Wild Gorillas Impress With Their Tools

fatgav writes "The BBC is running an article about wild gorillas being seen to use tools in the wild. It is especially significant as not only have Gorillas never been seen to use tools, but they have been using them in a way unlike other great apes. From the article: 'The most astonishing thing is that we have observed them using tools not for obtaining food, but for postural support.' The scientists are getting excited as it can help to explain questions as to how the most advanced great ape (us) came to evolve."

Comments

Re:Here's a hint

[DavidTC]

Humans didn't evolve from apes.

Humans are apes.

Sheesh. How could we evolve from ourselves?

Re:Here's a hint

[MightyMartian]

You know, the next time I hear pure unadulterated bullshit defended under the banner of "diversity" I think I'm going to scream. The evidence, all the evidence mind you, points to gorillas and humans sharing a common ancestor. In particular, the molecular evidence pretty much makes it an open and shut case, and the fact that a few guys have buried their heads in the sand so deep that they are actually willing to deny reality is simply an indication that at least gorillas, unlike humans, don't deny their environment.

we are not the most advanced

[PhatKat]

there is no most here. does anyone understand that? Evolution doesn't have a purpose, it just is. To say "we are the most advanced" is exactly the same as saying "in our opinion we are the most advanced" and since presumably no other animal can respond to us in our language, the ayes have it. It's still total hogwash though. to say "most advanced" can't be applied unless there are qualifiers. For instance "humans are the most advanced animals because we birth the heartiest young" or how about "humans are the most advanced because we have the most sophisticated perceptual awareness" or "humans are the most advanced because we are the most peaceful."

Re:we are not the most advanced

[toganet]

What people don't understand is that evolution is about adaptation, no advancement. Humans are exactly as adapted to their environment as Gorillas are (well, at least until we started messing up the jungles, etc.)

It's bad enough when you hear people say things like, "Chimps are way more evolved than Baboons", but folks love to think the we are evolving into some "higher" lifeform -- what this is no one knows.

Worst example of this is the argument posed by southern evangelicals:

If you believe in evolution, then you believe that African-Americans are inferior.

Not only is this offensive, but it rests on two assumptions that are false:

1. Evolution has a direction, and
2. Whites are better than Blacks.

So once again we have proof that the South is stupid AND racist.

Re:Possibility

[Pantero Blanco]

Isn't that similar to one Judeo-Christian interpretation of how humans began using tools, that we were taught by the "nephilim"?

I'm not impressed by the walking stick, but

[Phase Shifter]

You have to admit the gorilla using a stick to determine the depth of water was impressive. Plenty of animals use tools, but how many use tools to make measurements?

Re:I'm not impressed by the walking stick, but

[mce]

Allow me, as I don't have mod points and your post is already at +5 anyway (and yet still being buried amongst all the blabber of the sexually obsessed zero-brains around here), to hereby express a "+1 insightfull" in a different way.

I read about this in my local newspaper last night, and was thinking exactly the same thing. And not only that: the measurement she was taking was "indirect" and also included a reference to her self (or for those who consider that one should not use that word in this context: to her own body). It was not just a case of "is this stick longer than that piece of water is wide" (the lengths of which can easily be compare visually in one go), it was a case of "is this water deeper (something that can not be observed directly) than my body can tolerate without risking nasty consequences for myself". Really impressive.

hope creationists learn something from this

[efuzzyone]

I hope creationists read this and learn something from it, so that they stop confusing young minds.