Re: Speculative dino species

["T. Mike Keesey" <tmk@dinosauricon.com>]

On Fri, 27 Jul 2001, Matt Martyniuk wrote:

> I've been known to do some speculation in this area,
> and actually have some sketches in the works centering
> on volant oviraptorosaurs...
>
> But while on this topic- Would it be totally
> outlandish to think that, had the non-avian dinosaurs
> survived, humans would still have evolved? As I
> understand it, the ancestors of primates had already
> appeared by the end of the Cretaceous. Barring any
> unforseen circumstances, the only difference in their
> evolution would be fending off dromaeosaurs rather
> than lions on the African savannah :) Any thoughts?

This is exactly the concept behind Harry Harrsion's _West of Eden_ series.
Mammals dominate half the world, while reptiles dominate the other. The
author made some rather odd choices, such as having humans exactly like us
evolve in the New World (while we are an Old World species in reality).
Also, instead of intelligent dinosaurs, it has intelligent ...
terrestrial mosasaurs!

I seriously doubt humans, per se, would evolve, given the rather drastic
change we are making to the Earth's history. Another intelligent species
of mammal might be possible, though ... who knows?

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T. MICHAEL KEESEY
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