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  • dataramadatarama@hachyderm.io
    Oct 10, 2026, 1:10 PM

    @hynek A bit higher, but not by much. The African ostrich actually holds the record for lowest encephalization quotient of any living bird - there are actually lizards that have ostriches beat.

    This isn't a perfect proxy for intelligence, though! Brain architectures can be very different between species, and many small-brained animals have lots of tricks for packing a lot of smarts into a small volume.

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  • dataramadatarama@hachyderm.io
    Oct 10, 2026, 7:58 PM

    @hynek For example - lizards. We used to think they were abysmally stupid reflex automata*, which would seem well-supported by the fact that they have small brains and a simple cerebral cortex without the complex layered architecture we see in mammals. The neocortex is the site of higher cognitive function, so lizards are probably pretty dumb, right?

    Well, it turns out we were looking in the wrong place. Lizards have a ridge structure which packs a very high neuron density and extreme connectivity, full of stellate neurons in a structure that doesn't really resemble anything in a mammal brain. In some lizards (like anoles, monitors and certain skinks), this region's proportion of the overall brain mass isn't that far off from the proportion the neocortex takes up in a mammal's brain. An anole actually has *less* of its brain dedicated to simple motor function automation than birds or mammals. And when researchers started using experimental setups that weren't designed for mammals, anoles actually outperform small songbirds and some rodents on behavioral flexibility puzzle tests. It turns out that if you live in tree canopies and you compete for your food source with fast hungry birds that can also eat you, then even if your brain is the size of a peppercorn you're going to have to end up with an extremely well-optimized peppercorn.

    It also helps that lizards have lifelong rapid neurogenesis: They actually *dynamically rebuild brain matter* as they learn, rather than simply strengthening and weakening connections. Nobody knew any of this just 25 years ago; the period from the mid-00s onward is sometimes called "the reptilian renaissance" in animal cognition studies. This, of course, would also be an *awesome* name for an evolutionary horror novel.

    *) Anyone who actually spent any significant time actually watching or interacting with lizards knew that this couldn't possibly be true.

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