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

本研究为阐明非鸟类恐龙向鸟类的身体和大脑进化过程以及这些动物的过渡提供了翔实的数据。具体来说，本研究的一部分侧重于大尺度形态学，如嗅觉球，揭示了生活方式和摄食行为的变化。这一视角对于理解中生代的古生态和食物链以及这些动物之间的生态位竞争具有重要意义。窃蛋龙是非鸟类恐龙和鸟类之间过渡恐龙的一个很好的例子。在本研究中，我们通过分析其身体和大脑形态的变化来探讨盗蛋龙是属于鸟类还是鸟类的特征在这一类群中是趋同的。我们的结论是后者，因为大脑特征更像非鸟类恐龙，显示了非鸟类恐龙向鸟类过渡的复杂历史。在未来的研究中，我们需要更小的尺度来研究大脑和神经系统的结构，这将为恐龙的进化提供更多的信息。

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.