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RE: smartest therOpods?



> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Amtoine Grant
>
> > Wished I could say "tyrannosaurid", but while they were mental giants
> > compared to carnosaurs, they were lacking in the ol' neurological
> > department compared to maniraptoriforms (ornithomimosaurs,
> > therizinosaurs, alvarezsaurids, oviraptorosaurs,
> > troodontids, dromaeosaurids, and birds). Of these  latter, the first
> > three have relatively small heads to body size (less so in
> > alvarezsaurids than first thought), so their EQ (encephalization
> > quotients) would not be particular big. Troodon comes out pretty
> > well, but to be fair no oviraptorosaurs or dromaeosaurids were
> > included in those classic studies, and they might be comparable to the
> > troodontids.
>
> Didn't the study that was recently posted to the list dictate that the
> most intelligent extant birds[by supposed IQ] didn't necessarily have
> the largest brain-to-body ratio?
>
Let's remember: for fossil taxa, EQ is *ALL* we are ever going to have in order 
to estimate intelligence. We cannot do the sort of
behavioral experiments that were done by the workers on modern birds.

That being said, I don't recall in the press releases about Lefebvre's work 
whether they ever scaled the "Avian IQ" measures against
EQ of the birds.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
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                College Park, MD  20742

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
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