“Prosimians,” including lemurs and related species split off from the primate line some 55 million years ago, evolving independently from the line that led to anthropoids and humans. Such research could offer important evolutionary insights into the nature of intelligence in primates, Brannon said, since lemurs are living models for the ancient primate mind. But at the Duke University Primate Center, with the gentle touch of his nose to a computer screen, the ringtail lemur called Aristides is teaching psychologist Elizabeth Brannon a startling scientific lesson - that lemurs are, indeed, intelligent creatures. Until now, primatologists believed lemurs to be primitive, ancient offshoots of the primate family tree, with far less intelligence than their more sophisticated cousins, monkeys, apes and humans. Research in 2004 found lemurs to be smarter than generally thought: The study, using the Primate Cognition Test Battery (PCTB), provides further evidence that brain size alone is not a predictor of intelligence, though that doesn’t mean there were no differences at all: Larger primates did better on spatial reasoning tests. The test subjects included ring-tailed lemurs, black-and-white ruffed lemurs, and grey mouse lemurs, which vary greatly in diet, brain size, and social organization, both among themselves and with Old World monkeys and great apes. Deutsches Primatenzentrum (DPZ)/German Primate Center, “ Primate brain size does not predict their intelligence” at ScienceDaily (September 25, 2020) Instead, this study revealed that the relationship between brain size and cognitive abilities cannot be generalized and it provides new insights into the evolution of primates. Researchers were surprise to discover recently that the mouse lemur, a tiny primate whose brain is 1/200th the size of a chimpanzee’s brain, did as well as great apes on a primate intelligence test:Ĭonducting systematic tests with identical methods revealed that cognitive abilities of lemurs hardly differ from those of monkeys and great apes. Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flipboard Print arroba Email
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