Fossil Analysis Helps Researchers Understand the Development of Dinosaur Brain

Researchers analyzing dinosaur remains have provided a unique insight into the development of the dinosaur brain and inner ear canal.

The latest study on understanding dinosaur brain was based on 150-million-year-old dinosaur brains. Stephan Lautenschlager from Bristol's School of Earth Sciences and Tom Hübner from the Niedersächsische Landesmuseum in Hannover, Germany, worked on the current research, and their study is published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

They studied two Jurassic dinosaur Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki fossils; one was a young specimen of about 3 years of age while the second was a fully-grown dinosaur of 12 years of age.

Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki lived about 150 million years ago in modern-day Tanzania and was a small, plant-eating dinosaur. The dinosaur belonged to the genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. Previous research on the fossils of this dinosaur has shown that its middle and inner ear have both primitive and derived structures, showing that it underwent some significant evolutionary changes.

For the study, researchers used CT scanning and 3-D computer imaging to reconstruct and understand the brain and inner ear of the dinosaur specimens.

"Well-preserved fossil material, which can be used to reconstruct the brain anatomy is usually rare.  Thus, we were fortunate to have different growth stages available for our study," said Tom Hübner, co-author of the study, according to a news release.

The study of fossils showed that although hearing and cognitive processes in the brain of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki were already developed in very young individuals, their brains underwent considerable changes, most probably due to changes in the environment and metabolism.

"Our study shows that the brain was already well-developed in the young dinosaurs and adapted perfectly to interact with their environment and other individuals," Stephan Lautenschlager said.