Ancient reptilian pterosaurs had a specialized brain which may have helped them fly and hunt more efficiently than modern birds.

In a study that used scans and computers to build three-dimensional images of two species of pterosaurs, anatomy Prof. Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens and his colleagues found overall, the pterosaurs' brains were bird-like.

But they found that two balance-related regions of the brain were more pronounced than those of modern reptiles, such as alligators. The study appears in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Courtesy Ohio University

Both species of pterosaurs had a massive flocculus, the region of the brain responsible for integrating balance data from the body, neck and head, and sending the information to the brain to move the eyes.

In the pterosaurs, the brain regions took up 7.5 per cent of the total brain mass, compared to one to two per cent in modern birds.

Witmer's team says the specialized brain structures may have helped the reptiles build detailed maps of the forces acting on their wings.

The information could have given a pterosaur the ability to change its body position during flight while keeping its eyes on its prey.

In a Nature commentary, David Unwin of the Museum of Natural History in Britain said the study confirms pterosaurs had a bird-like brain and "smart" wings for flight control.

"Despite their antiquity, they could have outperformed modern birds and bats," Unwin wrote. The pterosaur study was difficult because fossilized skulls are rare and delicate, making it difficult for scientists to work with the specimens.

So researchers used electronic technology for the study, and also looked at nearly intact skulls of the large, short-tailed Anhanguera and the smaller Rhamphorhynchus.

The extinct flying vertebrates lived 251 to 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth.