Could T rex think? Scientists are using birds to find out

A six-day-old quail embryo has hips that look identical to those of a T rex. Chicken genes, when manipulated in the lab, can trigger the growth of teeth. These are not anomalies; they are evidence of a direct evolutionary line, and scientists now believe that same connection could help decode what was happening inside a dinosaur's skull.

University of Edinburgh palaeontologist Professor Steve Brusatte leads a study that explores the possibility of predicting cognitive behaviour through brain organisation in the fossilised skull of ancient creatures. The hypothesis behind the theory is clear in that some types of birds have displayed evidence of using tools and thinking ahead.

From laboratory experiments, scientists found out that emus had the capability of understanding that other creatures may go through experiences that are not the same as theirs.

"We can't put T rex through those tests," Brusatte said. "But if there are some distinctive features of the brain that maybe tell you with 95% confidence that the animal with that kind of brain is capable of that kind of behaviour today, then we can at least make predictions about these fossils."

The impact of the asteroid 66 million years ago killed off most dinosaur species. There is one type of dinosaur which has lived on until today: the ancestors of today’s birds. "I don't think it's totally percolated into the popular consciousness that birds are dinosaurs," he said. "They are real, true dinosaurs. This is not a turn of phrase."

The evolutionary traits of birds such as their feathers, wings, and beaks have nothing to do with flight. Most likely, feathers evolved for reasons of insulation, while wings could have originated from a display structure. Flight, in its turn, appeared almost by chance.

These surviving birds possessed unique traits: good flying ability, quick growth rates, and, perhaps most importantly, had toothless beaks able to feed on seeds from soil, even years after forests fell to dust due to the fifth mass extinction event.

However, evolution created animals to take the place of the extinct creatures, such as South America’s terrifying birds, which could grow as large as ten feet tall, possessing heads as big as a horse's and beaks resembling hook-shaped knives. As Brusatte states, "This was basically T rex reincarnated."

Despite mounting modern threats like avian flu, habitat destruction, glass buildings and feral cats, Brusatte remains optimistic about birds' long-term prospects.