By: Wired UK October 24, 2011
The question was for the team of anthropologists was: Do orangutans have the ability to learn socially and pass these lessons down through generations? They found the answer to be yes. There is evidence that culture in humans and great apes have the same evolutionary roots. As humans we are able to learn and adapt quickly and change our behaviors and pass this down from generation to generation through social learning. This is what usually separates us from different species, but not apes.
About a decade ago, different biologists have observed that the great apes have made variations in behavior and think that the apes are passing down environmental innovations from generation to generation. Today, researchers at the University of Zurich have been studying if the variations in behavioral patterns in nine different orangutan populations, living in different areas can be explained by this cultural transmission. It can. After collecting 100,000 hours of data they concluded that environmental influences and genetic factors did play a big role in defining differences in social structure and behavioral ecology between the populations. Michael Krützen, the first author of the study, said: “The cultural interpretation of the behavioral diversity also holds for orangutans — and in exactly the same way as we would expect for human culture.
I think that this is amazing in the world of science. I have always thought about how monkeys and apes were so much like humans and I thought it was so cool. What I also think is amazing is that the researchers at the University of Zurich put 100,000 hours into this. This shows that orangutans do have the ability to learn socially and pass those lessons down through each generation. Apparently, apes are even smarter than we knew! I remember, when I was little, my mom and dad took my little brother and me on a animal safari and I saw apes acting like human and I didn’t know why they were. I was very little then, so I didn’t understand, but now I look back and I remember that they are so much like humans.
Questions:
1.) Do you find this discovery amazing and fascinating in the world of science?
2.) Do you believe that with this ability apes will become orangutans and apes will become more and more like humans from generation to generation?
3.) Do you think that humans will keep evolving with the apes, but always be ahead of them?
The question was for the team of anthropologists was: Do orangutans have the ability to learn socially and pass these lessons down through generations? They found the answer to be yes. There is evidence that culture in humans and great apes have the same evolutionary roots. As humans we are able to learn and adapt quickly and change our behaviors and pass this down from generation to generation through social learning. This is what usually separates us from different species, but not apes.
About a decade ago, different biologists have observed that the great apes have made variations in behavior and think that the apes are passing down environmental innovations from generation to generation. Today, researchers at the University of Zurich have been studying if the variations in behavioral patterns in nine different orangutan populations, living in different areas can be explained by this cultural transmission. It can. After collecting 100,000 hours of data they concluded that environmental influences and genetic factors did play a big role in defining differences in social structure and behavioral ecology between the populations. Michael Krützen, the first author of the study, said: “The cultural interpretation of the behavioral diversity also holds for orangutans — and in exactly the same way as we would expect for human culture.
I think that this is amazing in the world of science. I have always thought about how monkeys and apes were so much like humans and I thought it was so cool. What I also think is amazing is that the researchers at the University of Zurich put 100,000 hours into this. This shows that orangutans do have the ability to learn socially and pass those lessons down through each generation. Apparently, apes are even smarter than we knew! I remember, when I was little, my mom and dad took my little brother and me on a animal safari and I saw apes acting like human and I didn’t know why they were. I was very little then, so I didn’t understand, but now I look back and I remember that they are so much like humans.
Questions:
1.) Do you find this discovery amazing and fascinating in the world of science?
2.) Do you believe that with this ability apes will become orangutans and apes will become more and more like humans from generation to generation?
3.) Do you think that humans will keep evolving with the apes, but always be ahead of them?
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteWow! That is so cool! I always remember people saying that apes were the closest things to humans, but I never really knew why. It's awesome that the University of Zurich has put so much work into this to find out this answer. The apes will continute to do human behaviors and send these lessons from generation to generation. That is really interesting and I haven't heard anything like that lately!
Answer to Question 1: I think this is an amazing discovery in science! People have always thought of apes as the closest animals to humans, but never researched it and went into depth like the University of Zurich. I just think this is awesome, and they should keep reseraching to find out even more about these amazing creatures!
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteThis article is really interesting because I have always heard of humans evolving from apes but there was no evidence to prove it! After reading this article, it shows how similar humans and apes can be! I remember just like Mike, that at the zoo I used to see apes standing on 2 legs and walking around and performing other human-like behaviors. Now I know why, after the 100,000 hours of research people have studied. I am glad the University of Zurich is putting in a LOT of effort to study this, because I think it will become a very important recent discovery.
Answer to Question Two: I think that apes will gradually, very very slowly become more like humans from generation to generation. But they will never be ahead of humans in the future. I think if we train them to act more like us, it's possible they could start behaving more like us too!
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI actually think that this article was very interesting. All of my past science and history teachers have always been like, "Do you know that humans may have evolved from monkeys?" Well, now I do because there is evidence to prove it thanks to the University of Zurich! This University has put so much time and even more effort into finding out how humans were created. I think that it is kind of funny how we evolved from something that we see through glass at the zoo!
Answer to Question 1:
Yes, this discovery is both fascinating and amazing in the world of science! Now we know that we have probably evolved from apes since one group took the time to figure it out. It is just an amazing discovery because now we can actually know where the human life form actually evolved from!
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI have always heard about the theory of evolution and how so many things point that we, humans, have come from there. Personally, i don't think we evolved from the primates even though we are very similar. Humans in my opinion are far more advanced and complex then monkeys. Although, the research does show that this gruop of animals is very similar to how we behave. I think it is great that scientists from Zurich have made this discovery. It is a very interesting thing to wonder about.
Answer to Question 1:
I do find this discovery very cool. Maybe this will be a step closer to finding out perhistoric man's history.