@article{bakker1972anatomical,
    author = "BAKKER, ROBERT T.",
    title = "Anatomical and Ecological Evidence of Endothermy in Dinosaurs",
    year = "1972",
    journal = "Nature",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1038/238081a0",
    doi = "10.1038/238081a0",
    number = "5359",
    openalex = "W2021172872",
    pages = "81-85",
    volume = "238",
    references = "doi101001jama196203050110085031, doi101111j155856461971tb01922x, doi101152ajplegacy197021941104, doi101515mamm19673111, doi1023071365733, doi1023071933240, doi1023072406945, doi1023073250, doi1023073799111, doi107208chicago97802267365700010001"
}

@article{feduccia1974endothermy,
    author = "Feduccia, Alan",
    title = "Endothermy, Dinosaurs, and Archaeopteryx",
    year = "1974",
    journal = "Evolution",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.2307/2407180",
    doi = "10.2307/2407180",
    number = "3",
    openalex = "W4236695320",
    pages = "503",
    volume = "28"
}

@article{bouvier1977dinosaur,
    author = "Bouvier, Marianne",
    title = "DINOSAUR HAVERSIAN BONE AND ENDOTHERMY",
    year = "1977",
    journal = "Evolution",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1977.tb01028.x",
    doi = "10.1111/j.1558-5646.1977.tb01028.x",
    number = "2",
    openalex = "W2325766925",
    pages = "449-450",
    volume = "31",
    references = "bakker1972anatomical, doi1010160021929074900645, doi101017s0021859600040491, doi101242jcss310361111, doi1021060000462319705208000005, openalexw2247544283"
}

@article{doi101139e79024,
    author = "Béland, Pierre and Russell, Dale A.",
    title = "Ectothermy in dinosaurs: paleoecological evidence from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta",
    year = "1979",
    journal = "Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences",
    abstract = "The ratio of carnivorous to herbivorous dinosaur skeletons from Dinosaur Provincial Park has been cited as evidence of endothermy in dinosaurs. In living populations of large endothermic mammals, carnivore biomass represents approximately 1\% of total biomass. Two models describing energy flow from herbivores to carnivores indicate that tyrannosaurids are three to four times more abundant in the fossil sample than would have been the case if they were endothermic. Either the fossil sample does not adequately reflect relative abundances of large dinosaurs in the ancient community, or large dinosaurs were ectothermic.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1139/e79-024",
    doi = "10.1139/e79-024",
    openalex = "W2076324302",
    references = "bouvier1977dinosaur"
}

@incollection{hopson1980relative1,
    author = "Hopson, J. A",
    editor = "Thomas, D. K. and Olson, E. C.",
    title = "Relative Brainsize in Dinosaurs: Implications for Dinosaur Endothermy",
    year = "1980",
    booktitle = "A Cold Look at the Warm Blooded Dinosaurs",
    publisher = "Washington, D.C., American Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 287-310",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Hopson, J. A., 1980, Relative Brainsize in Dinosaurs: Implications for Dinosaur Endothermy, in Thomas, D. K., and Olson, E. C., eds., A Cold Look at the Warm Blooded Dinosaurs: Washington, D.C., American Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 287-310.}"
}

@article{lundsgaard2003generalised,
    author = "Lundsgaard, E.",
    title = "Generalised cancer, a function of the relative brainsize",
    year = "2003",
    journal = "Medical Hypotheses",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-9877(03)00028-8",
    doi = "10.1016/s0306-9877(03)00028-8",
    number = "2",
    pages = "200-205",
    volume = "61"
}

@incollection{crossref2008bird,
    title = "Bird Dinosaurs And Dinosaur Birds",
    year = "2008",
    booktitle = "Feathered Dinosaurs",
    abstract = "In the early 1990s some isolated finds of strange bird-like dinosaurs from Argentina and Mongolia threw a spanner in the works of determining bird origins. The discovery of partial skeletons of Alvarezsaurus from Argentina and Mononykus from Mongolia revealed that the boundary between bipedal running dinosaurs and flightless birds was totally blurred. Then the discovery of more complete remains of a similar beast, Shuvuuia from Mongolia, revealed the true nature of these strange beasts. They had long legs, curved, delicate necks, small, gracile heads with tiny teeth, and short, powerful arms each with one very large claw and two remnant smaller claws.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195372663.003.0009",
    doi = "10.1093/oso/9780195372663.003.0009",
    pages = "25-28"
}

