Paleoneurology of early archosauriforms and pseudosuchians

Abstract

Paleoneurology is a branch of paleontology that is dedicated to the study of the anatomy and evolution of the nervous system of extinct animals. You are reading the introduction to this book about paleoneurology because you are a descendent of a long line of primate ancestors that had evolved progressively larger brains, and that were eventually able to communicate using symbolic written language. However, humans are not the only animals to have evolved relatively large brains. Trends towards brain enlargement have long been known in other vertebrate lineages, such as other mammals, and also in reptiles. Furthermore, throughout the evolution of amniotes there has been a brain size increase that corresponded, mainly, to an increase of the cerebrum with the highest encephalization observed in avian dinosaurs (birds) and mammals (e.g. Bruce 2007; Balanoff et al. 2014; Güntürkün et al. 2020; Smaers et al. 2021). Investigating patterns of brain evolution in other vertebrates offers a window on how human intelligence may have evolved, but the evolution of the brain and senses in those groups is fascinating in its own right. Primate and hominid brain evolution have been the subject of many previous volumes, and this book focuses on the state of knowledge of the paleoneurology in those other amniote groups (Fig. 1.1).