Dino-birds were evolving away from using their hands for anything useful - in flying birds the fingers became essentially useless (as fingers) and evolved into oblivion as feather attachment structures. And all the big-brained dino-birds were the more bird-like ones.
There's no obvious reason why humans went from tool-using bipedal apes to skilled tool crafters and eventual city-builders. The ancients believed "wise beings" taught them the arts of civilization. Carl Sagan & Iosef Shlovsky thought the "wise beings" were the best evidenced contact between humans and ETIs, though the evidence was frustratingly limited. No obvious high-tech remains, contra the various books on Hindu flying-machines and similar wild claims.
So perhaps ETIs helped push us towards civilization? But that then begs the question: who pushed them? And what saved them from the last Re-Set event?
The Fermi Paradox's solution might just save us from the Great Filter...
Space/Science » in reply to Looking at birds and dinosaurs.
Yes and no...