"Coldblooded" Equals "Stupid"? Or NOT?

     If one were to accuse that humans are arrogant, that person would actually not be too far from the truth.  The belief that we humans are an intelligent, if not the most intelligent, species on Earth is held by many scientists and non-scientists.  With the human species on top of the intelligence ladder, we place species that are more closely related to us higher on that ladder than species that are more distantly related to us.  Consequently, we think other primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas to be highly intelligent.  Likewise, we also think mammals such as dolphins and elephants and other endotherms (organisms who use internal metabolic processes to account for much of their body temperature) such as birds to be intelligent as well.  On the other hand, we deem the "lowly", "cold-blooded" reptiles to be stupid, lacking in superior cognitive ability and intelligence (for your information, "cold-blooded" is actually a misnomer because the body temperature of reptiles is not always low.  The more appropriate term is ectothermic, meaning that the body temperature fluctuates with the ambient temperature).  Some even go so far as to say that the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was inevitable given those reptiles' supposedly inferior intelligence.

      But research is challenging the notion that reptiles, which include the now extinct dinosaurs and the extant organisms such as lizards and snakes, are lacking in intelligence.  According to a recent New York Times article titled "Coldblooded Does Not Mean Stupid", researchers found that reptiles are actually smarter than we think, capable of carrying a heavy memory load and adapting their behaviors to problem-solve and meet the demands of the environment.  For instance, a researcher at the University of Lincoln in England found that red-footed tortoises were able to rely on navigational cues to navigate themselves in a radial arm maze.  In addition, a researcher at Duke University found that Anole, a tropical lizard that normally strikes at its prey from above, could alter its normal method of acquiring prey when the environment is changed (in this experiment, the researcher hid the prey in a hole covered by a cap).  These and other studies show that "cold-blooded" is not synonymous with "stupid" and that reptiles are actually smarter than we give them credit for.  

     So the next time you see a lizard, snake, or any other reptile, remember that it may actually be up to something........Be careful......

I am so smart I can just relax in the sun and enjoy life

The New York Times article mentioned in this post can be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/science/coldblooded-does-not-mean-stupid.html?ref=science&_r=0

Picture Source: http://jonlieffmd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/frog-lying-on-lily-pad-1.jpg