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M$3.28  Funded By Mahalo ? |  October 24, 2009 11:21 PM

Was the Tyrannosaurus a smart dinosaur?

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October 25, 2009 09:03 PM
The Troodon, is apparently the most intelligent Dinosaur. Having all of the necessary physical features that would require and suggest an intelligence that set it apart from most other dinosaurs. The T-Rex on the other hand, was a smart dinosaur, and based on the study of existing skulls and other physical features, T- Rex does appear to have had a fairly large brain by Cretaceous standards.

Some of the measures used to determine how smart a dinosaur might have been are as to whether a dinosaur was a hunter (requiring more smarts!) or a scavenger. Unfortunately for the T- Rex, there are 4 main pieces of evidence that suggest that the T. Rex of real life was more of a scavenger than a hunter.

1. T-Rex had small eyes and very weak sight, making them a less affective hunter or combatant.
2. T-Rex had small weak vestigial (front) arms, which would have been useless in combat with other dinosaurs, or fighting with live prey.
3. Although Hollywood portrays the T-Rex as a fats and agile hunter, in fact the physical and physiological evidence seems to show that the T-Rex was not as fast as made out to be. It is believed that the T-Rex may have been able to reach a poky speed of 25 mph, making it a less likely hunter of other dinosaurs.
4. The most convincing evidence is in the analysis of the T-Rex skull which shows that the T-Rex had large olfactory lobes, (large nose openings, i.e. great sense of smell) which was ideal for it to easily find the scent of dead and or rotting carcasses from miles away.

Compared to dinosaurs that hunted in packs, used pack strategy to capture prey, were keen sighted and dependant on sight to survive, were fast and agile, the T-Rex though smarter than many dinosaurs was not the smartest. The T-Rex's brain was about the size and shape of a banana, (not as big as a Human brain) and its prefrontal section (associated with thinking and decision making) like a banana was small.


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October 24, 2009 11:36 PM
T. rex was a relatively smart dinosaur. Although the ratio of brain size to body mass was very small for T. rex, it was larger than most other dinosaurs. T. rex's brain was larger than the human brain, but the cerebrum (the part of the brain that we use to think) was tiny. T. rex's brain was long and almost cylindrical in shape.

Only very advanced theropods, like the dromaeosaurid dinosaurs (for example, Deinonychus and Velociraptor), were probably smarter than T. rex.

T. rex probably ranked close to the carnosaurs in intelligence.


Tags: dino, saur, t-rex

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October 26, 2009 12:39 AM
T. Rex was a carnosaur (=carnivorous dinosaur).

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October 24, 2009 11:38 PM
i believe it was one of the smartest dinos it always knew what it was hunting and most of the time got what it was hunting from what i have heard and read about!!!!

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October 25, 2009 02:39 AM
Studies of T rex skulls have shown their brains to be pretty small in comparison to their size but even so they were larger than the human brain. They did have a smaller cerebrum which is the part of the brain actually used for thinking but non the less T rex was a relatively smart dinosaur but of course wasn't as nearly as smart as the exceptionally intelligent raptor for example.
Source(s):
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinos/trex/Trexintell.s...


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Voted as best: keepontryin, doubleminaz
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October 25, 2009 03:39 AM
Only if you think a Roomba is smart.

We have the technology now to do CT scans of fossilized skulls, and what's been found with T-Rex is that it has a brain structure extremely similar to that of a crocodile.

It was fairly big as far as dinosaur brains go (about 9 inches long and four inches wide... like a cucumber) but it was still no brainiac once you factor in the size of the body it had to control, because the bigger the body, the more neurons required to send signals to all those muscle cells.

A lot of behavior can be inferred from brain structure, and in this case, it means the personality and IQ of a crocodile, which means... not very much.

It's natural inclination would be to do what crocodiles do, which is mindlessly bite anything that moves, including each other, because virtually all T-Rex skeletons have bite marks to the bone that only fit with the tooth structure of other T-Rex's.

The only thing exceptional about T-Rex's brain is what appears to be a relatively large percentage of nerve tissue dedicated to the occipital lobe, which controls smell. From that, it's estimated they had an extraordinary sense of smell... possibly the best that's ever been, but at least as good as a vulture...

It also had forward pointing eyes, so that means binocular vision, which takes a lot of brain tissue...

Plus it's got all the indications of a huge percentage of the neurons being dedicated to balance, which stands to reason given that it was bipedal, so if you factor in the percentage of neurons required to control a large body with lots of muscle cells...

... And all of that was of the neuron tissue type called mesocortical, aka bird-brain, which learns by imprinting.

The part that would actually do cognition, the neocortical nerves, was puny.

What this means is that it would have been like a large, well-balanced bipedal crocodile with binocular vision and a good sense of smell, blessed with the persona of a robotic vacuum-cleaner, and that a field rat would have danced circles around it in any test of cleverness.


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October 25, 2009 01:29 PM - New Source
I would have to disagree with you on the crocodile comparison.

"It's natural inclination would be to do what crocodiles do, which is mindlessly bite anything that moves."

If you read the paragraph in the link on intelligence... they say that crocs have a deeper language than previously estimated and that they are clever and can learn faster than lab rats. I think Steve Irwin would agree with me here also that they are more complex creatures, and we should give them more credit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltwater_Crocodile#Intelligence

Since we are still learning about a creature that isn't extinct... it leaves the argument wide open for the T-rex.

If you've ever seen the mating dance and foreplay of two crocodiles, it is the most beautiful I have seen in the animal kingdom!

I don't think it's possible to have an emotional attachment and connection to something that acts like a roomba... just ask Steve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVEVUxyxBJc

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October 25, 2009 02:02 PM
Well, then that means maybe T-Rex's were a tad smarter than their teeny-tiny patch of neocortex implies, because in terms of overall structure, their brain most closely resembles that of a crocodile.

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/prehistory_2075_18544910

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October 25, 2009 03:37 PM
Maybe they had a cool mating dance too!

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