“However, looking at living animals, we see that neuron count is actually not a good indicator of intelligence, although this may seem intuitive at first glance,” Kasper said.
Dinosaurs, apart from their bird descendants, disappeared after an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago. Over two centuries of scientific study, dinosaurs are coming into better focus, although many uncertainties remain about Tyrannosaurus and others.
“Given the brain size we found for it, Tyrannosaurus probably possessed a level of intelligence that we don't see in the modern world: greater than that of crocodiles,” said University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz. Intelligent, but less intelligent than normal living birds and mammals.” , co-author of the new study.
“Intelligence is one of the hardest things to measure, even in modern animals, and when you actually examine what real animals do in the real world, many of our common assumptions don't really hold up,” Holtz said. “
“So when we try to estimate the intelligence and cognition of ancient animals, we will have some difficulties. It would be nice if we could just estimate a number and sort out the full complexity of an animal's biology and lifestyle , but nature' I don't like that.”