I think number of neurons in neocortex (or even more prefrontal cortex—but unfortunately i didn’t quickly find how big the orca prefrontal cortex is—though I’d guess it to still be significantly bigger than for humans) is a much much better proxy for intelligence of species than brain size (or encephalization quotient). (E.g. see the wikipedia list linked in my question here.)
(Also see here. There are more examples, e.g. a Blue and yellow macawhas 1.9 billion, whereas brown bears have only 250million.)
EDIT: Tbc I do think that larger bodies require more neurons in touch-sense and motor parts of the neocortex, so there is some effect of how larger animals need a bit larger brains to be similarly smart, but I don’t think this effect is very strong.
But yeah there are other considerations too, which is why I am only at 50% that orcas could do science significantly better than humans if they tried.
I think number of neurons in neocortex (or even more prefrontal cortex—but unfortunately i didn’t quickly find how big the orca prefrontal cortex is—though I’d guess it to still be significantly bigger than for humans) is a much much better proxy for intelligence of species than brain size (or encephalization quotient). (E.g. see the wikipedia list linked in my question here.)
(Also see here. There are more examples, e.g. a Blue and yellow macaw has 1.9 billion, whereas brown bears have only 250million.)
EDIT: Tbc I do think that larger bodies require more neurons in touch-sense and motor parts of the neocortex, so there is some effect of how larger animals need a bit larger brains to be similarly smart, but I don’t think this effect is very strong.
But yeah there are other considerations too, which is why I am only at 50% that orcas could do science significantly better than humans if they tried.