FLIGHT was built into the brain as well as the body of Archaeopteryx. The oldest known bird shares many skeletal features with its dinosaur ancestors, such as teeth and a long bony tail. Yet a CAT scan reveals that Archaeopteryx had the large brain and optic lobes of modern birds, not the brain of a dinosaur, says Angela Milner of London’s Natural History Museum.
It is relatively easy to study how a fossil skeleton may have been adapted for flight. However, navigating in a three-dimensional environment also requires a specialised brain. Modern birds have an enlarged brain, optic lobes and…
