Humans aren’t the only animals who possess special skills with mugs

Paper wasps aren’t mammals, or even vertebrates. Before this study, the notion that a creature so distant from humankind in the tree of life could possess face expertise was weirder than an upside-down Darwin. Now the wasp development has added some sizzle to the endeavor of establishing what face-perception abilities other creatures may actually have. Emerging patterns in the animal world may reveal what drives the evolution of remarkable face prowess.

“The search is on,” says neuroscientist Winrich Freiwald of Rockefeller University in New York City.

While some researchers continue to invent tests (and debate how to interpret test results) for probing facial aptitudes among humankind’s primate cousins, other efforts have pushed beyond primates. Sheep, as well as those paper wasps, appear to have some special face skills. And faces may be important among rodents in ways that demand a more ticklish view of what face perception means. When it comes to face smarts, researchers are finding that the size of an animal’s brain may not matter as much as the company it keeps.