Re: Bird brains

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

Dear all,
    What I'd like to know is what the size and structure of the cerebellum 
tells us about the relationships of birds to maniraptors and other 
coelurosaurs.
    On page one of Chris Brochu's (2000) paper, "A digitally-rendered 
endocast for _Tyrannosaurus rex_" (JVP 20(1): 1-6), he says "More basal 
theropods and nontheropod dinosaurs retained the plesiomorphic arrangement 
of a large cerebellum projecting dorsally over the roof of the forebrain."
    But I thought such an arrangement was also found in "derived" forms 
like birds, so I am scratching my head and trying figure out why this sounds 
so confusing to me.  I thought Archaeopteryx had a pretty conservative 
cerebellum, perhaps even more primitive than that of Troodonts?  Not sure 
about dromaeosaurs.   It seems like this should be important with respect to 
the evolution of flight (and perhaps secondary flightlessness as well).
             ------- Ken
****************************************
Jordan Mallon wrote:
> I just stumbled across the following paper, which may be of interest to 
> some on the list:
>
> http://www.nrc.ca/cgi-bin/cisti/journals/rp/rp2_abst_e?cjz_z01-204_80_ns_nf_cjz1-02
>
> Might be interesting to see how this relates to those dino-things...



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