Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA03363 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 29 May 2002 01:01:55 +0100 Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 20:00:17 -0400 From: "Ray Recchia" <rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Report: chimps used simple tools 5 million years ago X-Mailer: WorldClient Pro 2.2.1 In-Reply-To: <F235ibbDdcTD5uZJorw0000d29c@hotmail.com> Message-ID: <1189492268-142170@smtp.clarityconnect.com> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Scott,
> >
> An alternative to two tool using species diverging from a tool using
> ancestor is that they could have diverged phylogentically from an
> ancestor
> that didn't use tools, but each having a reasonably developed level of
> "primate intelligence" (hand-waving alarm activated) may have
> independently
> converged upon tool use. Perhaps the common ancestor shared by humans
> and
> other chimps was a tool user, but the common ancestor with macaques
> (vis a
> vis humans or other chimp species) did not use tools and macaques
> developed
> their own sort of tool use (if they do indeed use tools...I'm NOT a
> primatologist) within their own ecological milieu independent of the
> putatively homologous tool usage of humans and other chimps.
>
> Then OTOH maybe humans and the other chimps acquired the skill of "tool
> usage" (note imprecision here) independently and the common ancestor
> didn't
> use tools.
>
> Maybe the common ancestor of humans and other chimps used tools and the
> branches upon which humans eventually emerged retained this skill,
> where the
> branches leading to modern chimps had lost this skill with modern
> chimps
> eventually acquiring their own form of "tool usage" or facsimile of
> crude
> implement manipulation along the way, independent of humans and beyond
> their
> chimp forebears.
>
>
>
Then again, somewhere in there Satan could have made the entire fossil
record to lure away the faithful.
What would Occam say?
Ray Recchia
(I'm still at work. I'll get back to Wade's comments in an hour or so
when I have a chance to dig out the texts I referenced or the post I did
a few months ago on the difficulty of nut cracking)
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