one new bit of research that came out during lockdown was that it was long assumed that as birds, like reptiles, lacked a neocortex
that they couldnt do the higher order thinking that mammals and primates do with their neocortex. But it was proved using brain imaging that unlike reptiles, birds have these different structures that actually function and are organised in the same way as a neocortex, even though a different part of the brain evolved to do it. Depending on when it evolved, it might have meant the dinosaurs were smarter than we give them credit for, apart from JPs velociraptors I guess, and given a general correlation between brain size and intelligence T rex with it's unusually larger cranium (for dinosaurs) may have been a cunning bastard indeed
( , Thu 2 Jun 2022, 2:28, Share, Reply)
that they couldnt do the higher order thinking that mammals and primates do with their neocortex. But it was proved using brain imaging that unlike reptiles, birds have these different structures that actually function and are organised in the same way as a neocortex, even though a different part of the brain evolved to do it. Depending on when it evolved, it might have meant the dinosaurs were smarter than we give them credit for, apart from JPs velociraptors I guess, and given a general correlation between brain size and intelligence T rex with it's unusually larger cranium (for dinosaurs) may have been a cunning bastard indeed
( , Thu 2 Jun 2022, 2:28, Share, Reply)