The killer ape theory or killer ape hypothesis is the theory that war and interpersonal aggression was the driving force behind human evolution. It was originated by Raymond Dart in the 1950s; it was developed further in African Genesis by Robert Ardrey in 1961.
The Aquatic Ape Theory states that our ancestors once spent a significant part of their life in water. Presumably, early apes were plant and fruit eaters in tropical forests. Early hominids also ate aquatic food; at first mainly weeds and tubers, later sea shore animals, especially shellfish.
The 'killer ape' hypothesis, popularised in Robert Ardrey 's book African Genesis , contended that an inherent violence in early hominids propelled the evolution of our lineage.
A recent study by a group of primatologists assessed long-term data on aggressive behaviour in chimpanzees to examine which of the two hypotheses was best supported. Their findings indicated that aggressive behaviour in chimpanzees was more related to adaptive strategies, therefore suggesting an evolutionary origin.
A variety of cognitive research on chimpanzees places their estimated IQ between 20 and 25, around the average for a human toddler whose brain is still developing the ability to use various cognitive abilities. This is not to say that chimpanzees are not intelligent animals.
Yes, they chimpanzees are friendly to humans, according to our observations. Chimpanzees are some of the most sought after primate species in the East African region. Primate lovers visiting the East African region are always excited to see chimpanzees in the habitats.
Many linguists still believe that apes have no real grasp of human language, but are merely imitating their human companions. They insist that while apes may understand individual symbols or words, they do not understand the concepts of syntax, or how words are put together to form a complete idea.
Call and Tomasello (2) argued that chimpanzees do, indeed, possess a theory of mind—as evidenced by convergent performance on diverse social cognitive experiments—but that they likely lack its richest signature, an understanding of others' false beliefs.
Australopithecus: This organism represents the ape-man stage of human evolution. They were man with an ape brain. Pleistocene epoch about 4 – 1.8 mya.
In his book 'The Descent of Man' published in 1871, English naturalist Charles Darwin presented the idea that human beings and apes have a common ancestor.
Humankind evolved from a bag-like sea creature that had a large mouth, apparently had no anus and moved by wriggling, scientists have said. The microscopic species is the earliest known prehistoric ancestor of humanity and lived 540 million years ago, a study published in the journal Nature said.
In the Affect, Personality and the Embodied Brain (APE) Research Group, we investigate cognitive and affective traits that influence our behaviour with particular regard to their biological underpinnings and application to understanding psychopathology.
The oldest hominins currently known are Sahelanthropus tchadensis from Chad (Brunet et al. 2005) and Orrorin tugenensis from Kenya (Senut et al. 2001). Sahelanthropus, dated to between 6 and 7 mya, is known from a largely complete skull and some other fragmentary remains.
Despite sharing 98 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, humans have much bigger brains and are, as a species, much more intelligent. Now a new study sheds light on why: Unlike chimps, humans undergo a massive explosion in white matter growth, or the connections between brain cells, in the first two years of life.
Studies suggest the following reasons why orangutans are the most intelligent of all the great apes: The orangutans are more patient and reflective than all the other great apes.
It was long assumed that only humans can distinguish the living from the dead. Renewed interest in this question over the last decade has led several authors to assert that non-human primates are also aware of death.
In the real world, apes can't speak; they have thinner tongues and a higher larynx, or vocal box, than people, making it hard for them to pronounce vowel sounds. But that doesn't necessarily mean they don't have the capacity for language—sign language, after all, doesn't require any vocalization.
Empathy: Chimpanzees are capable of feeling a wide range of emotions, including joy, happiness and empathy. They look out for one another and often provide help when needed. For example, both male and female adults have been observed adopting orphaned chimps in the wild and at the Tchimpounga sanctuary.
According to Lieberman's research, which uses models of primates' vocal tracts, monkeys and apes are unable to produce the range and succession of vowel sounds required for human speech because of the way their vocal tracts differ from humans'.
All species alive today have evolved just as much as we have, but in different ways. Great apes are not less evolved than us, just differently so. As such, there's no definitive reason that they should move toward human levels of intelligence.
Probably not. Ethical considerations preclude definitive research on the subject, but it's safe to say that human DNA has become so different from that of other animals that interbreeding would likely be impossible.
Disease transmission. Transmission of diseases is a major concern for the viability of populations of wild primates: contact with humans (forest researchers, tourists …) tends to increase the contamination between species.
They love each other as we do. They feel complex emotions such as loyalty and jealousy. Apes share all the characteristics and emotions that we think of as human.
“Male titi monkeys show jealousy much like humans and will even physically hold their partner back from interacting with a stranger male,” says Bales. The researchers induced a “jealousy condition” in male monkeys by placing them in view of their female partner with a stranger male.
They presented their findings to a team of researchers and the group ultimately agreed that Lucy was part of a single, previously undiscovered, species of hominin. This newly identified species, Australopithecus afarensis, was announced by Johanson in 1978.