"Dino Gangs" Discovery Channel - tyrannosaur brains & behavior

Clip from the The Discovery Channel UK's "Dino Gangs" documentary discussing the role of brain and sensory structure in the debate on whether tyrannosaurs were able to hunt cooperatively. See http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/dino-gangs-cutting-edge-research.html.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• dinosaur
• tyrannosaur
• rex
• Tarbosaurus
• hunting
• CT
• scan
• brain
• inner
• ear

[FrshJurassicPrnceYA]

Jack Horner needs to watch this!

[Albukhshi]

I'm not looking for exact figures-which as you pointed out, is impossible. & I do understand the main point of the clip-yes, Tyrannosaurids were pretty smart. what I want to know is: is it possible to get an idea of the relative intelligence of the animal. is it as smart, or not as smart, etc, compared to the aforementioned?

I know that part is partially possible-since other clips talk about relative intelligence of Hyaenodonts to modern mammalian predators. (they weren't as intelligent).

[dynomax101]

@Albukhshi I'd guess there's no way of knowing, short of finding out that Tyrannosaurus had a civilization. I think what Dr. Currie is getting at here is that some dinosaurs, mainly tyrannosaurids, developed abilities we heretofore only associated with modern animals, such as wolves and orcas. T-rex probably had the largest brain of any known animal up to that time, and for a good many millions of years afterwards.

[Albukhshi]

I know this can be hard to quantify, but how intelligent were Tyrannosaurs, compared to modern animals? I'm especially thinking in comparison to mammals and birds that do hunting.