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Old 04-12-2018, 10:10 PM   #5
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Pre-human civilizations on Earth

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
One problem is that not only that technological species would have to be unknown. All of its other high intelligence relatives would as well. For humans, all other primates would have to be missing from the fossil record.
There really aren't any non-mammalian animals on par with primates other than cephalopods.
It's somewhat unclear with cephalopods. The most recent book I looked at that mention it had them smarter than fish, but fish aren't brilliant; they might be no smarter than the average mammal or bird.

On the other hand, if you look at the ratio of brain mass to body surface area, the passeriformes (loosely, songbirds, though the category also includes corvids) are a match for most primates. And parrots seem pretty impressively smart.
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