The Trouble with Comments
Sometimes I wish there weren’t so many options for ordinary folk to leave their responses on serious articles on newspaper websites. For example, I saw this today at the bottom of a brief, lightweight article on neuroscience in the Guardian:
Didn’t dinosaurs have two brains at one time? Where did the other brain go to? Didn’t human beings evolve from dinosaurs? Do human beings still have that second brain somewhere inside of them? If they do, what is it’s purpose?
Yes, indeed, we evolved from reptiles. That second brain is actually called the appdendix, and it controls the constriction and relaxation of the anal sphincter. Sadly, on some people the primary brain does not function, and the appendix has to take over.
It’s a common misconception that dinosaurs had two brains. They had on brain, and one neural cluster at the base of the spine, to control the back half of the beast. They were such large beings that there’d actually be a communications delay if the brain had to do it all.
I don’t know why I typed all that.
Are they sure though, or is it just conjecture, since surely they can’t have enough, if any, soft tissue matter to support the theory one way or the other? Could they have had giant axons the way some large squids do? There’s no extant land based species that does though, so perhaps it’s doubtful.
Did George Dubbleyuh leave the comment? It sounds like one of his.