Chimps not entitled to rights of people: NY court

http://phys.org/news/2014-12-chimps-entitled-rights-people-ny.html

Sanity prevails!!

Unexpectedly speedy expansion of human, ape cerebellum

http://phys.org/news/2014-10-unexpectedly-speedy-expansion-human-ape.html

Two British researchers - Rob Barton and Chris Venditti have moved the spotlight, in the brain, from the neo-cortex to the cerebellum. They show how the cerebellum, in real terms, has expanded mightily in the apes, and on into humans. The neuronal density in the cerebellum is greater than that throughout the neo-cortex. "In humans, the cerebellum contains about 70 billion neurons—four times more than in the neocortex," Barton says. "Nobody really knows what all these neurons are for, but they must be doing something important."

As time goes by, the cerebellum has been found to have more sophisticated roles than previously thought. These include "the temporal organization of complex behavioral sequences, such as those involved in making and using tools, for instance. Interestingly, evidence is now emerging for a critical role of the cerebellum in language, too."

Humanized Foxp2 accelerates learning by enhancing transitions from declarative to procedural performance

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/39/14253.abstract.html?etoc

Here's an interesting paper in PNAS which furthers our understanding of how the transcription factor FOXP2 underpins the human language faculty. All the main scientists cited in NOT A CHIMP are among the co-authors - Simon Fisher, Wolfie Enard and Svante Paabo, and their observations stem from transplanting human FOXP2 into mice.

Neuroscientists identify key role of language gene

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-09-neuroscientists-key-role-language-gene.html

The FOXP2 story continues to run and run - and at the centre of developments are Svante Paabo and Wolfie Enard at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. A new function for FOXP2 suggests it is important in transforming experience into new behaviours. Mice, into which the human form of FOXP2 had been engineered, learned T-mazes much more quickly. "The findings suggest that Foxp2 may help humans with a key component of learning language—transforming experiences, such as hearing the word "glass" when we are shown a glass of water, into a nearly automatic association of that word with objects that look and function like glasses..."

Parrot found to “teach” tool use to others

Another welcome addition to the "birds can do whatever chimps can do" literature! Go Figaro!!

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/140910_cockatoos.htm

Chimpanzee Jack to stand trial on human crimes at Edinburgh Fringe

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/chimpanzee-jack-to-stand-trial-on-human-crimes-at-edinburgh-fringe-1.511295

In NOT A CHIMP I go into a great deal of detail about people who keep chimps as human surrogate pets and rights campaigners who argue that accrediting chimpanzees with "human" rights will better preserve them and serve their interests wherever they are threatened or abused. I argue strongly that it is wholly inappropriate to grant chimps human rights because they are palpably not humans and are not capable of the understanding of two-way moral obligations that rights suppose. Fascinating and hilarious, therefore, to see that Lewis Dean of the Scottish Primate Research Group has written an audience-interactive play (essentially the trial of a fictional chimpanzee criminal) to explore these issues for the Edinburgh Fringe.

Flores bones show features of Down syndrome, not a new 'hobbit' human

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-flores-bones-features-syndrome-hobbit.html

Arguments over whether or not the skeletal remains found on the island of Flores - the so-called "hobbit" - represent a new species of human ancestor, or an abnormal Homo sapiens, have ricocheted too and fro over the last few years - demonstrating, if nothing else, the perils and pitfalls of archaeological interpretation. This fascinating report argues that the specimen is a human with Down syndrome! The brain size was over 400 cc, not less, as was originally calculated. No doubt this will not be the end of the affair. Look out for a riposte!

Congo: A Group of Chimpanzees Seem to Have Mastered Fire

http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/congo-a-group-of-chimpanzees-seem-to-have-mastered-fire/

Fascinating report of a colony of bonobos in Salonga National Park in the Congo basin that have been watched for over 3 years and appear to have gradually evolved and somewhat refined a crude method of fire-making which they are reported to employ in brandishes against enemies - which villagers say have destroyed tracts of forestry - and in cooking squirrel monkeys. if this has been reported accurately - and I am looking for more learned reports here - it may represent evolution in action and a replay of early human evolution where the ability to cook food - at least according to Richard Wrangham - was a crucial factor in releasing high-octane calories vital for body and brain growth.

Domestication of dogs may explain mammoth kill sites and success of early modern humans

http://phys.org/news/2014-05-domestication-dogs-mammoth-sites-success.html

An interesting piece relating to Pat Shipman's recent work investigating huge mammoth kill sites in eastern Europe. She contends that the steep increase in wholesale dispatch of mammoths coincides with evidence of wolf-like dogs and suggests this may be evidence of early domestication of dogs and that dogs might have been invaluable for hunting, surrounding and killing mammoths. If she is right this tilts the argument over the evolution of dogs back towards the direct domestication of wolves hypothesis.

Crows find a novel use for coat hangers

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/crows-find-a-novel-use-for-coat-hangers/

Here's a lovely story about clever corvids - crows in this case - and coat-hangers!

Identification of gene that influences joint attention in chimpanzees provides insight into autism spectrum disorders

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-02-identification-gene-joint-attention-chimpanzees.html

Interesting news from Larry Young and Bill Hopkins from Yerkes Primate Centre. They have been looking at the heritability for joint attention - the essential foundation stone for theory of mind and social intelligence. it builds on work on variants of the vasopressin receptor gene, reported in NOT A CHIMP - transferring the work from prairies voles to chimps. They lack a key repetitive element in the receptor gene that humans have.

Teaching young wolves new tricks

http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/en/infoservice/presseinformation/press-releases-2014/press-release-01-30-2014-teaching-young-wolves-new-tricks/

Interesting piece from scientists in Vienna who show that wolves are better at opening food containers if they are able to watch con-specifics previously doing so successfully, than dogs. In other words, wolves are better at imitating other wolves than dogs are other dogs. The suggestion is that, under domestication, dogs have transferred their imitative focus to humans and away from their own species.

What makes us human? Unique brain area linked to higher cognitive powers

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-human-unique-brain-area-linked.html

One of several reports coming out of Professor Matthew Rushworth's lab at Oxford University's Department of Experimental Psychology. "The brain area pinpointed is known to be intimately involved in some of the most advanced planning and decision-making processes that we think of as being especially human." says the report from Medical Express.

"'We have established an area in human frontal cortex which does not seem to have an equivalent in the monkey at all,' says first author Franz-Xaver Neubert of Oxford University. 'This area has been identified with strategic planning and decision making as well as "multi-tasking"".