How are the intelligence of dinosaurs compared to the intelligence of an average animal today?

Some birds (dinosaur ancestors) like crows, jays, jackdaws, ravens, nutcrackers, choughs, magpies, etc. are very smart for their brain size. Crows can make tools (watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZnsO2ZgWo) and memorize traffic lights to know when to drop a nut in the path of a car to break it open. Ravens can figure out complex puzzles and can remember a certain face for the rest of their life. Jays mourn their dead friends. Anyway, since birds are dino ancestors, I would believe that dinosaurs could have been very smart.

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Course: American Museum of Natural History > Unit 1

Lesson 2: How do scientists study dinosaurs?

How intelligent were dinosaurs?

Google Classroom

By measuring the size of the brain cavity in available dinosaur skulls, it's clear that some dinosaurs had relatively larger brains than others and that dinosaurs' brains were not unusually small compared to those of living reptiles, such as crocodiles, turtles and lizards. Does this mean they were equally intelligent? Not necessarily. One can also examine the organization of the three main parts of the brain: the stem, which regulates heartbeat, respiration and other functions; the cerebellum, which coordinates muscle movements; and the cerebrum, which is involved with complex sensory functions and memory. In Velociraptor and its close relatives, the cerebrum and cerebellum appear large and bird-like, possibly indicating enhanced abilities. Created by American Museum of Natural History.

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Anthony Jacquez
Posted 10 years ago. Direct link to Anthony Jacquez's post “How are the intelligence ...”
How are the intelligence of dinosaurs compared to the intelligence of an average animal today?
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(7 votes)
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- Saga
  Posted 10 years ago. Direct link to Saga's post “Some birds (dinosaur ance...”
  Some birds (dinosaur ancestors) like crows, jays, jackdaws, ravens, nutcrackers, choughs, magpies, etc. are very smart for their brain size. Crows can make tools (watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZnsO2ZgWo) and memorize traffic lights to know when to drop a nut in the path of a car to break it open. Ravens can figure out complex puzzles and can remember a certain face for the rest of their life. Jays mourn their dead friends. Anyway, since birds are dino ancestors, I would believe that dinosaurs could have been very smart.
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  (7 votes)
$hopper cool style avatar for user \]JVJN.XKJZDNVKZDLNBIJFXKCNB,DXNGHKCFBKIBNKFJMBJFKBGNI.FDGBIDFBNUSFDBNLKXDFNBLF;KDBNKXFB DVKLBJFOBLHJDFNL;JFVOHBJMRGLNOJN'XFUGJHSENBGJLOXN DGLISAYETOUYXDHFKYSJDFUBSLFDKHNUDGNUSDFJBNUYFSGB/DSF'HBG$
\]JVJN.XKJZDNVKZDLNBIJFXKCNB,DXNGHKCFBKIBNKFJMBJFKBGNI.FDGBIDFBNUSFDBNLKXDFNBLF;KDBNKXFB DVKLBJFOBLHJDFNL;JFVOHBJMRGLNOJN'XFUGJHSENBGJLOXN DGLISAYETOUYXDHFKYSJDFUBSLFDKHNUDGNUSDFJBNUYFSGB/DSF'HBG
Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to \]JVJN.XKJZDNVKZDLNBIJFXKCNB,DXNGHKCFBKIBNKFJMBJFKBGNI.FDGBIDFBNUSFDBNLKXDFNBLF;KDBNKXFB DVKLBJFOBLHJDFNL;JFVOHBJMRGLNOJN'XFUGJHSENBGJLOXN DGLISAYETOUYXDHFKYSJDFUBSLFDKHNUDGNUSDFJBNUYFSGB/DSF'HBG's post “how muck do dinosaur weig...”
how muck do dinosaur weigh
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♫♥Morgan►Heather♥♫
Posted 10 years ago. Direct link to ♫♥Morgan►Heather♥♫'s post “Have you ever obtained a ...”
Have you ever obtained a complete dinosaur brain?
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- Karlar
  Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to Karlar's post “Probably not, it probably...”
  Probably not, it probably would all rot away in the millions of years.
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Video transcript

Measuring the intelligence of a dinosaur is a very difficult thing. One of the things that people have used is called EQ coefficient which is basically how large the brain is relative to the body size this has its problems and doesn't have its problems. It's not just how big the brain is but how big certain parts of the brain are and we know from living animals that animals which smell very well, that they have very large olfactory lobes in in their brains. Animals which, you know, see very well, have very accute vision and stuff, have greatly expanded optic lobes. So a lot of this work is just starting to be done and really the advent of cat scan technology which allows us to be able to reconstruct the brains of extinct dinosaurs, has really pushed a long way in just a few years, but again the work is very preliminary and its still very hard to correlate specific brain features with particular either senses or aspects of intelligence.