A study from Lund University indicates that the cognitive ability known as visual perspective taking, the skill to follow someone’s gaze to an obstructed location, originated in the dinosaur lineage approximately 60 million years before it appeared in mammals. This ability, which allows individuals to understand that others may have different viewpoints, was found in certain bird species, suggesting that the neurocognitive skills of avian dinosaurs predate similar abilities in mammals. While visual perspective taking has been identified in a limited number of species—primarily primates and some birds like crows—it was previously thought to have evolved primarily in mammals. Researchers compared cold-blooded alligators, the closest living relatives to birds, with palaeognath birds, such as ostriches and tinamous. The study revealed that while alligators followed gaze direction, they did not exhibit visual perspective taking, unlike birds that also demonstrated behaviors indicating an understanding of gaze direction. The findings challenge the long-held belief that complex cognition evolved predominantly in mammals, suggesting that birds possess significant cognitive capacities that appeared earlier in evolutionary history, prompting a reevaluation of our understanding of animal cognition.
