Scanning the brain of Saturnalia

[Halichoeres]

First scan of the brain endocast of the basal sauropodomorph Saturnalia. Open access!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-11737-5

[Neosodon]

So did sauropods evolve to be dumb? It seems like they would have needed to grow larger brains to control bigger bodies as they evolved passed the bipedal stance.

[CityRaptor]

Probably not stupid, given how succesful they were, but yeah, they were probably not the smartest of Dinosaurs.

[Jose S.M.]

They didnt became Dumb, they just changed their priorities 

[CityRaptor]

Yep, happened in other species including mammals, too. Bats with big testicles for example have small brains.

[Neosodon]

I used to hear a while back that sauropods may have had a second brain to help control their body. I'm not sure if that is still excepted. Being so large would have come with lots of problems that they would have needed to solve like sinking in mud, getting struck by lightning, navigating through forests and rough terrain and fending off faster and more agile predators. Maybe they just had really well refined instincts to deal with these things.

[Reptilia]

Didn't know there was a dinosaur called Saturnalia, which incidentally is the title to a new song by Marilyn Manson!

[ZoPteryx]

I used to hear a while back that sauropods may have had a second brain to help control their body. I'm not sure if that is still excepted.

I've only heard it in reference to Stegosaurus, but either way, that theory hasn't been considered valid in a long time.

[stargatedalek]

I used to hear a while back that sauropods may have had a second brain to help control their body. I'm not sure if that is still excepted.

I've only heard it in reference to Stegosaurus, but either way, that theory hasn't been considered valid in a long time.

Last I heard someone was trying to bring the idea back that it was a nerve cluster for controlling fine motor skills in the otherwise large and potentially awkward tail, but I haven't heard it brought up since so I assume even that didn't hold water.

[BlueKrono]

In a creature of our cerebral quantity the brain uses up a good 20% of the energy our body makes. To do without that drain would be massively beneficial when your body is so big you pretty much have to eat constantly just to keep up basic life functions.

[WarrenJB]

I used to hear a while back that sauropods may have had a second brain to help control their body.

Oh, that reminds me. Off to that dragged-up misconceptions topic.

In the meantime, I'd assume a nerve cluster in that area might have something to do with boosting reflex arcs, but like SGD I haven't even heard the nerve cluster bit in a while.