This Study May Surprise You: Who's Smarter--Dogs vs. Cats

There's new information about the differences between dogs and cats--especially regarding intelligence--and this may be upsetting to some pet owners. Dogs are smarter.

The research comes from Tennessee's august Vanderbilt University, where they measured the amount of neurons in the cerebral cortexes of numerous mammals. Dogs have more of those crucial neurons than cats, 530 million to 250 million, compared to 16 billion for humans.

What's the significance? Vanderbilt's Associate Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences Suzana Herculano-Houzel says:

our findings mean to me that dogs have the biological capability of doing much more complex and flexible things with their lives than cats can. At the least, we now have some biology that people can factor into their discussions about who’s smarter, cats or dogs.”

If you have stories, pictures or videos from your house to confirm or dispute these findings, please send 'em along.