request for aid--dates of origin of the elephant cortex

From
Date
I have no idea what the answer to this question is, but I (along with
Howard Bloom) would be interested to know.

Norm MacLeod



>From: HowlBloom@aol.com
>Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 20:59:32 -0400 (EDT)
>To: n.macleod@nhm.ac.uk
>Subject:  request for aid--dates of origin of the elephant cortex
>
>Subject: request for aid--dates of origin of the elephant cortex
>
>Does anyone have a clue to the following puzzle?
>
>Modern elephants are remarkable for the size of their cerebral cortices,
>which have been shown to allow "cultural transmission" of information from
>one generation to the next.  Generally the reigning matriarch of an elephant
>troop seems the primary repository and temporal transporter for lessons
>learned generations ago.
>
>How far back in geological time does such a cortex, used for purposes like
>these,  go?  The moeritherium of 60  mya had an unusally large head.  But
>have endocasts shown that its skull may have contained an advanced cerebral
>cortex?
>
>The mastodons of 35 mya seem likely candidates for elephant-like brain
>development and behavior.  But is there fossil evidence for or against this?
>
>Twenty-six-million year old proboscideans like the Trilophodon and the
>Platybelodon also seem likely carriers of a cortex of substantial size, able
>to act as storage and input/output mechanisms for the learning of
>generations.  But does the fossil record support or demolish this assumption,
>or are the remains available still ambiguous?
>
>I'd appreciate tremendously any help you can give me with this.  Howard
>
>Howard Bloom
>(founder: International Paleopsychology Project; member: New York Academy of
>Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American
>Psychological Society, Academy of Political Science, Human Behavior and
>Evolution Society, European Sociobiological Society)
>
>705 President Street
>Brooklyn, NY 11215
>phone 718 622 2278
>fax 718 398 2551
>e-mail howlbloom@aol.com
>for two chapters from
>The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of
>History,
>see www.bookworld.com/lucifer
><A HREF="http://www.bookworld.com/lucifer";>The Lucifer Principle:a scientific
>
>expedition into the forces of history</A>
>





___________________________________________________________________

Dr. Norman MacLeod
Micropalaeontological Research
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (E-mail)

Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX: 0171-938-9277
E-mail: N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk
___________________________________________________________________