(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with members
from the University of Padova and the University of Ferrara, both in Italy, has
found that unlike most other animals studied to date, ruin lizards (Podarcis sicula) are unable to
understand numerical differences in groups of objects. In their paper published
in the journal Biology Letters, the team describes how they conducted
experiments with the lizards and what they found.
Multiple studies have been
conducted over the years to determine if animals have numerical cognition—the
ability to see and understand that one group contains more or fewer objects
than another—until now, every vertebrate tested has been able to determine
whether a plate of food contains
a larger number of items
than another. In this new effort, the researchers found that ruin lizards are
the lone exception.
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