Tyrannosaurus rexes were mighty dinosaurs with massive skulls, scaly skin, foot-long teeth and tiny arms. They were terrifying carnivores, living in what's now western North America more than 66 million years ago. T. rexes were among the deadliest of dinosaurs. But were they smart? A controversial study in 2023 asserted that a T. rex might be as smart as a baboon. But a new study disputes that idea. The study was based in part - but not entirely - on what are called neuron counts, that is, on the number of neurons in the brains of T. rex and other animals. Neuron counts have been used to gain insights into the intelligence of some species. For example, the human brain contains 86 billion neurons, with 16 billion neurons in the cerebral cortex, which plays a key role in things like in attention, perception, awareness, thought, memory, language, and consciousness. But what about T. rex?
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Producer: Cristina Ortiz
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