Oxford Says Dogs Are Smarter Than Cats Who would have thought that years of growling and sniffing rear ends would make you smarter? Researchers say that over many generations, dogs' brains have grown at a faster rate than cats' brains because canines are more social than felines. Oxford University scientists tracked the evolution of the size of animal brains over millions of years and determined that social species, like monkeys, dolphins and dogs, developed larger brains relative to the size of their bodies than more solitary animals, like deer and cats, The Telegraph reports. The findings buck earlier theories that brain size developed uniformly among species.  Getty Images A bulldog and a cat are face to face in a standoff. "This study overturns the long-held belief that brain size has increased across all mammals," Dr. Susanne Shultz, who led the research, told the paper. "Instead, groups of highly social species have undergone much more rapid increases than more solitary species." Having descended from pack animals like wolves, dogs needed to develop larger brains to handle the challenges of constant social interaction, according to the researchers. "Dogs have always been regarded as the more social animals, while cats like to get on with their own thing alone. But it appears that interaction is good for the brain and extends to other species, like ourselves," Shultz said. "We are even more social than monkeys and apes, and it is this ability to get on with each other that has helped us dominate the planet." But cat lovers shouldn't get hissing mad about the study -- a pet writer at the same publication that broke the story says the truth about cats and dogs is that each is smart in its own way. Instead, he argues, "perhaps the folk who issue press releases on behalf of researchers are the ones who are lacking in intelligence." Read more at The Telegrap From the NET Nandakumar |
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