereoscopic vision. The need for sharp teeth, a large mouth and limited stereoscopic vision all would have been a hindrance in the development of an opposable thumb, a flat face and a large, intelligent brain.

There are other evolutionary facts that manifest that neither the raptors nor the Troodonts would have developed into an intelligent species. One only needs to study the evolution of man and his ancestors and compare these facts with the fossil evidence of the evolution of the raptors and Troodonts to see the truth.

The raptors and Troodonts did not develop into an intelligent species, even though they had been on the earth for over 60 million years. Yet, the primates did it in less than 20 million years, and it took the hominids only about 4 million of those 20 million years.

The raptor is my favorite dinosaur. I would not believe in the above if it were not the truth. I would like to believe that the raptors could have evolved into an intelligent species but the facts proclaim otherwise.

The raptors could not have evolved an intelligent species, as they did not have the proper ancestry to develop the proper anatomy. This is true of any species that is going to evolve into an intelligent organism. It must have the proper ancestry. That ancestry must live in the proper environment and develop the proper anatomy. The only animals to have done this were the hominids.

Raptors and Other Dinosaurs