Science Forums 2

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by modest

I like the Encephalization way of determining intelligence. It leaves out the impressions or intuitions that we have about animals that probably throw off this kind of thing. The method also gives dolphins the credit they deserve. I think dolphins are very close to human-like intelligence (ie being able to pass on and build knowledge from generation to generation).

Brain and Body Size... and Intelligence
has a good description of the 'allometry' encephalization method. I won't describe it here, but the results are:

Human          7.44  Cat    1.00
Dolphin        5.31  Horse  0.86
Chimpanzee     2.49  Sheep  0.81
Rhesus Monkey  2.09  Mouse  0.50
Elephant       1.87  Rat    0.40
Whale          1.76  Rabbit 0.40
Dog            1.17

where '1.0' represents average mammalian intelligence. Cool stuff.

-modest

I wonder what this says about the elephant nose fish, it's brain to body mass is higher than a human. Humans brains amke up some 2.3% of our body by weight and use 20% of our oxygen intake. The elephant nose fish fish has a brain to body weight of 3.1 percent of it's total body mass and it's brian uses up some 60% of it's oxygen intake!