Cat intelligence
The brain of the domesticated cat is about long, and weighs . If a typical cat is taken to be long with a weight of , then the brain would be at 0.91% of its total body mass, compared to 2.33% of total body mass in the average human. Within the encephalization quotient proposed by Jerison in 1973, values above 1 are classified big brained, while values lower than 1 are small brained. The domestic cat is attributed a value of between 1–1.71 relative to human value that is 7.44–7.8. The largest brains in the Felidae family are those of the tigers in Java and Bali, of which the largest relative brain size within the "panthera" is the "tigris". It is debated whether there exists a causal relationship between brain size and intelligence in vertebrates. Correlations have been shown between these factors in a number of experiments. However, correlation does not imply causation. Most experiments involving the relevance of brain size to intelligence hinge on the assumption that complex behavior requires a complex (and therefore intelligent) brain; however, this connection has not been consistently demonstrated.
Homininae
There has been a gradual increase in brain volume (brain size) as the ancestors of modern humans progressed along the timeline of human evolution, starting from about 600 cm in "Homo habilis" up to 1500 cm in "Homo neanderthalensis". However, modern "Homo sapiens" have a brain volume slightly smaller (1250 cm) than Neanderthals, women have a brain slightly smaller than men and the Flores hominids ("Homo floresiensis"), nicknamed hobbits, had a cranial capacity of about 380 cm (considered small for a chimpanzee), about a third of the "Homo erectus" average. It is proposed that they evolved from "H. erectus" as a case of insular dwarfism. In spite of their smaller brain, there is evidence that "H. floresiensis" used fire and made stone tools at least as sophisticated as those of their proposed ancestors "H. erectus". In this case, it seems that for intelligence, the structure of the brain is more important than its size.