T Rex may have had brains ‘capable of using tools,’ ‘passing knowledge to kin,’ study claims

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The giant predatory dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex may have had “flexible cognition” that would place it in the realms of modern day tool-using and culture-building birds and primates, according to a new study. The research, published recently in the Journal of Comparative Neurology, found that T rex may have had “baboon-like numbers of brain neurons” that would have made them not only giant predators but also brainy creatures. Study author Suzana Herculano-Houzel from Vanderbilt University in the US says this level of brain neurons may have given the predatory dinosaur the potential abilities to solve problems and even build some tools. She says the dinosaur’s brain may have had more nerve cells than the number found in baboons, and may have been as “neuron-dense as primate brains - and ostrich and chicken brains.” If these numbers were an indication of cognitive abilities, the neuroscientist say this “would make these animals not only giant but also long-lived and endowed with flexible cognition, and thus even more magnificent predators than previously thought”.