Book Review: Birds Minds. Cognition and Behaviour of Australian Native Birds

Frontiers in Psychology

Giorgio Vallortigara¹ 

关键词: animal cognition;    bird cognition;    brain asymmetry;    comparative cognition;    animal intelligence;    evolution of birds;    evolution of the brain;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01353

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Passerines, taxonomic group that comprises about two-thirds of the world's existing avian species, originated in the part of Gondwana that today forms Australia (Edwards and Boles, 2002). The ancient supercontinent Gondwana broke up about 180 million years ago, generating the landmasses that we recognize today as Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula. The book's subtitle makes reference to these major events, which are presented with great accuracy by the author. However, the aim of this book goes well beyond the topic of Australia as one of the cradles of avian evolution. More generally, and interesting not only for comparative psychologists and neuroscientists but also for the general public, this is a book on avian brains and intelligence. I suspect that, in a sense, Australian birds are an excuse for the author, an eminent animal behavior researcher who has made important contributions to the study of Australian (and non-Australian) animal cognition, to discuss some of the more general and central topics of animal intelligence in a broad perspective. In this sense, I believe the book is of interest to readers of any Hemisphere.

【 授权许可】

CC BY