HYPOTHETICAL: Which is the Least Offensive Explanation?

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

In this hypothetical: the tools in question are at least as complicated as a screwdriver; the tools are 100% without a doubt from the same time period as the surrounding rock; the scientists in question are actually not pulling anyone's leg.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

In terms of Occam's Razor, the most sensible explanation is that dinosaurs or other contemporary organisms made advanced tools. IMO.

[Dildo Argentino]

That's the one I opted for, too. Although it would be such a black swan, it's practically meaningless to speculate. The humans coexisting with dinosaurs is the only one I would discount out of hand.

[Cain]

How hypothetical is this hypothetical?  Yes, this will influence my answer.

[LMNO]

So.... there are tools, but no structures on which the tools were used?

Just tools.  And this is a singular finding.

My razor says that there's something faulty with the premise, and to double check the "100% without a doubt" claim.

[Eater of Clowns]

Utah raptors with claw hammers is not only inoffensive, it is heartwarming.

[Doktor Howl]

Time travellers.  Who all failed and died, because they're the sort of fuckers who leave important tools laying around.

[Cain]

Merked to death by Scottish dinosaurs, with their own screwdrivers.  Sad, but forseeable.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

How hypothetical is this hypothetical?  Yes, this will influence my answer.

Very hypothetical.

[Cain]

So, I shouldn't expect the NSA to smash down my door then?  Well, in that case.....dinosaurs made the tools requires the least amount of disruption to our current understanding of the world.

Though probably what happened was scientist error.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Given that these are the only explanations left:

1: Overwhelming evidence of the course and timing of mammalian evolution as well as mass extinction makes this exceedingly unlikely.
2: More likely, but there's still the tricky questions of where are they now, why did they leave, and how did they get here.
3: This is explains the otherwise apparent lack of civilization, except, you know, time travel into the past, which given our current understanding of physics is less likely than interstellar travel.
4: Considering that there are several tool using species on this planet, some of which are the dinosaurs' descendants, and the only thing that sets us in the tool making department is metallurgy, I'd have to go with this option. Some species at that time was able to achieve a level of culture that achieved metalworking, but fell short of industrialization.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Actually, I change my mind.

Time travelling alien-human hybrid sent back to genetically engineer and enslave dinosaurs to get double to gold out of the Earth's resources, because aliens like gold.

[Doktor Howl]

Given that these are the only explanations left:

1: Overwhelming evidence of the course and timing of mammalian evolution as well as mass extinction makes this exceedingly unlikely.
2: More likely, but there's still the tricky questions of where are they now, why did they leave, and how did they get here.
3: This is explains the otherwise apparent lack of civilization, except, you know, time travel into the past, which given our current understanding of physics is less likely than interstellar travel.
4: Considering that there are several tool using species on this planet, some of which are the dinosaurs' descendants, and the only thing that sets us in the tool making department is metallurgy, I'd have to go with this option. Some species at that time was able to achieve a level of culture that achieved metalworking, but fell short of industrialization.

They could have had planet-spanning urbanization, and we would never know it.  Not a trace would remain after all this time.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Given that these are the only explanations left:

1: Overwhelming evidence of the course and timing of mammalian evolution as well as mass extinction makes this exceedingly unlikely.
2: More likely, but there's still the tricky questions of where are they now, why did they leave, and how did they get here.
3: This is explains the otherwise apparent lack of civilization, except, you know, time travel into the past, which given our current understanding of physics is less likely than interstellar travel.
4: Considering that there are several tool using species on this planet, some of which are the dinosaurs' descendants, and the only thing that sets us in the tool making department is metallurgy, I'd have to go with this option. Some species at that time was able to achieve a level of culture that achieved metalworking, but fell short of industrialization.

They could have had planet-spanning urbanization, and we would never know it.  Not a trace would remain after all this time.

Fair point. They would have had to have died out prior to exhausting carbon fuels though.

[Doktor Howl]

Given that these are the only explanations left:

1: Overwhelming evidence of the course and timing of mammalian evolution as well as mass extinction makes this exceedingly unlikely.
2: More likely, but there's still the tricky questions of where are they now, why did they leave, and how did they get here.
3: This is explains the otherwise apparent lack of civilization, except, you know, time travel into the past, which given our current understanding of physics is less likely than interstellar travel.
4: Considering that there are several tool using species on this planet, some of which are the dinosaurs' descendants, and the only thing that sets us in the tool making department is metallurgy, I'd have to go with this option. Some species at that time was able to achieve a level of culture that achieved metalworking, but fell short of industrialization.

They could have had planet-spanning urbanization, and we would never know it.  Not a trace would remain after all this time.

Fair point. They would have had to have died out prior to exhausting carbon fuels though.

65 million years is plenty of time for petroleum deposits to form.