Hi, I'm Lindsay.

And I'm Marshall. Welcome to Tumble, the show where we explore stories of science discovery.

Today we're asking, were T-Rex's smart?

Were they bloodthirsty carnivores or just hungry for knowledge?

Could they be both?

We're going to find out how the brains of extinct dinosaurs can help us understand what it means to be smart.

Are listener Penny sent us this question?

Hi, my name is Penny Druns, and I'm 70 years old. My question is, how did smartness begin?

How did smartness begin? Like, when could we call something smart?

It's a tricky question.

I'm going to guess sometime after rocks.

Penny has an idea of how scientists would find out.

I also think scientists, before their hair smartness began,

I studied the term of the dinosaurs, because dinosaurs were quite smart.

That's an interesting idea, but why does Penny think dinosaurs were smart?

I feel like the stereotype is that they're big dumb-dums, except for velociraptors.

Why did velociraptors get all the credit for the brain?

You got to be smart to hunt a...what did they hunt? I have no idea.

So, no real reason you can think of a why velociraptors were smart.

But it makes me wonder why we think of some animals as smart, like a wise owl or a wily fox.

What makes an animal smart? And, you know, what makes us humans smart? Are we even smart?

Let's ask our listeners, what do you think smartness is?

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