Bonobos Observed Using Tools

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   Peter Kinnon

   December 4, 2015 at 1:36 am

   While this is interesting in its own right, readers should not be temped to make any kind of connection with the evolution of the human ape, which has taken a very different path.
   There are many instances of FACULTATIVE tool-use in a variety of species. The Newfoundland crow is a particularly adept and inventive example.
   Homo Sapiens’ most significant adaptations happen to derive from an unusually high level of innervation of the hands and vocal apparatus.
   A feature which is ultimately attributable to that stage in our evolutionary history in which the primary food acquisition and pre-processing functions were transferred from the snout to the hands. And, in general, the OBLIGATE use of tools.
   The feature which enabled the co-evolution of the extensive import, export and external storage of imagination. The feature that we identify as language.
   It is the sharing of imagination which has endowed this snout-less ape with behaviors that uniquely include the implementation of a vast range of technologies. The behavior pattern which uniquely defines our species.
   This, together with closely related issues, is discussed in greater detail in my latest book “The Intricacy Generator: Pushing Chemistry and Geometry Uphill”. Now available as 336 page illustrated paperback from Amazon, etc.

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