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Course: American Museum of Natural History > Unit 1
Lesson 2: How do scientists study dinosaurs?- Where in the world did dinosaurs live?
- Where in the world did dinosaurs live?
- Did dinosaurs travel in herds or packs?
- Did dinosaurs travel in herds or packs?
- How fast were dinosaurs?
- Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
- Were dinosaurs warm-blooded?
- How fast did dinosaurs grow, and how long did they live?
- How fast did dinosaurs grow, and how long did they live?
- What was dinosaur skin like?
- What color were extinct dinosaurs?
- What color were extinct dinosaurs?
- What were the biggest and smallest dinosaurs?
- Did dinosaurs fight?
- How did dinosaurs reproduce?
- How intelligent were dinosaurs?
- New research points to dinosaurs' colorful past
- New dinosaur research: Microraptor's feather color revealed
- Quiz: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
- Exploration Questions: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
- Answers to Exploration Questions: How do scientists study dinosaurs?
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How intelligent were dinosaurs?
By measuring the size of the brain cavity in available dinosaur skulls, it's clear that some dinosaurs had relatively larger brains than others and that dinosaurs' brains were not unusually small compared to those of living reptiles, such as crocodiles, turtles and lizards. Does this mean they were equally intelligent? Not necessarily. One can also examine the organization of the three main parts of the brain: the stem, which regulates heartbeat, respiration and other functions; the cerebellum, which coordinates muscle movements; and the cerebrum, which is involved with complex sensory functions and memory. In Velociraptor and its close relatives, the cerebrum and cerebellum appear large and bird-like, possibly indicating enhanced abilities. Created by American Museum of Natural History.
Want to join the conversation?
- How are the intelligence of dinosaurs compared to the intelligence of an average animal today?(7 votes)
- Some birds (dinosaur ancestors) like crows, jays, jackdaws, ravens, nutcrackers, choughs, magpies, etc. are very smart for their brain size. Crows can make tools (watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZnsO2ZgWo) and memorize traffic lights to know when to drop a nut in the path of a car to break it open. Ravens can figure out complex puzzles and can remember a certain face for the rest of their life. Jays mourn their dead friends. Anyway, since birds are dino ancestors, I would believe that dinosaurs could have been very smart.(7 votes)
- how muck do dinosaur weigh(1 vote)
- Have you ever obtained a complete dinosaur brain?(1 vote)
- Probably not, it probably would all rot away in the millions of years.(1 vote)
Video transcript
Measuring the intelligence of a dinosaur
is a very difficult thing. One of the things that people have used is called
EQ coefficient which is basically how large the brain is
relative to the body size this has its problems and doesn't have
its problems. It's not just how big the brain is but how big certain parts of the
brain are and we know from living animals that animals which smell very well, that they have very
large olfactory lobes in in their brains. Animals which, you know, see very well,
have very accute vision and stuff, have greatly expanded optic lobes. So a lot of this
work is just starting to be done and really the advent of cat scan
technology which allows us to be able to reconstruct the brains of extinct
dinosaurs, has really pushed a long way in just a few years, but again the work is
very preliminary and its still very hard to correlate specific brain features
with particular either senses or aspects of intelligence.