What Do We Actually Know About Dinosaur Brains?

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With recent papers on dinosaur brains how much do we actually know about them? There's a lot actually. Studies over the last 20 years have allowed new looks into the skulls of dinosaurs, letting researchers see the shapes and structures in the brains of dinosaurs. So the answer is actually, quite a lot.
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[@laurachapple6795]

"Brains are super, super important" - sounds like something your *brain* would tell your mouth to say.

[@NitroIndigo]

Sounds like a line out of Animorphs.

[@sampagano205]

I'm just going to go with "very little" because even studying the brains of living animals is still very new and full of unknowns.

[@sampagano205]

The garter snake thing was genuinely so interesting that I kind of want to focus my masters on that.

[@sampagano205]

Garter snakes are such cool and unique snakes that I want to know what secrets they hide inside their skull.

[@RaptorChatter]

Email Dr. Erika Nowak at Northern Arizona University! She's working with a threatened species of gartersnake, Thamnophis rufipunctatus, the narrow headed gartersnake

[@sampagano205]

@@RaptorChatterwill do.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

When I see high intelligence from Crows and complexity from other birds vocalisation capabilities.. I can't help but wonder if some dinosaur's developed similar unique abilities?

[@seanmckelvey6618]

I'm sure many species had far more complex and interesting behaviors than we realize and give them credit for. I mean, modern animals often surprise us with what they're actually capable of versus what we ASSUME they're capable of.

[@JohnAvillaHerpetocultural]

I have seen some astonishing behaviors in my monitors.

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

Modern 🏙 animals both have many advanced features, and the much stronger selective pressure for it, because of interacting with other hyper-intelligent beings. Intelligence rewards intelligence, as being able to predict and exploit the intelligent behaviour of others offers massive rewards 💰. Also, humans regularly underestimate how competent modern animals are. Mostly because their judging without direct experience is terrible. That is why Australian animals 🦘 have a badass reputation, despite being dunked on by everything and anything from elsewhere.

[@jeffthompson9622]

​​@@seanmckelvey6618 I haven't experienced any reptiles carefully taking food from my hands other than monitors. I also appreciated them seeking out human interaction when food wasn't present.

[@bkjeong4302]

Given how smart crocodilians are, I would expect quite a few archosaurs (not just dinosaurs) to have been decently intelligent.

[@highfive7689]

Hello, it would be important to know if they have scanned the cranium areas and found dense gyri and sulci patterns etched into the bone. The more dense would show changes in behaviors and learning might have been happening. Great show.

[@flightlesslord2688]

Also, not to mention on the scavenger thing, unless Im very much mistaken, theres no large bodied, non flying, terrestrial carnivore known to be a pure scavenger, or even a medium sized one. And definitely not an endothermic one with a high metabolism like the rex, because they simply wouldnt get enough food whilst using massive amounts of energy to get between carcasses. Primarily a scavenger in its later stages of life maybe, an obligate scavenger though? Most likely, definitely not. It would be completely capable of hunting and has adaptations to do so (as well evidence for predator-prey relationship on said prey animals), so to assume it was a pure scavenger wholeheartedly has always seemed like a rather baseless claim. I think its more likely that rex was like all carnivorous animals and opportunistic. If a free meal was in feasible walking distance it would have gone to it, but if it wasnt and it was hungry, live game would be its only option, and it was more than equipped to handle it. And of course, its adaptations for scavenger, are also useful for hunting, but as you said are also so seen in many active predators also.

[@jdmj707]

Thank you for putting your advertisement at the end instead of interrupting the content for it 🙏🏻

[@RaptorChatter]

Yeah, I'm not really a "btw here's an ad in the middle" guy. I don't like it, so I won't put them there.

[@thorstenkrug144]

I imagine that Spinosaurus had skin bumps around the maw area similar to the ones crocodiles have now. They detect movement in the water surounding them with that sensoric structure. So Spinosaurus stood at a riverbank his maw slightly dipped into the water, waiting to ambush unsuspecting prey. His teeth were build in a way that made him great at catching slippery fish. And his noistrils where high on top so he could breathe without problems ln that hunting position.

[@numbnuts375]

This is has been known since before 2014

[@seanmckelvey6618]

@@numbnuts375 Yeah, this has been more or less the accepted lifestyle of the Spinosaurs in general since the discovery of Baryonyx. The crocodile like snouts and higher placed nostrils kind of makes that a pretty obvious conclusion to make.

[@kyrab7914]

Yeah, integumentary sensory organs! I was thinking that too, I just don't know the anatomy to know if those are the same nerves he's talking about. And if they were like alligators, the ISOs were prob all along the body too... Which we still don't know the purpose of in extent alligators.