@article{doi101007s1205200901174,
    author = "Angielczyk, Kenneth D.",
    title = "Dimetrodon Is Not a Dinosaur: Using Tree Thinking to Understand the Ancient Relatives of Mammals and their Evolution",
    year = "2009",
    journal = "Evolution Education and Outreach",
    abstract = "The line of descent that includes all living mammals extends back in time over 300 million years. Many of the ancient relatives of mammals that fall along this line are very different in appearance from living mammals and are frequently mistaken for reptiles such as dinosaurs. This misconception is reinforced by the fact that these animals are often referred to as “mammal-like reptiles,” a term reflecting outdated methods for classifying organisms. In reality, these ancient mammal-relatives, known as synapsids, are more closely related to living mammals than they are to any reptiles. Evolutionary trees, which depict patterns of descent from common ancestors among organisms, are very useful for understanding why this is the case and for reconstructing the evolutionary histories of many of the unique characters found in mammals. Here, I provide an introduction to evolutionary trees and their implications for understanding the relationships between mammals, synapsids, and reptiles. This is followed by a review of synapsid diversity and a discussion of how evolutionary trees can be used to investigate when in synapsid history different mammalian characteristics first appeared.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-009-0117-4",
    doi = "10.1007/s12052-009-0117-4",
    openalex = "W2026668796",
    references = "crossref2007scientists, doi10108002724634198810011708, doi101086383584, doi101242jeb01745, doi1023071292217, doi1023071445584, doi1023071446122, doi1023074448410, doi105962bhltitle59991, doi107208chicago97802263604920010001, openalexw2983381470, openalexw634659594"
}

@article{doi101371journalpone0185185,
    author = "Ferrón, Humberto G.",
    title = "Regional endothermy as a trigger for gigantism in some extinct macropredatory sharks",
    year = "2017",
    journal = "PLoS ONE",
    abstract = "Otodontids include some of the largest macropredatory sharks that ever lived, the most extreme case being Otodus (Megaselachus) megalodon. The reasons underlying their gigantism, distribution patterns and extinction have been classically linked with climatic factors and the evolution, radiation and migrations of cetaceans during the Paleogene. However, most of these previous proposals are based on the idea of otodontids as ectothermic sharks regardless of the ecological, energetic and body size constraints that this implies. Interestingly, a few recent studies have suggested the possible existence of endothermy in these sharks thus opening the door to a series of new interpretations. Accordingly, this work proposes that regional endothermy was present in otodontids and some closely related taxa (cretoxyrhinids), playing an important role in the evolution of gigantism and in allowing an active mode of live. The existence of regional endothermy in these groups is supported here by three different approaches including isotopic-based approximations, swimming speed inferences and the application of a novel methodology for assessing energetic budget and cost of swimming in extinct taxa. In addition, this finding has wider implications. It calls into question some previous paleotemperature estimates based partially on these taxa, suggests that the existing hypothesis about the evolution of regional endothermy in fishes requires modification, and provides key evidence for understanding the evolution of gigantism in active macropredators.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185185",
    doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0185185",
    openalex = "W2757818434",
    references = "doi1010029780470691854, doi101038nature00828, doi101038nature10082, doi101073pnas8762324, doi1011300016760619951071164mlccot23co2, doi101242jeb20081165, doi101242jeb351109, doi1023071940431, openalexw1491586260, openalexw584691296"
}

