Extent Primate Analysis

There are many behaviors, once thought of as exclusively human, that are also shared by apes. McKie says, in the article “Chimps With Everything: Jane Goodall’s 50 Years in the Jungle” that was mentioned earlier, that Goodall discovered that apes are able to actually create and use tools. She continues that Goodall observed that a male ape “carefully took a twig, bent it, stripped it of its leaves, and finally stuck it into the nest. Then he began to spoon termites into his mouth.” This new information was shocking to the world. Goodall says that in school she learned that man was the only living thing that could make tools; that was what defined man. This new discovery has forced the scientific community to redefine what is man (McKie).

Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth, not only because of their complex social structures, but because they hold so many similar characteristics to humans. Primates are often cited as our closest living relatives and on two separate occasions I observed four separate species of primates at the San Diego Zoo that can justify their use of their physical characteristics and behaviors that may be similar as well as different to the other primates and ours.

Within this essay, we will study more in depth the behavioral as well as physical traits of two primates at a zoo from their interaction with their peers to their place in the group. This observation would enable us to further understand the possible existing correlation between humans and primates. First, I studied a female chimpanzee with her baby, and then, a dominant male gorilla, in San Francisco Zoo at about noon, on May 23, 2015, for an hour each. Even though they share some similarities such as having a large brain, living for a long time, and being bored in their enclosure, they are still different; when gorillas are the largest, chimpanzees are the smartest. In fact, chimps use tools to catch food, they would not be able to reach

The rarity of human uniqueness no longer exists in the thoughts of scientists believing that human ability skills lie within the construction and use of tools. As declared by Goodall in which chimpanzees used straight sticks after removing the leaves and branches to collect termites or ants for consumption. (Goodall, 1986) Other species both primate and non-primate demonstrate successful abilities., which include a sense of self as well as the theory of mind, by which other species recognize that other individuals contain different information than themselves. Different species also have the ability to communicate symbolically to one another through the sounds of vocalization. (Sapolsky R. M., 2006)

advantages to open new opportunities for the early primates that allowed to crack up bones and nuts for food. Likewise, these tools were both found with Australopithecus boisei that shared the same terrain during the same time period with the Homo habilis. “If australopithecines were equally skillful, then [the explanation that there is an association with intelligence and tool making would] fail” (Lewin and Foley 293). These tools both found with the Australopithecines and homo species pushed new theories into action about how humans succeeded into what they are currently. Also, one very unusual specimen was found in the island of Flores. A new species that taught that scientific community to reevaluate the human evolution and how they became

There is vast evidence that helps support the out-of-Africa theory, and if modern humans first evolved in Africa, there must have been distinct behavioral and morphological changes that occurred before leaving the African continent. Tattersall (2000) examined data from the fossil record, looking for evidence of cognitive and behavioral changes that were necessary for modern humans to acquire prior to spreading throughout the world. Fossils were used to compare the various parts of the skeletal structure of Neanderthals to H. sapiens found in Africa. Differences were found when comparing the rib cage and pelvis. With these differences found, a possible advantage of the structure of Homo sapiens over Neanderthals can be suggested. In addition,

Humans are known through time to have solved problems and overcome hardships. We have advanced belong belief with how easy we are making things for us to survive, and is one of the main reasons humans are on top. Capuchin monkeys are doing what our ancestors would do in the past before any of these inventions. They are problem solving and connecting in there head how to make survival easier. They use ‘stone tools’, and ‘stone hammers’ to break open nuts, and will even use leaves as a way to get, transport and store water. As water is essential for survival, this is something humans in the past did as well, although not in the same exact ways. It is also a learned behavior, not something that they know how to do when they are born. Just like human culture they learn by observation, and watching the older ones. Thus coming to the conclusion that capuchins tool use mirror human cutler in the aspects that it is that they began were we did, and it affects how they live in there every day lives just as the tools and inventions we use do for us. And that this behavior is learned and not programed in their

A set of 69 fossilized footprints in a layer of volcanic ash shows us that one of the individuals was larger than the other and that the big toe was displayed inwards, like that of hominids and not splayed outwards like monkeys. Long arms characteristic of apes were present, which gave the assumption that individuals climbed trees in order to forage.

