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Toyoda A, Gonçalves A, Maruhashi T, Malaivijitnond S, Matsuda I. Necrophilic behaviour in wild stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides). Sci Rep 2024; 14:10946. [PMID: 38740882 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61678-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2024] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Necrophilic behavior (attempted copulation with corpses) has been scarcely reported in non-human primates, especially in the wild. Here is the first case of necrophilic behavior observed in wild stump-tailed macaques in Thailand. Six groups of total N > 460 individuals have been identified and habituated. The corpse of an adult female was found and directly observed for 2 days and by camera trap for 3 days. The cause of death could not be identified, but no prominent physical injury was detected. Within 3 days of the observation, three different males attempted copulation with the corpse. Noteworthy for this observation was that not only males in the group of the dead female but also males from different groups interacted with the corpse. Taken together, these observations suggest that some cues emanating from the corpse coupled with a nonresistant/passive orientation may have triggered these responses in the males. Given that necrophiliac responses have been scarcely reported in non-human primates, our findings provide new insight into these behaviors and to comparative thanatology in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aru Toyoda
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0083, Japan.
- The Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-0081, Japan.
- National Primate Research Center of Thailand, Chulalongkorn University, Saraburi, 18110, Thailand.
- Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University, 2-24 Tanaka-Sekiden-cho, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8203, Japan.
| | - André Gonçalves
- Section of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Japan
| | | | - Suchinda Malaivijitnond
- National Primate Research Center of Thailand, Chulalongkorn University, Saraburi, 18110, Thailand
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand
| | - Ikki Matsuda
- Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University, 2-24 Tanaka-Sekiden-cho, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8203, Japan
- Chubu Institute for Advanced Studies, Chubu University, Kasugai, Aichi, 4878501, Japan
- Chubu University Academy of Emerging Sciences, Kasugai, Aichi, 4878501, Japan
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
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2
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Martyka R, Skórka P. Do non-direct heterospecific cues of avian predator activity alter reproductive modes of a passerine bird? THE EUROPEAN ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL 2023. [DOI: 10.1080/24750263.2023.2181988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/06/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- R. Martyka
- Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
| | - P. Skórka
- Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
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3
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De Marco A, Cozzolino R, Thierry B. Coping with mortality: responses of monkeys and great apes to collapsed, inanimate and dead conspecifics. ETHOL ECOL EVOL 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2021.1893826] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Arianna De Marco
- Fondazione Ethoikos, Radicondoli (Siena), Italy
- Parco Faunistico di Piano dell’Abatino, Poggio San Lorenzo (Rieti), Italy
| | | | - Bernard Thierry
- Physiologie de La Reproduction et des Comportements, CNRS, INRAE, Université de Tours, Nouzilly, France
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4
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Birch J, Schnell AK, Clayton NS. Dimensions of Animal Consciousness. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 24:789-801. [PMID: 32830051 PMCID: PMC7116194 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2020] [Revised: 07/21/2020] [Accepted: 07/23/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
How does consciousness vary across the animal kingdom? Are some animals 'more conscious' than others? This article presents a multidimensional framework for understanding interspecies variation in states of consciousness. The framework distinguishes five key dimensions of variation: perceptual richness, evaluative richness, integration at a time, integration across time, and self-consciousness. For each dimension, existing experiments that bear on it are reviewed and future experiments are suggested. By assessing a given species against each dimension, we can construct a consciousness profile for that species. On this framework, there is no single scale along which species can be ranked as more or less conscious. Rather, each species has its own distinctive consciousness profile.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Birch
- Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK.
