Elephants sport more brain cells for their ears alone than humans have for their whole face, according to a new study.
—a grape-size brain region that transmits neural signals to and from the face, controlling its muscles, researchers report today inEven taking into account the elephant’s large size, that’s about five times more than any other mammal, except for dolphins, which have about 85,000 nerves in that nucleus.
Elephants need that many nerves to help them control the trunk’s 30,000 muscles. The prolific wiring allows the pachyderms to pull tree trunks out of the ground or pick up a single leaf, and to drink, store, and spray water. African elephants have extra brain cells to help them maneuver their larger ears, which males flare out when they’re about to attack a rival—or a land cruiser in their way—and to have fine motor control over two fleshy protrusions at the tip of the trunk that act like tweezers to