{"id":14433,"date":"2022-07-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=14433"},"modified":"2022-09-16T09:06:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T07:06:23","slug":"given-the-immense-time-period-that-dinosaurs-existed-for-why-did-none-of-them-develop-sentience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/07\/04\/given-the-immense-time-period-that-dinosaurs-existed-for-why-did-none-of-them-develop-sentience\/","title":{"rendered":"Given the immense time period that dinosaurs existed for, why did none of them develop sentience?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

QUESTION OF THE MONTH:<\/span><\/h3>\n\n

Given the immense time period that dinosaurs existed for, why did none of them develop sentience?<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

PAMELA FLOWER, VIA EMAIL<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

One thing that sets humans apart from other animals \u2013 as far as we know \u2013 is that we are sentient. Not only do we have large brains and keen intelligence, but we are self-aware. We are conscious: we sense the world around us in an advanced way, and know that we exist, and that others exist. <\/p>\n\n

Our species has been around for just a few hundred thousand years, a newcomer on the geological scene. So why didn\u2019t dinosaurs develop sentience during their evolutionary run that exceeded 150 million years? First off, we assume they didn\u2019t, because they didn\u2019t leave records of things like writing, language and other sentient thought processes in the fossil record. <\/p>\n\n

But we now know from CT scanning of fossil skulls that many dinosaurs had very large brains. <\/p>\n\n

Could these large brains have eventually become sentient? Maybe, if the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact didn\u2019t knock out dinosaurs in their prime and pave the way for our mammalian ancestors. SB<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

\n\n

WINNER<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The winner of next issue\u2019s Question Of The Month <\/em>wins a WiZ Squire smart table lamp <\/strong>worth \u00a354.99. This lamp connects with the Wi-Fi in your home, so you can control it from anywhere with your smartphone. Choose from millions of colours or opt for various preset light modes, to customise your space. wizconnected.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

Email your questions to<\/span>
questions@sciencefocus.com<\/a>
or submit on Twitter<\/span>
@sciencefocus<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

QUESTION OF THE MONTH: Given the immense time period that dinosaurs existed for, why did none of them develop sentience? PAMELA FLOWER, VIA EMAIL One thing that sets humans apart from other animals \u2013 as far as we know \u2013 is that we are sentient. Not only do we have large brains and keen intelligence, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":14718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"85","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"85","purple_seq_number":"2","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"2","purple_source_article":"article_85-2.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_85-2.xml","purple_source_issue":"July-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"July-2022","purple_external_id":"July-2022-85-2","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"July-2022-85-2","purple_issue_code":"|0000089655||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089655||","purple_android_product":"2022sciencefocusjuly","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"2022sciencefocusjuly","purple_ios_product":"2022sciencefocusjuly","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"2022sciencefocusjuly","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"0f422ad1-c939-476d-9f82-a410052ad4c3","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-07-05T09:19:52Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"8b11ce1a-7ba2-440a-a164-5e349378e9f5","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-07-06T12:58:02Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AixHOGnuiRAqhZF40k3jp9Q","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[30],"tags":[15],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_157684311_preview.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_157684311_preview.jpg",1249,950,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_157684311_preview-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_157684311_preview-300x228.jpg",300,228,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_157684311_preview-768x584.jpg",768,584,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_157684311_preview-1024x779.jpg",800,609,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_157684311_preview.jpg",1249,950,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages_157684311_preview.jpg",1249,950,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"QUESTION OF THE MONTH: Given the immense time period that dinosaurs existed for, why did none of them develop sentience? PAMELA FLOWER, VIA EMAIL One thing that sets humans apart from other animals \u2013 as far as we know \u2013 is that we are sentient. Not only do we have large brains and keen intelligence,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14433"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15633,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14433\/revisions\/15633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}