Re: To continue your analogy to it's logical conclusion...
Intelligence and species longevity have a more or less inverse linear relationship.
* Microbes persist from ~3 Ga
* Shellfish persist unchanged from the Ordovician.
* Cealocanths do not write mathematical theorems.
+ And the dinosaurs were just getting somewhere, intellectually speaking, when the sky fell on them.
Specialisations like eyes, legs, and brains are a big metabolic cost. When the Shit hits the Fan, simple creatures survive better, because thay have lower overheads.
Only rarely does a smart species survive, when its brains get more value than they cost...