miércoles, 22 de agosto de 2012

Tool-Making Bonobos Give Glimpse of Human Origins

Two bonobos living in an Iowa sanctuary have made stone tools resembling those used by our ancestors. The tools hint at untapped cognitive reserves in humanity’s close relatives, who perhaps should be seen less as great apes than early humans.

“They are not only our genetic sister species, but are also such in terms of behavior, culture, adaptation and survival strategies, which were previously thought unique to early Homo,” said anthropologist Itai Roffman of Israel’s Haifa University.

Unlike their chimpanzee cousins, bonobos — formally known Pan paniscus to the chimps’ Pan troglodytes — have shown limited toolmaking ability, and are better known for their relatively gentle, highly amorous natures. Yet that doesn’t mean bonobos are intrinsically incapable of tool use, which anthropologists consider to be a crucial cognitive benchmark. Their potential may simply have gone untapped.

Roffman and colleagues worked with Kanzi and Pan-Banisha, a pair of bonobos living at the Great Ape Trust, who in the 1990s had been taught to shape tools from flint. In the new study, published Aug. 21 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the two bonobos are described using those techniques decades later to crack open food-filled logs used as research substitutes for marrow-rich bones... wired.com

 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Citation: “Stone tool production and utilization by bonobo-chimpanzees (Pan paniscus).” By Itai Roffman, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Elizabeth Rubert-Pugh, Avraham Ronen, and Eviatar Nevo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 21, 2012. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1212855109 xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Actualización. Un bonobo fabrica y usa herramientas como las de los primeros humanos

1 comentario:

salaman.es dijo...

Actualización. Un bonobo fabrica y usa herramientas como las de los primeros humanos.