Re: The Brain

[Stanley Friesen <sarima@ix.netcom.com>]

At 09:35 PM 10/1/97 -0700, Rod Bartlett wrote:
>
>But I'm curious, what % of the brain are today's animals using.

Essentially 100%.

That is, no part of the brain is regularly dormant, and all parts
contribute to the total function.

The only caveat is that there is a fair amount of redundancy in the brain,
for reliability reasons (catastrophic brain failure usually destroying
reproductive potential).  This redundancy is mostly at the local neuronal
level.  But all amniotes probably have about the same level of redundancy,
so the dinosaurs would not differ significantly from us in this respect.

> If a
>dinosaurs skeleton is like a reptile, how will it's brain compare?

Dinosaur brains are more or less intermediate between typical "reptilian"
brains and avian brains.

> are the general structures of a
>dinosaurs brain in fact similar in all taxa.

Not particularly.

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima@ix.netcom.com
                                          sfriesen@netlock.com