The End of Dinosaurs

Theories About Dinosaur Extinction

Were the dinosaurs inferior because they became extinct?

The fact that dinosaurs became extinct has been used as proof of their inferiority and that they were evolutionary failures. But it is unlikely that anyone can claim the inferiority or superiority of a species. Some species, such as the Lingula clams, have been around for 500 million years; the dinosaurs lived for about 150 million years; and the earliest hominids appeared only about three million years ago, with modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) appearing only about 90,000 years ago. If, as many paleontologists believe, birds are really proven to be dinosaurs, then we may one day say that dinosaurs have existed for almost 200 million years.