Re: Are birds really smarter than non-avian dinosaurs?

[Dora Smith <villandra@austin.rr.com>]

Actually it's more likely that non-avian therapods were smarter.   The most 
highly evolved of the dinosaurs were disproportionately killed off by the 
mass extinction.   Part of birds' advantage was lack of specialization. 
Humans are teh only species that have ever become highly evolved and avoided 
over-specialization, and Neanderthals did not manage it.   They were 
overspecialized and unable to think in new ways.    Another was small size, 
which was probably inversely related to intelligence.   It takes a certain 
amount of body size to support a big brain.  Yet another - their wings - had 
nothing to do with their intelligence.

If dinosaurs had not suffered the great extinction tat that point, they 
would probably have given rise to a feathered version of us.

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
tiggernut24@yahoo.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brandon Pilcher" <trex_kid@hotmail.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 4:01 AM
Subject: Are birds really smarter than non-avian dinosaurs?


> I have noticed a very widespread belief, shared both by laypeople and dino 
> experts, that contemporary birds possess greater intelligence than 
> non-avian dinosaurs ever did, due to greater encephalization. Is this 
> really probable? I cannot imagine why natural selection would favor 
> greater intelligence in birds but not in their non-avian kin. My suspicion 
> is that the higher levels of encephalization observed in most birds have 
> more to do with coordinating and controlling flight than overall 
> intelligence; I feel convinced of this because the very birds that don't 
> fly are the ones that dinosaur brains are most commonly likened to.
>
> Or does flying enhance general intelligence?
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