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.
Not an expert in the field, but my understanding was there are parts of our own upper spinal cord/lower brain that handle very basic controls. For a much larger body could there just be a larger part like this for simple subconscious and reactionary commands?
Not upper, though. All through the spinal chord.