Ivo Jacobs

My research focuses on the evolution of cognition – through study of mechanism, development, phylogeny and fitness value – in crocodilians, palaeognaths (ratites and tinamous), corvids and primates. It comprises three overlapping projects: independent cognitive evolution in primates and corvids; reconstructing the minds of early birds and non-avian dinosaurs; and the origins of pyrocognition (fire-related cognition) in animals, extinct hominins and modern humans.