Alexandra Safryghin

Alexandra Safryghin is a London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (LISS) Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, affiliated with the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences. She holds a Research Fellow academic rank and works in Alex Mielke’s lab, focusing on the evolution of human language through the study of gesture-based communication in apes and children. Her research bridges linguistics, primatology, and evolutionary biology to explore how human language emerged from animal communication systems.

Her work investigates linguistic patterns in chimpanzee gestures, comparing them to human language structures. Key themes include gesture compositionality, predictability in communication sequences, and cross-species dialects. Safryghin employs interdisciplinary methods, such as developing frameworks like GesturalOrigins to systematically analyze ape gesture data. Her studies also extend to non-human animals’ self-control mechanisms and domestic horse behavior under varying contexts.

Alexandra’s research highlights the socio-ecological factors influencing primate communication, emphasizing the role of cultural transmission and ecological adaptation. Her contributions advance our understanding of how biological and social pressures shape communicative efficiency and complexity across species.