Horned dinosaurs saw a decline in their intelligence, hearing and sense of smell as they grew larger over the course of 100 million years, according to a study by researchers in China and the United States.
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And the scientists said human evolution could follow a similar trajectory if we become too reliant on technology.
“The sense of smell in early-diverging ceratopsians is more sensitive than in Protoceratops [a Late Cretaceous dinosaur in Asia] and late-diverging ceratopsids.
“Early-diverging ceratopsians had higher hearing frequencies than ceratopsids and non-avian theropods,” the researchers wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Paleobiology in October.
“The early horned dinosaurs bear relatively large brain volumes, even higher than most extant reptiles.”
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The scientists explained that while these functions helped the dinosaurs escape their predators when they were smaller, as they grew larger, they became less useful.