This survey applies a three-evidence framework — fresh tissue studies, fossil endocasts, and contextual fossil remains — to seven lineages where derived cortical organization has been documented: papionin cercopithecids, small-brained hominins (Homo naledi, Paranthropus, Homo floresiensis), corvids, parrots, beavers, toothed whales, and raccoons. These lineages span different brain architectures and scales, from the 8-gram brain of a crow to the 1800-gram brain of a bottlenose dolphin. For each lineage, the survey documents what specific brain regions shifted, what direct behaviors are associated with those shifts, and what sophisticated capabilities emerged that build on the initial neural investment. A recurring pattern emerges: initial cortical specialization for one function creates infrastructure that subsequently supports more complex behaviors serving different purposes — motor face cortex expands for lip-flip displays and later scaffolds complex vocalization; somatosensory cortex magnifies forepaw representation for foraging and later supports ecosystem-scale construction. Recent quantitative work by Hubbe and Harvati (2026), testing six evolutionary models against cranial morphological data from 63 fossil and 24 recent Homo crania, found that encephalization proceeded via neutral drift rather than directional selection — reinforcing that the interesting evolutionary action was always at the organizational level, which is the level this survey examines.