Re: Hands and brains

[KellySt@aol.com]

to: David@interworld.com (David Levine)
> KellySt@aol.com wrote:
> > 
> > To: Timothy van der Linden)
> > >
> > > But why do elephants have such big brains (3 to 4 times larger than
> > humans)?
> > 
> > They need the nuerons to run their big bodies, which are dozens of times
> > humans.
> 
> But what about dinosaurs, small-brained creatures,
> many of whom had bodies much larger than elephants?
> I think I've read somewhere that a large portion
> of their nervous system was distributed... i.e.,
> their spinal cord handled more functions than ours
> does.  So why do elephants have a large brain
> instead of a distributed nervous system, more
> like a dinosaurs?
> 
> David

Hum, don't know.  Then again how intelegent were they, and how heavy were
their brains (or spinal cords in this case).  I'ld guess they were very
stupid, so they would need a preportionally smaller brain.  Where as an
elephant is fairly cleaver (say compared to a horse or something) so it
needed a preportionally bigger brain then a Bronto.  (Naturally I have
extensive field experence with dinosaurs.  ;)   )

Kelly