Скачать или смотреть Random Act of Anatomy - bird & dinosaur brains

This Random Act of Anatomy was inspired by our recent work on New Caledonian crows (http://bit.ly/2gGk0ac) which are famous—along with parrots like African grey parrots—for cognitive abilities that are matched among mammals only among higher primates or even great apes! How these birds could be so intelligent with brains that are so small in absolute terms has been a mystery. Last year, an article appeared in PNAS (http://bit.ly/2zbGrLk) that showed that bird brains, unlike those of mammals, are jammed with loads of small, densely packed neurons, perhaps providing the key to unlocking the mystery of avian cognition. This video explores to what extent, if any, these new findings can shed light on extinct dinosaurs. What we need is equivalent information on the neuronal structure of the brains of modern-day crocs and other reptiles. In the meantime, we probably ought to dial back the "dumb dinosaur" rhetoric.