@article{doi101016jgr202008003,
    author = "Benton, Michael J.",
    title = "The origin of endothermy in synapsids and archosaurs and arms races in the Triassic",
    year = "2020",
    journal = "Gondwana Research",
    abstract = "Birds and mammals are key elements of modern ecosystems, and many biologists explain their great success by their endothermy, or warm-bloodedness. New palaeontological discoveries point to the origins of endothermy in the Triassic, and that birds (archosaurs) and mammals (synapsids) likely acquired endothermy in parallel. Here, a further case is made, that the emergence of endothermy in a stepwise manner began in the Late Permian but accelerated in the Early Triassic. The trigger was the profound destruction wrought by the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME). In the oceans, this was the beginning of the Mesozoic Marine Revolution (MMR), and a similar revolution occurred on land, termed here the Triassic Terrestrial Revolution (TTR). Among tetrapods, both synapsids and archosaurs survived into the Triassic, but numbers were heavily depleted. However, the survivors were marked by the acquisition of endothermy, as shown by bone histology, isotopic analyses, and the acquisition of insulating pelage. Both groups before the PTME had been sprawlers; after the event they adopted parasagittal (erect) gait. The new posture and the new physiology enabled both groups to compete in their ecosystems at a faster rate than before the PTME. The new world of the Triassic was characterised by a fast-paced arms race between synapsids and archosauromorphs in which the latter, as both dinosaurs and pterosaurs, initially prevailed.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2020.08.003",
    doi = "10.1016/j.gr.2020.08.003",
    openalex = "W3082265010",
    references = "doi1010079781461417439, doi1010160031018274900194, doi10103831635, doi10103834356, doi101038ngeo1475, doi101038s41467018039961, doi101038s41598020678541, doi101093sysbiosyw033, doi101098rspb20180361, doi101098rstb20190136, doi101111j2041210x201100169x, doi101126sciadvaaw4486, doi101126science1097023, doi101126science493968, doi101152physiol000162016, doi1012063521, doi105281zenodo16171435, doi107312kiel11918, owen1857monograph"
}

@article{doi101016jjsames2021103341,
    author = "Novas, Fernando E. and Agnolín, Federico L. and Ezcurra, Martín D. and Müller, Rodrigo Temp and Martinelli, Agustín G. and Langer, Max C.",
    title = "Review of the fossil record of early dinosaurs from South America, and its phylogenetic implications",
    year = "2021",
    journal = "Journal of South American Earth Sciences",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2021.103341",
    doi = "10.1016/j.jsames.2021.103341",
    openalex = "W3157750971",
    references = "doi101007bf02985709, doi101007bf02986571, doi101016jcub201609040, doi101016jearscirev2020103120, doi101016jgr201801005, doi101016jjsames2020102846, doi101016jjsames2020102884, doi101016jpalaeo201001011, doi101017jpa202014, doi101038nature22037, doi101038s41467018039961, doi101038s4155901703055, doi101038s4158602030114, doi101038s41598020678541, doi101073pnas1402369111, doi1010800272463420161111224, doi101093zoolinneanzlaa080, doi101093zoolinneanzly009, doi101098rspb20110410, doi101111cla12160, doi101111j10960031200800217x, doi101111j10963642200900631x, doi101111j155856461985tb00420x, doi101111j155856461988tb02497x, doi101111joa12719, doi101126sciadvaba0099, doi101144sp3799, doi1012063521, doi101371journalpone0145713, doi1023071441916, doi1023072408678, doi1023072408870, doi10247506201401, doi104202app001432014, doi105281zenodo16171435, doi105710amgh040820173100, doi107717peerj1778, doi107717peerj7963, galton1977onstaurikosaums, openalexw3215057009"
}

@article{doi101126sciadvabg7099,
    author = "Torres, Christopher R. and Norell, Mark A. and Clarke, Julia A.",
    title = "Bird neurocranial and body mass evolution across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction: The avian brain shape left other dinosaurs behind",
    year = "2021",
    journal = "Science Advances",
    abstract = "exhibited a wulst and segmented palate, previously proposed to have arisen within extant birds. The origin of Aves is marked by larger, reshaped brains indicating selection for relatively large telencephala and eyes but not by uniquely small body size. Sensory system differences, potentially linked to these shifts, may help explain avian survivorship relative to other dinosaurs.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abg7099",
    doi = "10.1126/sciadv.abg7099",
    openalex = "W3186419283",
    references = "doi101016jcub201804062, doi101098rsos170975, doi101111j155856461951tb02756x, doi101371journalpone0082000, doi10166613052"
}

