Animals give clues to the origins of human number crunching

In zoos and barnyards, scientists search for deep evolutionary underpinnings of mathematics

cat with abacus

NUMBER SMARTS  Cats show quantity-­related abilities. Without training, cats can pick out differences between groups of a few small objects, such as 2 versus 5, but the felines may be using visual shortcuts.

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When Christian Agrillo runs number-related experiments in his lab, he wishes his undergraduate subjects good luck.