Abstract: Numerical competence has reached a high level of abstraction in human culture. However, there is growing evidence suggesting that both human infants and non-human primates exhibit an initial responsiveness to numbers, including numerical representation and reasoning about numerical quantities. Recent research was reviewed to compare the representation content and format involved in numerical discrimination as well as simple addition and subtraction between human infants and non-human primates. Further, the comparison of related neural mechanisms was made between human and non-human primates. Since there is no such research on human infants, we relied on research on human adults and inferred to human infants. Similarity revealed through these comparisons implied that there is shared numerical competence across primates. Further studies on the similar core systems of number presented in both human infant and non-human primates would provide better understanding of the evolutionary origin and nature of this capacity in human beings

Key words: numerical competence, human infants, non-human primates, object-file model, analog magnitude model