@article{doi101002bies202100060,
    author = "Newham, Elis and Gill, Pamela G. and Corfe, Ian J.",
    title = "New tools suggest a middle Jurassic origin for mammalian endothermy",
    year = "2022",
    journal = "BioEssays",
    abstract = "We suggest that mammalian endothermy was established amongst Middle Jurassic crown mammals, through reviewing state-of-the-art fossil and living mammal studies. This is considerably later than the prevailing paradigm, and has important ramifications for the causes, pattern, and pace of physiological evolution amongst synapsids. Most hypotheses argue that selection for either enhanced aerobic activity, or thermoregulation was the primary driver for synapsid physiological evolution, based on a range of fossil characters that have been linked to endothermy. We argue that, rather than either alternative being the primary selective force for the entirety of endothermic evolution, these characters evolved quite independently through time, and across the mammal family tree, principally as a response to shifting environmental pressures and ecological opportunities. Our interpretations can be tested using closely linked proxies for both factors, derived from study of fossils of a range of Jurassic and Cretaceous mammaliaforms and early mammals.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202100060",
    doi = "10.1002/bies.202100060",
    openalex = "W4213200202",
    references = "doi101001jama199503520390039030, doi101002ar23989, doi101016jgr202008003, doi101016jjhevol200904009, doi101038nature06277, doi101038s41467018049547, doi101073pnas1907847116, doi101098rstb20190142, doi101111j02698463200400841x, doi101126science1059412, doi101126science493968, doi101152physrev000472006, doi105962bhltitle7369"
}

@article{doi1010800891296320232211597,
    author = "Shimada, Kenshu and Yamaoka, Yuta and Kurihara, Yukito and Takakuwa, Yuji and Maisch, Harry M. and Becker, Martin A. and Eagle, Robert A. and Griffiths, Michael L.",
    title = "Tessellated calcified cartilage and placoid scales of the Neogene megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon (Lamniformes: Otodontidae), offer new insights into its biology and the evolution of regional endothermy and gigantism in the otodontid clade",
    year = "2023",
    journal = "Historical Biology",
    abstract = "The late Neogene megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon (Lamniformes: Otodontidae), is mostly known for its gigantic teeth and vertebrae. Re-examination of the rock matrix surrounding a previously described associated tooth set of O. megalodon from the upper Miocene of Japan resulted in the observation of numerous fragments of tessellated calcified cartilage and placoid scales. The morphology of each tessera and the arrangement of overall tessellated calcified cartilage are practically identical to those of extant chondrichthyans. Many placoid scales possess pronounced, rather broadly-spaced keels. A quantitative relationship between interkeel distances of keeled scales and reported cruising speeds across extant pelagic lamniforms and carcharhiniforms suggests that O. megalodon with a representative interkeel distance of ca. 100 µm was not a fast swimmer. We propose that O. megalodon was generally a slow cruising shark with occasional burst swimming for prey capture, where much of its metabolic heat through regional endothermy was possibly used to facilitate the digestion of large pieces of ingested meat as well as absorbing and processing nutrients. If so, the relative importance of the functional roles of regional endothermy possibly shifted from maintaining high cruising speeds to visceral food processing through the evolution towards gigantism in otodontids.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2023.2211597",
    doi = "10.1080/08912963.2023.2211597",
    openalex = "W4381888681",
    references = "doi101038s4159802071387y, doi1010800891296320201812598, doi1010800891296320222032024"
}

@article{doi101098rsbl20230331,
    author = "Dolton, Haley R. and Snelling, Edward P. and Deaville, Robert and Jackson, Andrew L. and Perkins, Matthew W. and Bortoluzzi, Jenny R. and Purves, Kevin and Curnick, David J. and Pimiento, Catalina and Payne, Nicholas L.",
    title = "Centralized red muscle in Odontaspis ferox and the prevalence of regional endothermy in sharks",
    year = "2023",
    journal = "Biology Letters",
    abstract = ", suggests that this thermophysiology is more prevalent in the Lamniformes than previously thought, which in turn has implications for understanding the evolution of regional endothermy, gigantism, and extinction risk of warm-bodied shark species both past and present.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0331",
    doi = "10.1098/rsbl.2023.0331",
    openalex = "W4388479453",
    references = "doi1010800891296320201812598"
}

