Published in Nature, Stony Brook’s Amy Balanoff and
colleagues provide evidence that ‘flight ready’ brain was present in non-avian
dinosaurs
New research published in Nature and led by Amy Balanoff, a
Research Instructor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook
University School of Medicine, provides evidence that dinosaurs evolved the
brainpower necessary for flight well before they actually took to the air as
birds. “Evolutionary origins of the avian brain” takes a comprehensive look at
the so-called “bird brain.” Contrary to the cliché, the term describes a
relatively enlarged brain that has the capacity required for flight and was
present in one of the earliest known birds, Archaeopteryx.