Apelike sex

[Tero]

Jarrett Diamond and a few others described chimpanzee sex, so this was not exactly news to me. But there is a book that goes into detail about our inherited character
http://www.sexatdawn.com/

Forget what you’ve heard about human beings having descended from the apes. We didn’t descend from apes. We are apes. Metaphorically and factually, Homo sapiens is one of the five surviving species of great apes, along with chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans (gibbons are considered a “lesser ape”). We shared a common ancestor with two of these apes—bonobos and chimps—just five million years ago. That’s “the day before yesterday” in evolutionary terms. The fine print distinguishing humans from the other great apes is regarded as “wholly artificial” by most primatologists these days.

Like them Christians say, if we think we are animals, we are going to behave like animals.

Well, we do anyway, some are just better at being hypocrites.

[Note to mods, this was not science or philosophy or politis. A better title for this culture section would cover history, society, all of man's silly activities that are in the past as well]

[DRSB]

Yeah, a great book, I finally got it after I'd pre-ordered it months ago already after its author Christopher Ryan had announced it on his Psychology Today-blog. There is another great blog on PT by Bonobo-researcher Vanessa Woods "Your Inner Bonobo":

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-inner-bonobo

[tattuchu]

I was lured here by implied descriptions of ape sex

On a serious note, I wonder how we branched off? How is it we gained superior intellect and the ability to speak whereas the other apes did not

[Thinking Aloud]

I was lured here by implied descriptions of ape sex

On a serious note, I wonder how we branched off? How is it we gained superior intellect and the ability to speak whereas the other apes did not

One thing to consider when asking these questions is "where did the branch occur?" It's easy to infer that because chimps and humans branched apart at some point in the past, the human branch got "clever" while the others didn't. It's quite likely that for a considerable time, there was little difference between our ancestor and that of the chimp: language and brain size evolved later, presumably because it was an advantage to our ancestors in whatever environment they occupied. Chimps and gorillas have survived in their environment without needing advanced language like ours.

Another question might be - what happened to all those other branches of "our" tree; the other hominids that did develop larger brain size and possibly language? I'd imagine it's likely they died out because competition with Homo sapiens was too great. Any other ape that developed language or greater intelligence would put itself up against the dominant species - and would likely lose.

[Tero]

here you go

[colubridae]

Hmmmmm.

[RuleBritannia]

[Tero]

was it nutritious for the frog?

[Animavore]

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Jarrett Diamond and a few others described chimpanzee sex, so this was not exactly news to me. But there is a book that goes into detail about our inherited character
http://www.sexatdawn.com/

Forget what you’ve heard about human beings having descended from the apes. We didn’t descend from apes. We are apes. Metaphorically and factually, Homo sapiens is one of the five surviving species of great apes, along with chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans (gibbons are considered a “lesser ape”). We shared a common ancestor with two of these apes—bonobos and chimps—just five million years ago. That’s “the day before yesterday” in evolutionary terms. The fine print distinguishing humans from the other great apes is regarded as “wholly artificial” by most primatologists these days.

Like them Christians say, if we think we are animals, we are going to behave like animals.

Well, we do anyway, some are just better at being hypocrites.

[Note to mods, this was not science or philosophy or politis. A better title for this culture section would cover history, society, all of man's silly activities that are in the past as well]

There are 7, living species of great apes (along with several sub-species), not 5. With accuracy like that, I am not quite sure I would trust the rest of the book unquestioningly!

(Source Wikipedia - but certainly accurate to my knowledge.)

• Family Hominidae: humans and other great apes; extinct genera and species excluded.
  • Subfamily Ponginae
    • Genus Pongo
      • Bornean Orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus
        • Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus
        • Pongo pygmaeus morio
        • Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii
      • Sumatran Orangutan, Pongo abelii
  • Subfamily Homininae
    • Tribe Gorillini
      • Genus Gorilla
        • Western Gorilla, Gorilla gorilla
          • Western Lowland Gorilla, Gorilla gorilla gorilla
          • Cross River Gorilla, Gorilla gorilla diehli
        • Eastern Gorilla, Gorilla beringei
          • Mountain Gorilla, Gorilla beringei beringei
          • Eastern Lowland Gorilla, Gorilla beringei graueri
    • Tribe Hominini
      • Genus Pan
        • Common Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes
          • Central Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes
          • West African Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus
          • Nigerian Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes vellerosus
          • Eastern Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii
        • Bonobo (Pygmy Chimpanzee), Pan paniscus
      • Genus Homo
        • Human, Homo sapiens sapiens

[Berthold]

One thing to consider when asking these questions is "where did the branch occur?" It's easy to infer that because chimps and humans branched apart at some point in the past, the human branch got "clever" while the others didn't. It's quite likely that for a considerable time, there was little difference between our ancestor and that of the chimp: language and brain size evolved later, presumably because it was an advantage to our ancestors in whatever environment they occupied. Chimps and gorillas have survived in their environment without needing advanced language like ours.

The australopithecines were bipedal for a long time, while having a brain capacity comparable to that of chimps.