@article{doi101002ar25459,
    author = "Caspar, Kai R. and Gutiérrez‐Ibáñez, Cristián and Bertrand, Ornella and Carr, Thomas D. and Colbourne, Jennifer and Erb, Arthur and George, Hady and Holtz, Thomas R. and Naish, Darren and Wylie, Douglas R. and Hurlburt, Grant R.",
    title = "How smart was T. rex? Testing claims of exceptional cognition in dinosaurs and the application of neuron count estimates in palaeontological research",
    year = "2024",
    journal = "The Anatomical Record",
    abstract = {Recent years have seen increasing scientific interest in whether neuron counts can act as correlates of diverse biological phenomena. Lately, Herculano-Houzel (2023) argued that fossil endocasts and comparative neurological data from extant sauropsids allow to reconstruct telencephalic neuron counts in Mesozoic dinosaurs and pterosaurs, which might act as proxies for behaviors and life history traits in these animals. According to this analysis, large theropods such as Tyrannosaurus rex were long-lived, exceptionally intelligent animals equipped with "macaque- or baboon-like cognition", whereas sauropods and most ornithischian dinosaurs would have displayed significantly smaller brains and an ectothermic physiology. Besides challenging established views on Mesozoic dinosaur biology, these claims raise questions on whether neuron count estimates could benefit research on fossil animals in general. Here, we address these findings by revisiting Herculano-Houzel's (2023) work, identifying several crucial shortcomings regarding analysis and interpretation. We present revised estimates of encephalization and telencephalic neuron counts in dinosaurs, which we derive from phylogenetically informed modeling and an amended dataset of endocranial measurements. For large-bodied theropods in particular, we recover significantly lower neuron counts than previously proposed. Furthermore, we review the suitability of neurological variables such as neuron numbers and relative brain size to predict cognitive complexity, metabolic rate and life history traits in dinosaurs, coming to the conclusion that they are flawed proxies for these biological phenomena. Instead of relying on such neurological estimates when reconstructing Mesozoic dinosaur biology, we argue that integrative studies are needed to approach this complex subject.},
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.25459",
    doi = "10.1002/ar.25459",
    openalex = "W4395665019",
    references = "doi101002cne25458, doi10100797830311398338, doi101016jcub202105041, doi101016s0047248477801358, doi10103844766, doi101038nature11631, doi101038srep18952, doi10108010635150802302427, doi101086303327, doi101093bioinformaticsbty633, doi101093molbevmsx116, doi101126science1157704, doi101126science2985593556, doi101126scienceabl5584, doi1012063521, doi101371journalpone0298242"
}

@article{doi101371journalpone0298957,
    author = "Myhrvold, Nathan and Baumgart, Stephanie L. and Vidal, Daniel and Fish, Frank E. and Henderson, Donald M. and Saitta, Evan T. and Sereno, Paul C.",
    title = "Diving dinosaurs? Caveats on the use of bone compactness and pFDA for inferring lifestyle",
    year = "2024",
    journal = "PLoS ONE",
    abstract = {The lifestyle of spinosaurid dinosaurs has been a topic of lively debate ever since the unveiling of important new skeletal parts for Spinosaurus aegyptiacus in 2014 and 2020. Disparate lifestyles for this taxon have been proposed in the literature; some have argued that it was semiaquatic to varying degrees, hunting fish from the margins of water bodies, or perhaps while wading or swimming on the surface; others suggest that it was a fully aquatic underwater pursuit predator. The various proposals are based on equally disparate lines of evidence. A recent study by Fabbri and coworkers sought to resolve this matter by applying the statistical method of phylogenetic flexible discriminant analysis to femur and rib bone diameters and a bone microanatomy metric called global bone compactness. From their statistical analyses of datasets based on a wide range of extant and extinct taxa, they concluded that two spinosaurid dinosaurs (S. aegyptiacus, Baryonyx walkeri) were fully submerged "subaqueous foragers," whereas a third spinosaurid (Suchomimus tenerensis) remained a terrestrial predator. We performed a thorough reexamination of the datasets, analyses, and methodological assumptions on which those conclusions were based, which reveals substantial problems in each of these areas. In the datasets of exemplar taxa, we found unsupported categorization of taxon lifestyle, inconsistent inclusion and exclusion of taxa, and inappropriate choice of taxa and independent variables. We also explored the effects of uncontrolled sources of variation in estimates of bone compactness that arise from biological factors and measurement error. We found that the ability to draw quantitative conclusions is limited when taxa are represented by single data points with potentially large intrinsic variability. The results of our analysis of the statistical method show that it has low accuracy when applied to these datasets and that the data distributions do not meet fundamental assumptions of the method. These findings not only invalidate the conclusions of the particular analysis of Fabbri et al. but also have important implications for future quantitative uses of bone compactness and discriminant analysis in paleontology.},
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298957",
    doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0298957",
    openalex = "W4392502745",
    references = "doi101098rstb20190142, doi101139cjes20200174"
}