| | - Alexandra K Schnell
- Comparative Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK
| | - Nicola S Clayton
- Comparative Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK
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Bhattacharyya S, Walker DM, Harshey RM. Dead cells release a 'necrosignal' that activates antibiotic survival pathways in bacterial swarms. Nat Commun 2020; 11:4157. [PMID: 32814767 PMCID: PMC7438516 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17709-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Swarming is a form of collective bacterial motion enabled by flagella on the surface of semi-solid media. Swarming populations exhibit non-genetic or adaptive resistance to antibiotics, despite sustaining considerable cell death. Here, we show that antibiotic-induced death of a sub-population benefits the swarm by enhancing adaptive resistance in the surviving cells. Killed cells release a resistance-enhancing factor that we identify as AcrA, a periplasmic component of RND efflux pumps. The released AcrA interacts on the surface of live cells with an outer membrane component of the efflux pump, TolC, stimulating drug efflux and inducing expression of other efflux pumps. This phenomenon, which we call 'necrosignaling', exists in other Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and displays species-specificity. Given that adaptive resistance is a known incubator for evolving genetic resistance, our findings might be clinically relevant to the rise of multidrug resistance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Souvik Bhattacharyya
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - David M Walker
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - Rasika M Harshey
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
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6
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Lonsdorf EV, Wilson ML, Boehm E, Delaney-Soesman J, Grebey T, Murray C, Wellens K, Pusey AE. Why chimpanzees carry dead infants: an empirical assessment of existing hypotheses. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2020; 7:200931. [PMID: 32874665 PMCID: PMC7428235 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.200931] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2020] [Accepted: 06/10/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The study of non-human primate thanatology has expanded dramatically in recent years as scientists seek to understand the evolutionary roots of human death concepts and practices. However, observations of how conspecifics respond to dead individuals are rare and highly variable. Mothers of several species of primate have been reported to carry and continue to interact with dead infants. Such interactions have been proposed to be related to maternal condition, attachment, environmental conditions or reflect a lack of awareness that the infant has died. Here, we tested these hypotheses using a dataset of cases of infant corpse carrying by chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania (n = 33), the largest dataset of such cases in chimpanzees. We found that mothers carried infant corpses at high rates, despite behavioural evidence that they recognize that death has occurred. Median duration of carriage was 1.83 days (interquartile range = 1.03-3.59). Using an information theoretic approach, we found no support for any of the leading hypotheses for duration of continued carriage. We interpret these data in the context of recent discussions regarding what non-human primates understand about death.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf
- Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA
- Biological Foundations of Behavior Program, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA
| | - Michael L. Wilson
- Departments of Anthropology and Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Emily Boehm
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | - Tessa Grebey
- Biological Foundations of Behavior Program, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA
| | - Carson Murray
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Kaitlin Wellens
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Anne E. Pusey
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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Abstract
Although some definitions of thanatology-broadly definable as the study of death and dying-exclude nonhumans as subjects, recognition of the scientific value of studying how other species respond to sick, injured, dying and dead conspecifics appears to be growing. And whereas earlier literature was largely characterized by anecdotal descriptions and sometimes fanciful interpretations, we now see more rigorous and often quantitative analysis of various behaviors displayed towards conspecifics (and sometimes heterospecifics) at various stages of incapacitation, including death. Studies of social insects in particular have revealed chemical cues that trigger corpse management behaviors, as well as the adaptive value of these behaviors. More recent research on other taxonomic groups (including aquatic and avian species, and mammals) has sought to better document these animals' responses to the dying and dead, to identify influencing factors and underlying mechanisms, and to better understand the physiological, emotional, social and psychological significance of the phenomena observed. This special issue presents original short reports, reviews, and full research articles relating to these topics in New World monkeys, Old World monkeys and apes, as well as equids and proboscids. The range of events, data, hypotheses and proposals presented will hopefully enrich the field and stimulate further developments in comparative evolutionary thanatology.
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Affiliation(s)
- James R Anderson
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan.
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Swift KN, Marzluff JM, Templeton CN, Shimizu T, Cross DJ. Brain activity underlying American crow processing of encounters with dead conspecifics. Behav Brain Res 2020; 385:112546. [PMID: 32035868 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2019] [Revised: 02/05/2020] [Accepted: 02/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Animals utilize a variety of auditory and visual cues to navigate the landscape of fear. For some species, including corvids, dead conspecifics appear to act as one such visual cue of danger, and prompt alarm calling by attending conspecifics. Which brain regions mediate responses to dead conspecifics, and how this compares to other threats, has so far only been speculative. Using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) we contrast the metabolic response to visual and auditory cues associated with a dead conspecific among five a priori selected regions in the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) brain: the hippocampus, nidopallium caudolaterale, striatum, amygdala, and the septum. Using a repeated-measures, fully balanced approach, we exposed crows to four stimuli: a dead conspecific, a dead song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), conspecific alarm calls given in response to a dead crow, and conspecific food begging calls. We find that in response to observations of a dead crow, crows show significant activity in areas associated with higher-order decision-making (NCL), but not in areas associated with social behaviors or fear learning. We do not find strong differences in activation between hearing alarm calls and food begging calls; both activate the NCL. Lastly, repeated exposures to negative stimuli had a marginal effect on later increasing the subjects' brain activity in response to control stimuli, suggesting that crows might quickly learn from negative experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaeli N Swift
- School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Seattle, WA, United States.
