Giant Sauropod With Brain the Size of a Tennis Ball

Published: 14th Oct 2015

UK scientists from Manachester have been studying the braincase  of a huge titanosaur. Despite being the size of a double-decker bus its brain was only 6.3cm across – the size of a tennis ball. They have digitally reconstructed the brain cavity, along with the passages of the cranial nerves and certain blood vessels as well as the labyrinth of the inner ear.  It is hoped the findings could help discover some of the mysteries of how dinosaur brains functioned, including their intellectual and sensory abilities.

Skulls, and particularly the braincases, are very fragile so not many have survived. That is not the case with this find, which is remarkably complete. The skull was originally discovered at an excavation in eastern Spain in 2007 and experts have spent the last few years studying it.

Titanosaurs lived 72 million years ago in the late cretaceous period. Like all sauropods it was four-legged with a long neck and a long tail and aet plants. This type of research is essential to get a better understanding of the cognitive skills, the hearing and eyesight of dinosaurs.

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