@article{doi101002ar70074,
    author = "Jensen, Thomas Rejsenhus and Jacobs, Ivo and Kverková, Kristina and Lalić, Lona and Polonyiová, Alexandra and Stehlík, Patrik and Reber, Stephan A. and Osvath, Mathias",
    title = "T. rex cognition was T. rex ‐like—A critical outlook on diverging views of the neurocognitive evolution in dinosaurs",
    year = "2025",
    journal = "The Anatomical Record",
    abstract = "A recent debate has emerged between Caspar et al. (2024) and Herculano-Houzel (2023) on inferring extinct dinosaur cognition by estimating brain neuron counts. While thought-provoking, the discussion largely overlooks the function of cognition, as well as partly neglects the difficulties involved in estimating neuron numbers, which according to us leads to oversimplified conclusions. We use this exchange as a springboard to further explore how extinct cognition might be studied and the potential pitfalls involved. One of the main emphases is on introducing basic concepts and contemporary views of cognition and its evolution. In relation to this, we highlight the shift in thermobiology during the Mesozoic-from ectothermy to endothermy-and its major impact on cognition and brain evolution. We also examine the challenges of estimating neuron counts in extinct dinosaurs based on current knowledge and take issue with several aspects of the approaches used by both Caspar et al. and Herculano-Houzel. At the same time, we challenge Caspar et al.'s claim that telencephalic neuron numbers, if estimable, would be largely uninformative about extinct dinosaur cognition, while also disagreeing with Herculano-Houzel's somewhat reductive view. We further emphasize the value of comparative cognitive studies in extant animals, alongside neural correlates, to infer the cognitive evolution of non-avian dinosaurs. We briefly outline how cognition is studied in living species and the extent to which such research can inform evolutionary inference. Our focus here is on non-avian theropods, as they are central to the current debate and belong to the lineage that led to modern birds.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.70074",
    doi = "10.1002/ar.70074",
    openalex = "W4417503217",
    references = "doi101002ar25459, doi101002cne70056, doi101006anbe19960330, doi1010079789400989474, doi101016jneuron201612041, doi101016jtics201410004, doi101016jtics202408002, doi101038nature05575, doi101073pnas1517131113, doi101093cercor103206, doi101098rsbl20240472, doi101098rstb20100342, doi101126science1125456, doi101159000076784"
}

@article{doi101002ar70113,
    author = "Caspar, Kai R. and Gutiérrez‐Ibáñez, Cristián and George, Hady and Holtz, Thomas R. and Naish, Darren and Hurlburt, Grant R.",
    title = "Endothermy, neuron counts, and other issues: Further remarks on neurocognitive evolution in fossil vertebrates",
    year = "2025",
    journal = "The Anatomical Record",
    abstract = "Last year, we challenged the view that large-bodied theropod dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex resembled primates in cognition and behavior, a proposition made by Herculano-Houzel in 2023. More recently, Jensen et al. have criticized our work on this topic, raising methodological and conceptual issues. Central to their argument is the assumption that tachymetabolic endotherms should be expected to converge in neurocognitive traits, which follows the recently proposed endothermic brain hypothesis. We here respond to their critique, address critical misconceptions, and argue that none of the points raised by Jensen et al. challenge the conclusions we have drawn. We show that the endothermic brain hypothesis lacks robust support from the fossil record. As of now, no compelling evidence suggests that endothermy coevolved with enlarged brains or elevated neuron densities in either the avian or mammalian lineage. Various fossil groups containing endothermic taxa retain plesiomorphic endocast traits and do not converge with birds and mammals in the relative size and proportions of their brains. Furthermore, we elaborate on our discussion on (forebrain) neuron counts as correlates of cognitive performance and highlight that neuron numbers evolve in tandem with body mass in birds and mammals, suggesting that comparatively high neuron number estimates for some Mesozoic dinosaurs do not require explanations that orbit around exceptional cognitive abilities. Despite these disagreements, we identify significant overlap in opinion between Jensen et al. and ourselves, including in the position that neuron count estimates for Mesozoic dinosaurs will remain unreliable and are unsuitable for inferring cognitive complexity.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.70113",
    doi = "10.1002/ar.70113",
    openalex = "W4417503716",
    references = "chiarenza2024early, doi101002ar70074, doi101002cne70056, doi101016jtics202408002, doi101017jpa202510121"
}