Birgit Szabo

The Social Intelligence Hypothesis suggests that cognition might be key to enable animals to live in social groups. Especially social cognition is important as it allows animals to respond appropriately to conspecifics and ensure group cohesion. Social cognition is extensively studied in mammals and birds but to gain a broad understanding of the benefits of social cognitive processes in social interactions we need a broader phylogenetic approach. In this opinion paper, I suggest Squamates (lizards, snakes, and worm lizards) as promising models due to their diverse but facultative sociality and reliance on semiochemical communication in social contexts. Squamates possess a highly developed vomeronasal system to detect semiochemicals for social recognition and discrimination. Similar to the well-studied rodents, squamates detect a wide range of information within chemical cues but research on the associated decision-making processes, individual differences and development of these abilities is still scarce. Comparative approaches leveraging Squamates' semiochemical communication and sociobiological diversity could provide important new insights into the evolution of social cognition. Future research should further focus on individual abilities, their link to environmental and social demands, and consequences for fitness, advancing our understanding of adaptive social cognitive skills across taxa.