Alex Thornton

Dr Alex Thornton is a Drapers' Company Research Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge and a member of the Department of Zoology. Dr Thornton's research investigates the role of social information in development, evolution and the roots of culture, using wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in the Kalahari Desert as a principal study species. He uses a variety of observational and experimental approaches to investigate how social information helps promote behavioural development, and to shed light on the biological origins of culture by examining the factors affecting the establishment, spread and persistence of traditions.