RE: Bird Brains...er Dino Brains

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: GOBI 2010 [SMTP:gobi2010@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 1998 7:21 PM
> To:   dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject:      Bird Brains...er Dino Brains
> 
> In AP Biology I learned that intelligence may be caused not by brain 
> mass, but by the development of a critter's neaural networks and how the 
> neurons are connected. I also learned, from one or so of my Bird Talk 
> Magazines that are laying scattered about my room, that parrots, such as 
> the African Gray Parrot, have roughly the intelligence of a 5-6 year old 
> child. Knowing this, it made me wonder...
> how can people say dinosaurs are stupid or smart animals? And how would 
> one figure out the intelligence of an extinct animal? Do they have 
> brains more like reptiles or more like birds, somewhere in between, or 
> does it depend on the species,etc?
> --Just curoious,
> 
> 
> 
> Jessica Wagar
> Amateur Paleontologist
> Michigan,USA
> http://server1.hypermart.net/gobi2010/index.htm
> 
        [Stewart, Dwight]  I'm glad someone brought this up.  After a minor
stroke
        last fall, I have worked with a neurologist/neuropathologist here in
my recovery.
        I asked him a similar question about brain mass/intelligence.  This
guy is
        a top person in his field in the Southwest & told me that the brain
mass vs.
        body mass gauge of intelligence is an "old paradigm".  And that VERY
new
        discoveries in neurology for humans AND other species is bringing
that
        paradigm under close scrutiny.  He talked about the development of
the 
        neural network & how it is probably a better gauge of  intelligence
than simple
        mass ratio.  Now, he wasn't saying there was no validity to the old
mass
        ratio gauge, he was simply stating that the neural network is a
better indicator.
        I see him tomorrow, so I'll bring this up.  

        That estimate of a parrot's intelligence may be true.  My
neurologist made the statement 
        that the neural network model implies we may be underestimating the
intelligence
        of most animals. :-)  Species jingoism?  

        And it's my understanding that neural networks could be implied in
fossil remains.

        Dwight