NOT A CHIMP

Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Crows react to threats in human-like way

http://phys.org/news/2012-09-crows-react-threats-human-like-neural.html

In my chapter CLEVER CORVIDS I describe some of John Marzluff's work on corvid cognition. He has now shown that crows recognize and respond to faces much in the same way we humans do. They are capable of perceiving a threatening mask - and remembering it - even though the individual wearing the mask does them no actual harm. Deep in the bird's brain is a structure analogous to our amygdala which is strongly involved in face recognition - and the valency of emotion in the face, and other fear reactions.