On the Paleontology of Animal Cognition: Using the Brain Dimensions of Modern Birds to Characterize Maniraptor Cognition

Authors

  • Thomas M. Gaetano Department of Geology, Bowling Green State University
  • Margaret M. Yacobucci1 Department of Geology, Bowling Green State University
  • Verner P. Bingman Department of Psychology and J.P. Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind and Behavior, Bowling Green State University

Keywords:

Brain endocasts, Comparative cognition, Double-crested cormorant, Hippocampus, Nidopallium, Paleoneurology

Abstract

Drawing inferences on the characteristics, including behavior, of extinct species using comparisons with extant species has a long tradition in paleontology. Departing from the observation that extinct maniraptors possessed brains with a relatively long and narrow telencephalon, we used digital endocasts taken from 11 species of modern birds to determine if any of the sampled modern bird species displayed a similar telencephalic shape, and by inference, similar cognitive ability. The analysis revealed that the telencephalon of the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) is extraordinarily narrow (large length-to-width ratio) and strikingly similar to Archaeopteryx and even some non-avian, maniraptoran dinosaurs. The relatively narrow brain in turn suggests a relatively small nidopallium subdivision of the telencephalon and associated impoverished general cognitive ability. This first-order brain-anatomical observation, together with the relatively ancient origins of a cormorant fossil record, suggest that cormorants could be used as a model for the general cognitive abilities of extinct maniraptors.

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Published

2017-05-12

Issue

2017: Neuroecology: On Causal Relations between Brain Organization, Adaptive Behavior, Consciousness and Cognition.

Section

Special Issue - May 2017

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