RE: Ancient Raptor Civilization
January 20, 2015 at 5:18 am
(This post was last modified: January 20, 2015 at 5:22 am by Lucanus.)
Hardly... Most of our civilization stems from the way mammals take care of their offspring, and even among mammals we humans are kinda unique in the way we stay attached to our families even after reaching adulthood. That's the way a culture is formed: the passing down of habits and customs through generations.
It's not even having your arms free that makes such a big difference; one can look at kangaroos for example.
The way we have evolved is the result of our arboricoral ape ancestors, who needed a brain big enough to process the risky jumps from branch to branch, adapting to the environment of the savannah, that resulted in them having to outsmart their opponents rather than to 'outclimb' them, if you will.
Parental care has never been observed in reptiles, with the possible exception of birds who need to teach their offspring how to fly, but lack the limbs necessary to the creation of a human-like civilization. And while dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than to modern reptiles, I really can't remember one example of parental care among them.
Anyway, I suppose that if there actually was a 'Silurian'-like race of intelligent reptiles before the mass extinction, we would find some fossils with a bigger cranial capacity than the average dinosaur.
It's not even having your arms free that makes such a big difference; one can look at kangaroos for example.
The way we have evolved is the result of our arboricoral ape ancestors, who needed a brain big enough to process the risky jumps from branch to branch, adapting to the environment of the savannah, that resulted in them having to outsmart their opponents rather than to 'outclimb' them, if you will.
Parental care has never been observed in reptiles, with the possible exception of birds who need to teach their offspring how to fly, but lack the limbs necessary to the creation of a human-like civilization. And while dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than to modern reptiles, I really can't remember one example of parental care among them.
Anyway, I suppose that if there actually was a 'Silurian'-like race of intelligent reptiles before the mass extinction, we would find some fossils with a bigger cranial capacity than the average dinosaur.
"Every luxury has a deep price. Every indulgence, a cosmic cost. Each fiber of pleasure you experience causes equivalent pain somewhere else. This is the first law of emodynamics [sic]. Joy can be neither created nor destroyed. The balance of happiness is constant.
Fact: Every time you eat a bite of cake, someone gets horsewhipped.
Facter: Every time two people kiss, an orphanage collapses.
Factest: Every time a baby is born, an innocent animal is severely mocked for its physical appearance. Don't be a pleasure hog. Your every smile is a dagger. Happiness is murder.
Vote "yes" on Proposition 1321. Think of some kids. Some kids."
Fact: Every time you eat a bite of cake, someone gets horsewhipped.
Facter: Every time two people kiss, an orphanage collapses.
Factest: Every time a baby is born, an innocent animal is severely mocked for its physical appearance. Don't be a pleasure hog. Your every smile is a dagger. Happiness is murder.
Vote "yes" on Proposition 1321. Think of some kids. Some kids."
