How Smart Were Dinosaurs?
New research is finding a strong correlation between brain size and egg size in multiple groups of animals, including dinosaurs.To be clear, brains are complicated, but it is strong evidence for dinosaurs not being quite as smart as their modern counterparts.
Trevor Schulz
6/25/20261 min read
Publication Info:
Transcript:
Stephanie Constance Lechki, Roger B. J. Benson; Evolutionary drivers of reproductive output variation among amniotes, and the origins of large offspring in birds. R Soc Open Sci. 1 June 2026; 13 (6): 251708
New research is finding a strong correlation between brain size and egg size in multiple groups of animals, including dinosaurs. To be clear, brains are complicated, but it is strong evidence for dinosaurs not being quite as smart as their modern counterparts.
Episode 299
Notes:
So, birds are smarter than dinosaurs. And the new evidence for it is probably coming from their eggs. Here's your most recent paleontology news almost daily or whenever I get around to it. At least as far as we know, all dinosaurs laid eggs. But, if you ever wondered why non-avian dinosaurs had such small eggs at least compared to their overall body size. The reason for that seems like it might come down to their brain size. Researchers recently compared reproductive and anatomical data across various groups of modern animals, including reptiles, birds, and mammals. And found that relatively larger brains compared to their body size seems to be the main influence in determining the size of a clutch or litter and the size of an animal's offspring. At least in modern animals, mammals and birds seem to have much larger offspring or eggs in much smaller clutches when compared to reptiles. And that trend seems to stay consistent when looking back at non-avian dinosaurs. Now, obviously, it's important to remember that while all birds are dinosaurs, not all dinosaurs are birds and all of both are reptiles with birds just being an extremely specialized group. Now, this obviously isn't a 100% indicator of intelligence. Brains are complicated. You have different structures, different neural density, all kinds of stuff like that. But, the fact that it is consistent between both mammals and birds is definitely an indicator that there could be something to it. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.