News Neuroscience

How smart was T. rex?

A new neuron census stirs debate over the dinosaur’s brainpower

T. rex illustration

Calculating how many neurons dinosaurs like T. rex had helps scientists think about the ancient reptile's lifestyle.

FOTOKITA/istock/Getty Images Plus

By Freda Kreier

How brainy was Tyrannosaurus rex? It depends on who you ask.

Last year, the iconic Cretaceous dinosaur received the glow-up of a lifetime when Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, calculated that the predator had 3.3 billion neurons in one part of the forebrain alone. The discovery put T.