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

It's great to see a well measured approach to describing dinosaurs!

[@davidfoss4365]

Regarsing stegosaur butt brains: I understand humans have a fairly large nerve complex in our abdomen which controls our digestive systems et. al. Considering the size of herbivore dinosaurs' digestive systems I'd expect them to have a similar adaptation.

[@QUIRK1019]

Stegosauruses had all the brains they ever needed. If a larger brain offered any survival or breeding advantage, 80 million years is enough time for that to have developed.

[@bjorsam6979]

Well, maybe. We can imagine various developmental constraints prohibiting brain evolution. As an example: big brains need quality nutrition - especially when growing. So it's conceivably tough for a newly hatched herbivore, without access to milk, to pull it off. But surely we could think of other stuff, like brain structure, established behaviours trapping the species in an "evolutionary landscape valley", mesosoic environmental stability slowing all evolution down and so on.

[@barrybarlowe5640]

T-Rex likely had a loosely fitted brain to its skull. This creature, when it hunted, used its head as a weapon to drive its banana teeth through its preys muscle and bone. The shock would have been tremendous. A tightly fitted brain would have meant concussions almost every time it hunted.

[@bjorsam6979]

Brain evolution is fascinating. There are many videos imagining modern animals forced to compete with the mesosic ones. Most of these videos are brain-dead themselves and they often forego the impact of intelligence and sensory develompents. But it raises the question why animals didn't evolve bigger brains earlier? The only jumps come after catastrophies and later in during cold spell some 30 mya. We all know brains are fragile and calorie intensive devices, so the case for a smaller brain is easy to make. But still, for larger animals we have seen a tendency that the land species with bigger brains have done better. We can imagine various developmental constraints prohibiting brain evolution. As an example: big brains need quality nutrition - especially when growing. So it's conceivably tough for a newly hatched herbivore, without access to milk, to pull it off. But surely we could think of other stuff, like brain structure, established behaviours trapping the species in an "evolutionary landscape valley", mesosoic environmental stability slowing all evolution down and so on. Any of you guys thought of this?

[@dennismason3740]

I like your re-interpretation of T-Rex. When listening to your descriptions I get a vivid and unique feel for the animal waaaay different than Spielberg's version. I see the baboon vid in the list Imma check it out.

[@barrybarlowe5640]

Even crocodiles don't use a strategy of impact with their Jaws. They snatch and death roll. Essentially it would be like grabbing something with a glove with spikes and shaking it till it breaks up. They don't need a lot of space in their skulls. A T-Rex is like a sledge hammer with teeth.

[@ryuuguu01]

Most of the neurons outside the brain are not in the spine they are in the digestive tract. Most of the neurons that run between the brain and the stomach send information from the stomach to the brain. In general, the digestive tract controls itself with its own neurons and sends info up to the brain.

[@gloopsgloops]

I know this reply is old, but can you elaborate on what you mean by "the gi tract controls itself"? I was under the impression that ,for example, the smooth muscle contractions of the tract would be sent by the brain. Could a gi tract act "independently" in the absence of brain signals?

[@johnmanno2052]

That shirt you're wearing is awesome and it looks great on you. Of course, you're absolutely brilliant and your videos are top notch. But I had to say that anyway.

[@mayajade6198]

My extremely amateur conjecture is that an animal's ecology and environmental requirements are probably a better predictor of behaviors than superficial brain anatomy, and that dinosaurs were probably comparable in intelligence and behavior to modern animals in similar niches.

[@tyrannosauruswrex123]

T-Rex was actually pretty smart 😊

[@jeremycraft8452]

🎶Dinosaur brains! We’re gonna ride, ride, ride, ride, ride 🚂🚂 the dinosaur brains 🎵

[@garypfeiffer3489]

There's also a stegosaur in South America called Amargastegos. Ever heard of that?

[@ryanhau1073]

Believe the idea that the T-Rex have Bad Eyesight and can only see motion in Jurassic Park came from the idea the T-Rex have a Strong Sense of Smell and probably rely on smell more than sight. Tho there are 2 things about that idea. Based on fossil evidence and comparisons to modern animals that are related, T-Rex probably had very good eyesight. And Even if T-Rexes can only see motion, seeing how good their sense of smell is, it probably won't matter if you stay still or not

[@SteampunkEngineering]

Actually the idea that T. rex's vision was motion-sensitive was explained in the book, but just tossed into the film as a 'fact'. When rebuilding the T. rex genome a lot of the gaps were filled by using genetic material from modern animals. In the case of T. rex a large amount of 'rana' (frog) genetic material was used. Many frogs actually do have visual systems that are actuated by motions associated with prey animals.

