dinosaurs

[blackeyed]

is there an evidence to humans not existing in the dinosaur era?

[squarebear]

Dinosaurs were around about 65 million years before humans. The films you see with cavemen hunting brontosaurus are pure fiction.

[warpig3]

Damn you squarebear, next you will be saying that it applies to cartoons too and the Flintstones didn't really happen, grrrrrr!

[squarebear]

Oh no, the Flintstones are true. It's just the caveman films that aren't ;-)

[jake-the-peg]

The fossil record shows that Dinosaurs died out long before humans started to evolve.

There are no human remains in rocks of that age.

We can also estimate when humans evolved by our DNA

Although that's true if you take a purists view of what a dinosaur is and when the dinosaur era was.

In some ways they're still with us now.

Look at a crocodile. If they'd died out at the same time we'd mostly lump them in with the dinosaurs but they made it through to modern times so we don't think of them as such

[warpig3]

Phew, thank god for that!

[ChuckFickens]

I always thought those films with cavemen chasing dinosaurs must be fiction, it's the fact they are filmed in colour that really gives it away!

[blackeyed]

thanks for the answers

[rov1200]

Personally I think this scenario proves the existance of a creator. If a species died out because of a catastrophe after a period of time you would expect the same species to re-occur. Instead a more superior species was created abandoning the failed relics of the distant past.

[Lil O'lady]

Or does it demonstrate mathematical probability in action?

[jno]

it took dinosaurs about 130 million years to evolve into the dominant species, rov1200 - do you mind waiting a while? In another 60 million years or so the earth may be ruled by giant alligators.

[chakka35]

rov1200, you plainly don't understand the basic principles of evolution.
Which species come about and which don't is decided by totally random mutations in the genetic code passed on from one generation to the next, followed by natural selection of those mutations that are viable and advantageous.

So even if the environment were still suitable for dinosaurs after they had become extinct, the probability of that long series of mutations needed to produce them occuring a second time is ridiculously and hopelessly small.

[martybabe]

Crocodiles aren't dinosaurs and I extinct fossil crocodilians are NOT lumped in with the dinosaurs. 'Dinosaur' does not simply mean 'extinct giant reptile' - it refers to members of a particular group which all share particular charcteristics.

Birds however, ARE dinosaurs - they evolved directly from a lineage of saurischians.