And just like humans are part of a larger group (mammals) with whom we share key characteristics, birds too are part of a larger group that includes dinosaurs.

Most birds are much smaller than dinosaurs, so researchers believe that a process of miniaturization started to take place about 200 million years ago.

As discussed in Scientific American, coelurosaurs — the subgroup of theropods that resulted in modern birds — began getting smaller and smaller due to an intense evolutionary process that favored smaller animals rather than larger ones.

Differences in brain shapes likely influenced the survival of birds during the mass extinction that killed off non-avian dinosaurs.Credit: Christopher Torres / The University of Texas at Austin.

In the current study, a fossil from about 70 million years ago may help explain the survival of birds.

Ichthyornis had characteristics resembling both birds and dinosaurs.

The well-preserved nature of the skull allowed scientists to compare the prehistoric bird's brain to those of birds today.

"Living birds have brains more complex than any known animals except mammals," said lead researcher Christopher Torres.

The researchers used CT-imaging data to make a 3D replica of the bird's brain, known as an endocast.

This allowed them to make comparisons to endocasts of various living birds and their dinosaur ancestors.

Their research revealed that Ichthyornis' brain was more similar to those of dinosaurs than to those of modern birds.

In particular, the cerebral hemispheres — the area of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions like thought and emotion in humans — of Ichthyornis' brain were much smaller than those found in birds today.

For scientists like Schmidt, there's also the simple joy of coming to face-to-face with a lost world.

However, the idea of seeking out a bunch of rich people to support a business like theirs struck CEO Sam Polk as out of step with its vision?

At the individual level, this would help a lot of people who otherwise never would be able to seriously consider going into business for themselves.

Fintech companies are using elements of video games to make personal finance more fun.

However, they don't hurt the video game industry.

In 2020, video games generated more than $179 billion in revenue, making the industry more valuable than sports and movies combined.

A 2021 report from Limelight Network found that gamers worldwide spend an average of 8 hours and 27 minutes per week playing video games.

It's not necessarily bad that Americans spend millions of dollars and hours on video games.

After all, the benefits of compounding interest aren't exactly a secret: Investing a few hundred bucks every month would make most people millionaires by retirement if they start in their twenties.

But what if we could infuse the instant gratification of video games into our long-term financial habits.

In other words, what if finance looked less like an Excel spreadsheet and more like your favorite video game.

By using the same strategies video game designers have been optimizing for decades, gamifying personal finance could be one of the most efficient ways to help people save for the future while reaping instant psychological rewards.

In simple terms, gamification takes the motivating power of video games and applies it to other areas of life.

The global research company Gartner offers a slightly more technical definition of gamification: "the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals."?

Brands have used gamification to boost customer engagement for decades.

In addition to marketing, gamification is used in social media, fitness, education, crowdfunding, military recruitment, and employee training, just to name a few applications.

Finance is arguably one of the best-suited fields for gamification.

From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that we rely on habits: our brains require a lot of energy, especially when we're faced with tough decisions and complex problems, like financial planning.

Unfortunately, the brain doesn't process these two options the same way; in fact, it actually processes the investing option as something like a pain stimulus.

A 2017 study published in Computers in Human Behavior noted that "enriching the environment with game design elements, as gamification does by definition, directly modifies that environment, thereby potentially affecting motivational and psychological user experiences.".

Cheerful Father And Son Competing In Video Games At HomeProstock-studio via Adobe Stock.

As he wrote in an article published by the World Experience Organization, neurologic immersion can occur when experiences, including video games, are unexpected, emotionally charged, narrowing one's focus to the experience itself, easy to remember, and provoking actions.

But how exactly are financial organizations using gamification to help people "level up" their financial futures

Banks and financial companies have been using gamification for years

What started with simple concepts, like PNC Bank's "Punch the Pig" savings feature, has evolved into a diverse field of games that are helping people stick to budgets, save money, and pay off debt

What's surprising about the gamification of personal finance is that some of the most successful apps are redirecting destructive financial behaviors, like buying lottery tickets, toward positive outcomes

As users make investments, they earn coins that can be used to play games, some of which offer cash prizes

The platform lets users connect a savings account to their video game accounts

Users then set performance goals in the video games, such as killing a certain number of enemies

Young gamer playing a video game wearing headphones.sezer66 via Adobe Stock

But while investing in these assets might be a good financial decision for some people, Robinhood arguably encourages its users to be "players" in the difficult world of trading, not necessarily rational investors

"From social psychology and behavioural economics, we know that the most likely [result of] gamification [is that you] will motivate some people, will demotivate other people, and for a third group there'll be no effect at all," noted a 2017 study on gamification and mobile banking published in Internet Research

But given that 14.1 million Americans are unbanked, and millions more struggle with financial literacy, it's reasonable to think that gamified finance apps could help many people work toward financial independence

"One of the most interesting things we've found is that people want help when it comes to making difficult decisions," Zak told Big Think

And so we need to continue to design games that teach you more about how to 'level up in life,' not just level up in the game."

Playing video games could help you make better decisions about money