Nut-cracking is one of the most primitive forms of human percussive technology; contemporary humans around the world crack nuts using stone tools. Extant nonhuman primates, such as bearded capuchin monkeys, Sapajus libidinosus and chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes also crack nuts. Typically, researchers test the performance of these other species on tasks that are specific to humans, but do not test humans on tasks specific to any of these species. In the present study, we demonstrate that when cracking a tucum, Astrocaryum campestre nut wild bearded capuchin monkeys, Sapajus libidinosus outperform anthropologists, and local inhabitants outperform monkeys; thus questioning the symbolism associated with the use of tools by hominids. The monkeys took

As a member of the species Austalopithecus afarensis, the emergence of the species known as Homo sapiens was intriguing yet for the most part obscure. Nevertheless, our observations of their morphology have revealed that we share stunning evolutionary connections. Features including bipedalism, cranial size and shape, dental structure, and vocal capabilities, when cross examined between Homo sapiens and Australopithecus afarensis suggest in fact Homo sapiens are a product of our evolutionary history. Therefore, we can determine which of our current characteristics will be of evolutionary significance in the future.

Resembling the physical progression of early hominids was the improvement of cultural technical knowledge that permitted them to end up noticeably progressively fruitful at obtaining food and outlasting preys. The proof for this progression in culture can be seen particularly in three developments, the invention and utilization of tools, and new survival patterns. Certain groups of chimpanzee are referred to utilize stone and wood as mallets to pop open nuts and as rough inadequate weapons in chasing small animals, including monkeys. In any case, they occasionally shape their tools deliberately to increase effectiveness. The most modern chimpanzee tools are small, slim tree limbs from which leaves are removed. It is also used as an instrument

To finally conclude, we do have an animal side in us, and we should not extinguish this animalistic behavior humans have. Because what we do makes us human just as what animals do to make them animals. In the Metamorphosis, Gregory’s father threw apples at him. That is a sign of not only aggression, but protection of his family. Like a wolf alpha protecting his pack. Secondly, another is monkeys eating with their bare hands. It’s the same concept with Middle Easterns. They, too, eat with their hands, like monkeys, they don’t acquire the usage of eating utensils. Or like how both humans and dogs dream. Dogs dream like humans, as humans dream like dogs. Lastly, the primates uses tools just as humans do. As was stated before they use spears for

What makes A. africanus more human-like than other australopithecines is its dentition. They had large molars and premolars with shorter canines, the sharp and pointed incisors towards the front of the mouth, that did not project outwards (Strait). Canine reduction is evidence of the depart from primitive behaviors such as fighting or cutting meat; thus, reaching behaviors synonymous with modern man (Dart). Furthermore, canine reduction and large molars imply the ability to adapt to one’s surroundings as H. sapiens do. An analysis of these molars and premolars revealed that certain patterns of wear suggest that A. africanus adapted to eat hard and fibrous foods such as nuts and seeds (Strait). This is evidence of A. africanus expanding the diet of later hominins, which would be adopted into the modern human diet.

After heavy analyzation, one would soon learn that the archaeology information website is primarily focused on the evolution of the human body. The web source provides various selections to choose from, including: the human evolution summary, timeline, hall of skulls, and their perspectives. Likewise, the human evolution page describes the fossil hominids and their origins. The author recapitulates the hominid family, which consists of Homo, Australopithecus, and Ardipithecus. Correspondingly, the human evolution timeline page includes six distinct topics that follow a chronological story on how each option started from beginning to end. The first alternative focuses on the newest hominids, which are facts from the artist on what the hominids may have looked like. The next topic was based on the Ardipethecines, a specie that lived in a time period from about four and a half million years ago. Although there are four more choices available, the most interesting option was the Gracile Australopithecines. The Gracile Australopithecine appears to be a half human and half animal specie that lacks muscle and has a large jaw. In addition, the next page available on the archaeology source is the hall of skulls, which includes a precise description on ten distinct skulls. To sum up, the final selection accessible for viewers is the perspectives option. This choice allows the observer to see each of the author’s point of view on the information given.

The ability to make and use tools dates back millions of years in our family tree. Chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, can on their own devise spear-like weapons for hunting and create specialized tool kits for foraging ants, suggesting our family tree may have possessed wooden tools since the ancestors of humans and chimps diverged some 4 million years ago.