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Bonobo genius makes stone tools like early humans did13:09 21 August 2012 byHannah KrakauerFor similar stories, visit theHuman EvolutionTopic GuideVideo: Watch this bonobo go to all ends to get food Kanzi the bonobo continues to impress. Not content with learning sign language or making up "words" for things like banana or juice, he now seems capable of making stone tools on a par with the efforts of early humans. Eviatar Nevo of the University of Haifa in Israel and his colleagues sealed food inside a log to mimic marrow locked inside long bones, and watched Kanzi, a 30-year-old male bonobo chimp, try to extract it. While a companion bonobo attempted the problem a handful of times, and succeeded only by smashing the log on the ground, Kanzi took a longer and arguably more sophisticated approach. Both had been taught to knap flint flakes in the 1990s, holding a stone core in one hand and using another as a hammer. Kanzi used the tools he created to come at the log in a variety of ways: inserting sticks into seams in the log, throwing projectiles at it, and employing stone flints as choppers, drills, and scrapers. In the end, he got food out of 24 logs, while his companion managed just two. Perhaps most remarkable about the tools Kanzi created is their resemblance to early hominid tools. Both bonobos made and used tools to obtain food – either by extracting it from logs or by digging it out of the ground. But only Kanzi's met the criteria for both tool groups made by early Homo: wedges and choppers, and scrapers and drills. Do Kanzi's skills translate to all bonobos? It's hard to say. The abilities of animals like Alex the parrot, who could purportedly count to six, and Betty the crow, who crafted a hook out of wire, sometimes prompt claims about the intelligence of an entire species. But since these animals are raised in unusual environments where they frequently interact with humans, their cases may be too singular to extrapolate their talents to their brethren. The findings will fuel the ongoing debate over whether stone tools mark the beginning of modern human culture, or predate our Homo genus. They appear to suggest the latter – though critics will point out that Kanzi and his companion were taught how to make the tools. Whether the behaviour could arise in nature is unclear. Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1212855109
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Reinventing Measures Talent As Much As InventingWed Aug 22 05:54:29 BST 2012 by David MaynardWe judge our talents according to what we can learn from one another, our teachers, books of our ancestors. How humans first learned to make tools or words is almost irrelevant. Bonobo's are clearly as able to develop technology as the first humans were, because Kanzi has mastered the concepts. Or they would be, if they were free to evolve their social system and if they are able to develop language. But all those talents evolve together, so the Bonobo chimps are pushing uphill to prove themselves with humans controlling them and their environment.
login and replyreport this commentReinventing Measures Talent As Much As InventingWed Aug 22 11:14:17 BST 2012 by Subvert the Dominant ParadigmPerfectly made point, @David.
Implicit in this article are all the tendentious assumptions that humans frequently make with respect to animals. Firstly, Kanzi is a "genius", rather than just accomplished. We actually have no idea how frequently these skills could be learned by Bonobos. Perhaps Kanzi is average and Kanzi's friend is a bit dim-witted or impulsive?
We are also very quick to point out that these skills were initially taught to Kanzi, while forgetting that just about every-bloody-thing we know was taught to us humans. Kanzi has clearly demonstrated the capacity to apply those skills in novel, directed and fruitful ways. We should be asking ourselves what, if anything, really differentiates early human (or Homo) skills from those of Bonobos, our (equal) closest relatives..
What is significant is that a Bonobo can learn and emply this technique. The matter of whether they could devise it would need a lot more exploration, but there is no reason why not, given time and the need. We know they can devise the use of a rock, and could learn from accidents that split rocks might be of more use.
What this does do is make a good contribution to the issue of the point at which humans needed language to advance technically. It suggests that early human tool use did not require language. Perhaps it contributes to the idea that one major difference between homo sapiens and homo erectus (earlier ones especially) would be the degree and complexity of vocal communcton; suchthat the inherent capacity for full language provided a major advantage to the emergent homo sapiens.
reflecting on my earlier comment...
Whilst Bonobos are able to learn to make rock tools, I think the fact that they do not display such behaviour in the wild, implies they are not able to make this creative step alone.
Similarly the fact they can learn, or partly learn a language but do not themselves invent a communicative sign language suggests that their brains have evolved a capacity that is a by product of other advances and which is not fully used.,
We can assume that this linguistic capacity evolved in the common ancestors of modern great apes and human genera rather than seperately, but required something additional to make use of it. Homo erectus may have made steps forward in vocalisations via a changed position of the larynx but the most useful change is likely to have been the increase in brain size over homo habilis, Perhaps erectus was capable of rudimentary language since as all h sapiens have this fully it must have evolved from a precursor with this, or one with partial ability. Similarly erectus made use of tools but the real advance came with sapiens.
We might surmise that the evolution of larger brains made use of these existing capacities which would explain the sudden progress and thus the evolutionary advantage conferred on homo sapiens.
There was a time when only one man could jump 6 feet high now millions can do it. If one bonobo can do it then millions can. I understand you scientists have been "studying" apes because that's what scientists do but it only takes one ape to pass information on to another and so on to create a chain reaction and next thing you know you have planet of the apes. You folks work tirelessly with all different types of apes/monkeys to see if they can make breakfast. Believe me it can happen and will happen if you keep trying, it's just a matter of time. I truly wonder what might happen if there were another animal that was able to think and reason. You never know, you just never know. Be careful guys, you might not want what you ask for
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