Reptiles are Smarter than People Think

Up in these parts, alligators and crocodiles are unlikely to be encountered in the wild. Down Florida way, there are many millions of gators and a few crocs, but crocs are more common in southern latitudes. How to tell them apart? In the picture, one is a gator. The the other is a croc. Easy! One more: An alligator will see you later and a crocodile will see you in a while.

Joking aside, there are a few visible differences. Crocs have tapered snouts, gators have broader snouts and are darker in color. Like snakes, just leave them alone.

American alligator and crocodile, Flickr / Abi Skipp (CC BY 2.0)

By the way, judging from their similar appearances, it would seem that crocodiles and alligators could mate. Nope. Genetically, they are quite different, so there are no allidiles or crocogators roaming around.

Alligators are often a nuisance in Florida and such, lumbering across the road (residents are used to it, tourists often stop for pictures) or getting into places uninvited. Snakes, iguanas, anoles, other reptiles are busy doing reptile stuff and do not seem very intelligent. That is the opposite of the truth.

Studying reptiles in captivity can have inaccurate results, as it does not quite correlate to their activities in the wild. While birds and mammals may engage in regular feeding schedules, a crocodile or snake may indicate, "Nah. I had a decent meal last week, so I'll pass." Also, the intelligence needed in hunting is not as important in captivity. Now researchers are realizing that reptiles are more intelligent than than they previously believed.

This has some ramifications for reptile-to-radiologist evolution. It was thought that since everything evolved from a common ancestor and humans have "reptile brains" tucked away, which led to the disastrous medical results with lobotomies. Evolutionary dogmas and stories are harmful to the design plans of the Master Engineer.

What follows is from an Intelligent Design site. The article is useful, but the author occasionally lacks clarity in her writing — I almost rejected it because she referred to the foolishness of convergent evolution in a rather confusing manner. She also believes in deep time and may accept something resembling theistic evolution, but I am uncertain.

At JStor Daily,Matthew Wills, introducing a recent paper, tells us that reptiles are are smarter than we used to think. One reason that biologists used to think that reptiles are of uniformly low intelligence was a misunderstanding about their behavior in captivity:

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It turns out that reptiles observed in the wild can be rather clever:

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In fairness, the fact that reptiles can afford to be torpid much of the time due to their low energy needs probably means that they don’t need to exercise intelligence as often as energy-burning mammals and birds do. But that’s a separate matter from not having intelligence.

Aside from possible guided evolutionary ideas and adherence to deep time, this article still has some useful content. To see it all, climb over to "Get Smart: Recognizing Reptile Intelligence."