text: if evolution had taken place for million of years  then why didnt the dinosaurs ever evolve?   certain dinosaurs -did- evolve into what are today modern birds. it was not, however, the flying dinosaurs that evolved into birds, rather it was the raptor-like ones (coelurosaurs, which include t. rex). check out the link below for more info on dinosaur-to-bird evolution.  one of the misconceptions about evolution is that it has to go somewhere, i.e., monkeys have to evolve into humans eventually because that's the last step in the evolution of primates, or wh don't some other animals have civilizations if they've been evolving for millions of years? this idea is wrong.  another misconception is that "evolution takes place over millions of years." that's just simply not true; evolution takes place from generation to generation! evolution is simply a change in allele frequency, which happens every time a baby is born or a reproductively viable person dies. there are four mechanisms to evolution: gene flow (adding new genes to a population), genetic drift (random sampling of a population that skews gene frequency), mutation (which adds new genes and features to a population), and natural selection ("survival of the fittest," so to speak).  to make a millions-year story short, evolution is not directional. even humans aren't finished evolving, we're evolving all the time! complete extinctions do occur when a species is out-competed or when a giant meteor hits the earth and disrupts climate change (like with the poor dinosaurs which were adapted to their climate before the meteor impact ruined it for them). if you have any more specific questions just drop me a line, i love this stuff, and i love talking about it :)