The Evolution of Social Cognition in the Archosauria

In my dissertation project, I am studying the evolution of social cognition in Archosaurs. This is an animal group that - besides the extant crocodilians and birds - includes the extinct dinosaurs. By studying extant members of the Archosaurs, I want to obtain a better understanding of extinct non-avian dinosaur cognition. To do so, I will mainly focus on American alligators and Palaeognaths. Palaeognaths are an ancient group of mainly flightless birds, including rheas, ostriches and tinamous.

In my project, I will study several aspects of social cognition in a battery of experiments on different Archosaurs that I have mentioned before. The main focus will be the perception and processing of social information in tasks like social learning and individual recognition.