[@Tuishimi]

As an aside, I love all your shirts.

[@thearmchairspacemanOG]

it all depends on what you mean by ''we'' 'cause if you intend to mean ''the human race'' then ''we''' know bugger-all. IF however you mean Scientists in the field.. then the phrase ''what is known'' makes a lot more sense. Because ''we'' can't ever really be used validly as a ''cover-all'' term for our species in relation to data.

[@SteampunkEngineering]

This is not a particularly new idea inspired by CT scans of T. rex skulls. Back in the early 1990s Jack Horner proposed the idea that T. rex may have been a scavanager, based on casts of brain cases that showed the proportionally oversized olfactory lobes.

[@ExtremeMadnessX]

Jack Hornr was full of shit. He would probably claim that bears and wolves are also scavengers because they also have excellent sense of smell.

[@SteampunkEngineering]

@@ExtremeMadnessX I didn't say I agreed with Horner's hypothesis, just pointing out that he proposed it a good 30 years before this latest CT scan-inspired paper.

[@mikedebell2242]

They're the size of walnuts. T Rex drops 100 lb walnut in front of cave.

[@michellecornum5856]

Stegosaurus brain is a personal pet peeve of mine. Suffice to say, it was at least as smart as a jellyfish or smarter. Could it do Matt? Did it have to? No. Also, a whole separate rant on nerves and the speed of a neurotransmission.

[@JTRRSuwontgetoutnotat300knots]

11:40 NOSES ARE RADIATORS!!!!!

[@JohnAvillaHerpetocultural]

Considering the behaviors I see from my monitors I am willing to say dinosaurs were as smart as birds. Monitors can plan.

[@RaptorChatter]

Yeah, I think a lot of people underestimate the intelligence of animals that aren't mammals. One of my professors swears she's seen snakes "play" by repeatedly sliding down a water channel.

[@JohnAvillaHerpetocultural]

@@RaptorChatter I went down a rabbit hole last year on sirtalis. I found some recent research that indicated that garter snakes can identify their siblings and spend time with the same snakes repeatedly. Essentially having friends. I wish I could site it but I’m pulling from memory. I think we are just scratching the surface.

[@user-is8jw5lc6n]

Narrator is so schmexy ❤❤❤❤❤

[@brianedwards7142]

They go well with a nice chianti?

[@thomasnaas2813]

To understand dinosaur brains I suggest doing research on members of congress and fundamentalist religious leaders.

[@kinderblutsaufenderreptiloide]

Oh, don't be so unfair to the poor dinosaurs! 🙂

[@gertballyhead]

noted...iguanadon- not antisocial

[@adam-k]

Crows are considered super smart but they only have a tiny brain. Maybe the stegosaurus was as smart as a crow.

[@victory8928]

I suppose it depends on what it needs that head for. Maybe it was very socially competent in the way that they formed vital social bonds and interactions like ritualistic combat based less on instinct and more on reasoning. Or what animals they surround themselves with like dryos who could potentially help with detecting and distracting predators for the stego to prepare. Plus they do need to maximise feeding time while minimising the time they are at risk so that could be a factor. Were they are smart as crows? Idk, I think it makes more sense to compare them to Turkeys

[@dennismason3740]

Now all of the hipsters are gonna want a T. Rex tooth embedded in their bone.

[@curiousuranus810]

Brilliant, although, did Stegosaurus last that long? Also, intelligence has everything to do with the number of connections between neurons, rather than brain size - Sperm whales have bigger brains than us humans, but they can't solve a sudoku. So, and I hate to say this, but was T-Rex anything more than a scavenger?

[@RaptorChatter]

Stegosaurids as a group did last that long. Stegosaurus, the genus was probably only around for 2ish million years of that during the late Jurassic. Tyrannosaurus, we have good evidence of both scavenging and hunting, so a bit of both.

[@011keepers]

They cant solve soduko because the dont have hands, paper gets ruined in water, and they do not have a math concept. I bet you could actually teach a whale soduko, and for the record I cant solve soduko

[@curiousuranus810]

@@011keepers Me nither.

[@victory8928]

Guess I am a whale since I can’t solve sudoku

[@curiousuranus810]

@@victory8928 Me too: and it doesn't even taste like krill.

[@metal87power]

Yeah, so only scavengers require very good smell. Hunters no whatsoever. xD

[@joshinfantine8344]

Nah, lets just listen to random neuroscientist making insane claims. seems better

[@numbnuts375]

Trex was smarter than you