| | - John M Marzluff
- School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Seattle, WA, United States
| | | | - Toru Shimizu
- Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Donna J Cross
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
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Colombo M, Mori E. The “corpse bride” strikes again: first report of the Davian behaviour in the Eurasian badger. MAMMALIA 2019. [DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2019-0039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
We reported the first record of Davian behaviour (necrophilia) in the Eurasian badger Meles meles (L., 1758) in northern Italy. A male badger was observed in a camera-trap survey courting and trying to copulate with a probably road-killed female, in February. The dead female was a sexually mature, adult individual; the male was probably a young mature individual. Social behaviour of this carnivore may have evolved to guarantee the access to females only to the dominant male. Usually, female badgers passively receive mating by excited males. This behaviour may have enticed the young male to start courtship and copulation with the road-killed female.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Emiliano Mori
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita , Università degli Studi di Siena , Via P.A. Mattioli 4 , 53100 Siena , Italy
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10
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An alternative hypothesis for the evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals. Nat Ecol Evol 2019; 3:1622-1631. [DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-1019-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2019] [Accepted: 09/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
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11
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Elephant behavior toward the dead: A review and insights from field observations. Primates 2019; 61:119-128. [DOI: 10.1007/s10329-019-00766-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 09/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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12
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Behavioural responses of free-ranging Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) towards dying and dead conspecifics. Primates 2019; 61:129-138. [DOI: 10.1007/s10329-019-00739-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 07/31/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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13
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Anderson JR, Biro D, Pettitt P. Evolutionary thanatology. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 373:rstb.2017.0262. [PMID: 30012748 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Societies, including those of humans, have evolved multiple ways of dealing with death across changing circumstances and pressures. Despite many studies focusing on specialized topics, for example necrophoresis in eusocial insects, mortuary activities in early human societies, or grief and mourning in bereavement, there has been little attempt to consider these disparate research endeavours from a broader evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary thanatology does this by adopting an explicit evolutionary stance for studies of death and dying within the sociological, psychological and biological disciplines. The collection of papers in this themed issue demonstrates the value of this approach by describing what is known about how various nonhuman species detect and respond to death in conspecifics, how problems of disposing of the dead have evolved in human societies across evolutionary time and also within much shorter time frames, how human adults' understanding of death develops, and how it is ultimately reflected in death-related language. The psychological significance and impact of death is clearly seen in some species' grief-like reactions to the loss of attachment figures, and perhaps uniquely in humans, the existence of certain psychological processes that may lead to suicide. Several research questions are proposed as starting points for building a more comprehensive picture of the ontogeny and phylogeny of how organisms deal with death.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK
| | - Paul Pettitt
- Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
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Valdes L, Laidre ME. Scent of death: Evolution from sea to land of an extreme collective attraction to conspecific death. Ecol Evol 2019; 9:2171-2179. [PMID: 30847102 PMCID: PMC6392395 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.4912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2018] [Revised: 12/23/2018] [Accepted: 12/28/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
All living organisms must eventually die, though in some cases their death can bring life-giving opportunities. Few studies, however, have experimentally tested how animals capitalize on conspecific death and why this specialization would evolve. Here, we conducted experiments on the phylogenetically most closely-related marine and terrestrial hermit crabs to investigate the evolution of responses to death during the sea-to-land transition. In the sea, death of both conspecifics and heterospecifics generates unremodeled shells needed by marine hermit crabs. In contrast, on land, terrestrial hermit crabs are specialized to live in architecturally remodeled shells, and the sole opportunity to acquire these essential resources is conspecific death. We experimentally tested these different species' responsiveness to the scent of conspecific versus heterospecific death, predicting that conspecific death would have special attractive value for the terrestrial species. We found the terrestrial species was overwhelmingly attracted to conspecific death, rapidly approaching and forming social groupings around conspecific death sites that dwarfed those around heterospecific death sites. This differential responsiveness to conspecific versus heterospecific death was absent in marine species. Our results thus reveal that on land a reliance on resources associated exclusively with conspecifics has favored the evolution of an extreme collective attraction to conspecific death.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leah Valdes
- Department of Biological SciencesDartmouth CollegeHanoverNew Hampshire
| | - Mark E. Laidre
- Department of Biological SciencesDartmouth CollegeHanoverNew Hampshire
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Gonçalves A, Biro D. Comparative thanatology, an integrative approach: exploring sensory/cognitive aspects of death recognition in vertebrates and invertebrates. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:20170263. [PMID: 30012749 PMCID: PMC6053989 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Evolutionary thanatology benefits from broad taxonomic comparisons of non-human animals' responses to death. Furthermore, exploring the sensory and cognitive bases of these responses promises to allow classification of the underlying mechanisms on a spectrum from phylogenetically ancient to more derived traits. We draw on studies of perception and cognition in invertebrate and vertebrate taxa (with a focus on arthropods, corvids, proboscids, cetaceans and primates) to explore the cues that these animals use to detect life and death in others, and discuss proximate and ultimate drivers behind their capacities to do so. Parallels in thanatological behaviour exhibited by the last four taxa suggest similar sensory-cognitive processing rules for dealing with corpses, the evolution of which may have been driven by complex social environments. Uniting these responses is a phenomenon we term 'animacy detection malfunction', whereupon the corpse, having both animate and inanimate attributes, creates states of fear/curiosity manifested as approach/avoidance behaviours in observers. We suggest that integrating diverse lines of evidence (including the 'uncanny valley' effect originating from the field of robotics) provides a promising way to advance the field, and conclude by proposing avenues for future research.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.
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Affiliation(s)
- André Gonçalves
- Language and Intelligence Section, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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