So I built a stegosaurus model kit, which included some factoids in the instructions. One of these factoids was that stegosaurs are not believed to have had a secondary brain in the hips to help them control their rear half after all. That was wild to me, since the whole stegosaurs and sauropods with their tiny heads needing a secondary brain for their huge bodies was commonly accepted back when I was a kid. So I looked it up, and indeed, the current hypothesis is that the cavity that the second brain was thought to occupy is used for a thing called a glycogen body. But what exactly does a glycogen body do? We’ll get back to you on that, apparently.
That’s just more autonomic system reaction, NOT a “second brain”. Anyone saying such is and always has been an idiot misinterpreting what the autonomic system is. Reacting to stimulus is a far cry from a “brain”.
It’s exactly how the “fencing response” exists. It is NOT a brain reacting, but the nervous system itself making a desperate gambit on protection. Just like how someone will generally pull their hand away from something hot before they think, “damn that’s hot!”, the nervous system itself can and does react to things. That has NEVER meant “other brain”.
Note that I HAVE heard fool hacks try to claim the brain extends in to the spinal chord for these reasons, but they are similarly fools misinterpreting the actual science.
I’m just telling you what was in children’s dinosaur books from the 80s, based on your response of never having heard of it.
What the gap between children’s books and scientific consensus at the time was, couldn’t tell you.
I think this sits in the realm of history more than science. “What were people writing at the time?”
Fair enough that it could’ve been basically rumor in writing, but I’ve been exposed to a ton of the 80s and still never heard it.
Maybe a good sign that such silly beliefs were so rapidly abandoned.