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DINOSAUR ANATOMY AND BEHAVIOR
General Anatomy Size Teeth Herds, Packs Offense Defense Reproduction, Nests & Eggs Blood Pressure
Skeleton Tails Brains Male or Female? Skin Diet Locomotion Life Span Hot or Cold Blooded?

BRAINS AND INTELLIGENCE

The EQ or Encephalization Quotient is a simple way of measuring an animal's intelligence. EQ is the ratio of the brain weight of the animal to the brain weight of a "typical" animal of the same body weight.

Assuming that smarter animals have larger brains to body ratios than less intelligent ones, this helps determine the relative intelligence of extinct animals. In general, warm-blooded animals (like mammals) have a higher EQ than cold-blooded ones (like reptiles and fish). Birds and mammals have brains that are about 10 times bigger than those of bony fish, amphibians, and reptiles of the same body size.

The Least Intelligent Dinosaurs:
The primitive dinosaurs belonging to the group sauropodomorpha (which included Massospondylus, Riojasaurus, and others) were among the least intelligent of the dinosaurs, with an EQ of about 0.05 (Hopson, 1980).

Smartest Dinosaurs:
The Troodontids (like Troödon) were probably the smartest dinosaurs, followed by the dromaeosaurid dinosaurs (the "raptors," which included Dromeosaurus, Velociraptor, Deinonychus, and others) had the highest EQ among the dinosaurs, about 5.8 (Hopson, 1980).

EQ

The Encephalization Quotient was developed by the psychologist Harry J. Jerison in the 1970's. J. A. Hopson (a paleontologist from the University of Chicago) did further development of the EQ concept using brain casts of many dinosaurs. Hopson found that theropods (especially Troodontids) had higher EQ's than plant-eating dinosaurs. The lowest EQ's belonged to sauropods, ankylosaurs, and stegosaurids.

A SECOND BRAIN?

It used to be thought that the large sauropods (like Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus) and the ornithischian Stegosaurus had a second brain. Paleontologists now realize that what they thought was a second brain was an enlargement in the spinal cord in the hip area, perhaps containing fat and nerve tissue. This nerve center may have controlled the animal's hind legs and tail and was larger than the animal's tiny brain.


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ZoomDinosaurs.com
DINOSAUR ANATOMY AND BEHAVIOR
General Anatomy Size Teeth Herds, Packs Offense Defense Reproduction, Nests & Eggs Blood Pressure
Skeleton Tails Brains Male or Female? Skin Diet Locomotion Life Span Hot or Cold Blooded?

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