The brains of birds and mammals have diverged substantially during the course of evolution. A research team at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University has investigated how similar cognitive functions could still arise in some bird species. Analyses of the composition, development and evolution of the pallium – the brain region in birds and mammals largely responsible for memory, learning, and thinking – show that some brain cell types remained nearly unchanged over hundreds of millions of years, whereas others evolved quite differently.