How smart were the dinosaurs? Using the most recent discoveries in paleontology, neuroscience, and animal behavior research, can we reconstruct dinosaur brains and dinosaur cognition?


Neuroscientist Office Hour with Dr. Herculano-Houzel:    • T. rex-like dinosaurs were the primat...  
Rawr! A Study in Sonic Skulls by Courtney Brown and Sharif Razzaque:    • Rawr! A Study in Sonic Skulls  
Sandi National Laboratories website, circa 1997: https://www.sandia.gov/media/dinosaur...
Awesome dinosaur animations by Julian Johnson-Mortimer:    / @johnsonmortimer  

Correction: The fossil collector who discovered Iguanodon’s braincase was named John Whitaker Hulke—not James! (And maybe someday I will learn how to actually pronounce “paleognath”!)

0:00 – Intro
2:17 – History of paleoneurology
4:18 – Encephalization quotient
5:05 – Dinosaur EQ
6:37 – Counting neurons
7:51 – Dinosaur neurons
9:19 – Estimating dinosaur cognition
10:16 – Origins of parental care
12:17 – Evolution of the inner ear
14:29 – Reconstructing hadrosaur vocalization
16:20 – Reasoning by exclusion
18:02 – Theory of mind
20:29 – Visual perspective taking
23:04 – Wrap-up
23:49 – Outtro


Sources
Buchholz (2012). Dinosaur paleoneurology.
Chabert et al. (2015). Size does matter: crocodile mothers react more to the voice of smaller offspring.
Clayton & Emery (2001). Effects of experience and social context on prospective caching strategies by scrub jays.
Evans, Ridgely & Witmer (2009). Endocranial anatomy of Lambeosaurine Hadrosaurids (Dinosauria: Ornithischia): a sensorineural perspective on cranial crest function.
Goto & Watanabe (2012). Large-billed crows (Corvus macrorhynchos) have retrospective but not prospective metamemory.
Hanson et al. (2021). The early origin of a birdlike inner ear and the evolution of dinosaurian movement and vocalization.
Herculano-Houzel (2023). Theropod dinosaurs had primate-like numbers of telencephalic
Neurons.
Klerk & Jacobs (2021). Reasoning by Exclusion.
Ostojić, Shaw, Cheke, & Clayton (2013). Evidence suggesting that desire-state attribution may govern food sharing in Eurasian jays.
Varricchio et al. (2008). Avian paternal care had dinosaur origin.
Weishampel (1981). Acoustic analyses of potential vocalization in lambeosaurine dinosaurs (reptilia: ornithischia).
Yoshida, Kobayashi & Norell (2023). An ankylosaur larynx provides insights for bird-like vocalization in non-avian dinosaurs.
Zeiträg, Reber & Osvath (2023). Gaze following in Archosauria—Alligators and palaeognath birds suggest dinosaur origin of visual perspective taking.

Movie clips
Jurassic Park (1993)
Planet of the dinosaurs (1977)
Dinosaurs: The Terrible Lizards (1970)
The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
One Million Years B.C. (1966)