Question: has anyone ever dissected a chimpanzee brain to figure out why they are so smart?

Lydia Bach answered on 21 Nov 2014:

Hey,

yes they have actually. In the olden days they used to catch them in the wild to bring them home to do dissections for entertainment in fancy science circles.

Now scientists dissect those animals who have died in zoos from natural causes. Chimps and us have very similar body size, but our brains are nearly three times larger than theirs.

They are better than us in some things though, like they have a photographic memory and can memorise patterns quicker than us. There has also been a study where they allowed chimps and humans to play a strategy game – and unexpectedly, the chimps outplayed the humans – that was all about guessing the opponents next move.

Clearly structures in the brain are responsible for these amazing talents, but we are still trying to fund out more!

I do think that chimps are more intelligent than gorillas, yes. But some scientists have actually studied intelligence of all the apes and have found that orangutans are the smartest of all of the apes! Second place are chimps!

Check out this link for some brainy pictures 😉