Universitetsläraren, No.5, 2022. “Researchers impressed by what the reptilian brain can do.”

Published 16 September 2022
Researchers Thibault Boehly, Stephan Reber, and Simon Greneus.
Photo: Martin Sörbo (för Universitetsläraren). The researchers Thibault Boehly, Stephan Reber, and Simon Greneus (top). The alligator Sigi warming up under a heat lamp (bottom).

Article in Universitetsläraren, No. 5, 2022. “Researchers impressed by what the reptilian brain can do.”

At Ystad Zoo, researchers from LUCS (Lund University Cognitive Science) are studying the behaviour of six alligators in order to learn more about the dinosaur era. They have been surprised by how much the alligators can do.

From the article. “We know that birds are dinosaurs and that crocodiles are birds’ closest relatives,” says research group leader Mathias Osvath. “The brains of today’s crocodilians are also very similar to the brains of the first dinosaurs, even though the lineages split 250 million years ago. If we can compare the abilities of crocodilians and some birds, we will get a pretty good picture of the major developments over the past 150 million years.”


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