The morphological analysis of brain and nervous systems of dinosaurs and the evolutionary process of the transition from non-avian dinosaurs to birds.

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This study provides informative data to elucidate the evolutionary processes of body and brain from non-avian dinosaurs to birds and the transition of these animals. Specifically, a part of this study focused on large scaled morphology, such as the olfactory bulb for smelling, which reveals the changes of life style and feeding behaviors. This perspective is important to understand the paleoecology and food chain during the Mesozoic and the competition of niches among these animals. Oviraptorosaurs is one of good examples for the transitional dinosaurs between non-avian dinosaurs and birds. In this study, we analyze the changes in body and brain morphology to discuss if oviraptorosaurs belong to birds or avian features in this group is convergent. We concludes that the latter because brain features are more like non-avian dinosaurs, showing complex history of thetransition between non-avian dinosaurs to birds. In the future study, we need to much smaller scale in terms of the structures of brain and nervous system, which will providemore information about the evolution of dinosaurs.