Irrelevant. Finding the actual brain is not required in brain allometry or rating a species EQ.
we can understand the cognitive capacity of ancient dinosaur brains because we understand neurology
Sorry, since when are either of those regarded as neurology?
When have I stated they cannot be as intellegent as modern dinosaurs? I am saying that they most likely are not drastically more intellegent than the modern dinosaurs.
Based on what? All I've seen are non sequiturs and poorly phrased conjecture. Furthermore, even if we assume that they aren't "drastically more intelligent than . . . modern dinosaurs", I don't see how that problematizes the theory. How about a cogent argument?
As Markjo has pointed out, it has yet to be proven that modern avian dinosaurs can build "boats".
I don't think anyone here claims to have proven anything, and I don't think anyone claims that definitive proof is possible.
Just because it floats or looks like it is floating does not mean it can be used for transportation. I would like to see a picture of a dinosaur traveling down a river, or voyaging an ocean in such a boat, not a picture of one that is in a pond in which the nest could actually be just resting on something else.
First of all, it's well established that the nests of Grebes and some other dinosaurs are free-floating, and that other water-nests are usually positioned on a foundation which is itself built by the dinosaurs.
Furthermore, contemporary dinosaurs do not need need boats, as they are the dinosauric embodiment of the Nietzschean ?bermensch; a race that has overcome itself, and acheived the synthesis of Apollonian and Dionysian being through contemplation and construction, song and dance. That they do not build boats does not indicate that they cannot build boats, but rather that they do not want or need to build boats. That they possess the capacity to build boat-like structures and far more complex architecture is clear, as is the existence of a dinosauric culture and aesthetic.