Dogs in cartoons tend to be morons, and cats are little evil geniuses. But a new study has basically proven DOGS are the smarter species. Scientists figured out a way to count how many neurons different animals have in their cerebral cortex . . . the part of the brain associated with complex thoughts. And dogs have over TWICE as many.
t's not just because their brains are bigger. A lot of big-brained animals are dumb. For example, the brain of a bear is 10 times bigger than a cat's brain. But they found they have roughly the same number of neurons.
Raccoon brains are impressive too. They're the size of a cat brain, but have the same number of neurons as a dog. But they're all still pretty stupid compared to us. Dogs and raccoons both have around 500 million neurons. Your cerebral cortex has about 16 billion.