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Evolution of the Brain: At the Reptile-Bird Transition

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Encyclopedia of Neuroscience

Definition

Enlargement and elaboration of many brain features occurred independently in the diapsid line leading to modern reptiles and birds and separately in the synapsid line leading to modern mammals. Within the diapsid line, birds, which arose from the archosaur line that includes crocodiles, show the most elaboration of a number of their brain structures. They have the greatest number of distinct thalamic nuclei, particularly for the visual and somatomotor systems, correspondingly expanded areas of the telencephalic pallium for sensory, motor, and associative areas; elaborated cerebellar and basal ganglia circuitry for motor control; and the “astrocytic” glial system. All of these features are also present in mammalian brains, independently gained.

Characteristics

Evolutionary Relations

The amniotes form three major groups: Anapsida, Synapsida, and Diapsida. Mammals are synapsids, whereas birds are diapsids, as well as the extant reptiles. Turtles were regarded formerly as...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1st Department of Anatomy, Semmelweis University, School of Medicine, Budapest, Hungary

    Mihaly Kalman

Authors
  1. Mihaly Kalman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Marc D. Binder

  2. Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Graduate School of Medicine University of Tokyo Hongo, Bunkyo‐ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Nobutaka Hirokawa

  3. Göttingen, Germany

    Uwe Windhorst

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg

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Kalman, M. (2009). Evolution of the Brain: At the Reptile-Bird Transition. In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_3149

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