Humans are the species that dominated the earth after the dinosaurs, we have neither sharp fangs nor strong physiques, but we can cross many top predators to stand at the top of the food chain, which is due to the evolution of the brain, making us more and more intelligent, which is also the basis of human beings on the earth. The benefit of a smart brain is that it can target different living environments or dilemmas, so as to create the right tools to solve problems perfectly.
It should be known that three or five million years ago, the ancestors of human beings, Australopithecus, were still shivering little pitiful in nature, although not at the bottom of the food chain, but they would still be threatened by many species, the most typical of which was cat fear. It is an extinct cat, a species of saber-toothed tiger that at one time fed exclusively Australopithecus australopithecus, and in a sense they were the only natural enemies in human history.
Imagine living in the wild, it is naturally very difficult to be vigilant against the attack of smart and clever big cats. Fortunately, with the passage of time, human beings are evolving, they are eating the old, and eventually eliminated by the natural environment, human beings from walking upright, freeing their hands to inventing tools and finally developing intelligent civilization, completely moving towards the peak of life. The main difference between humans and animals may be the use and dependence on tools.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > animals use tools</h1>
The use of tools is not a patent of humans, and there are many species in nature that can use simple tools to achieve their own ends. Chimpanzees have to be mentioned here, they are the closest living species on Earth to human kinship, and it was about 6 million years ago that the ancestors of humans and chimpanzees parted ways. But humans didn't know much about chimpanzees at first, and it all started with zoologist Jane Goodall.
In the 1960s, she traveled to Africa in her twenties to devote herself to wildlife conservation and research for 38 years. It was she who brought humans to a new understanding of chimpanzees, and long ago scientists generally believed that only humans could use tools, which was also the essential difference between humans and animals. But Jenny Goodall found evidence that chimpanzees also use tools, choosing slender, sturdy branches, placing them in the mouth of termite nests and gluing them to termites to eat.
The use of tools by non-human primates is actually quite common, and this skill can also be transmitted in the form of observational learning in populations. Primates are inherently more intelligent, they have an innate advantage in using tools, flexible division of labor and clear upper limbs, more conducive to the use of tools.
But there are many species in nature that can use tools, such as crows in primary school textbooks to drink water, in real life they really put stones into it in order to drink the water in the mineral water bottle, so that the water can rise to achieve the purpose. If this way is the way the crow thinks of by its own way of thinking, it is really invincible, scientists think that they are more of a learning behavior, do not know the essence of things, like passive robots.
Of course, we can't deny that crows are a very intelligent species, not just some of the individuals, but the commonality of this species.
In addition, octopuses in the ocean have always been considered "alien creatures", they can skillfully use a lot of tools, the same animal bottlenose dolphin in the ocean, they will protect their noses when they swim underwater, they will hold a sponge to protect themselves. It can only be said that animals use tools, which is actually a very common thing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > tools used by wild cockatoos, why are scientists valued? </h1>
A recent research paper in the journal Current Biology has attracted attention, and Mark O'Hara, an Australian ethologist and his colleagues, when they studied wild cockatoos at a bird's nest on The Indonesian island of Yendna, found that the bird can use tools and use a complex process to open sea mangoes and obtain seeds from them.
In fact, scientists have previously discovered that the Goffin's cockatoo (scientific name: Cacatuagoffiniana) makes tools and uses tools, they will look for pieces of wood and tear them into their desired shapes with their beaks, which they use to obtain food. But what makes scientists more incredible this time is that they can use a systematic set of tools, that is, in order to obtain the seeds in the sea mango, they will make three tools and use them in order, so that they can open the sea mango faster and more conveniently.
Mark O'Hara witnessed a male cockatoo getting food:
First, it first tore off the skin of the sea mango with its beak, and then found a small branch to bite into a wedge shape, and after the tool was made, it grasped the sea mango with its claws, and used its mouth to insert the first tool into the gap of the core to open the core;
Second, it finds another branch, makes it into a sharp shape, and uses a second tool to pierce the shell of the seed;
A third tool, also a small twig, is made to dig the seed out of the core.
Scientists have never found birds using tools in order before, and this is the first time that the discovery is the first, so it has attracted a lot of attention. Of course, here we should pay attention to the fact that the sea mango is highly toxic in the whole plant and cannot be eaten by humans.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > animal use of tools threaten humans? </h1>
According to the previous view, we believe that the main difference between humans and animals is the use and dependence on tools, but as we understand animals more deeply, many species can use simple tools, and some species will also make tools according to their own pursuits. As anthropologist Louis Leach once said, "We must now redefine tools, redefine people, or we will have to admit that chimpanzees are no different from people."
Humans have developed and multiplied on Earth for millions of years and have established a deep foundation, and even if there are indeed certain species on Earth that learn to make and use complex tools in the future, it does not mean that they can reach the current situation of human beings. Our evolutionary path, other species can not repeat, after all, in the face of the selection of the natural environment, any species has its own way to cope, but also because of natural selection to go in different directions.
Moreover, the use of tools alone does not represent anything, and it is necessary to have a sense of self-awareness at the same time, rather than passively learning to use tools. The use of complex tools by cockatoos like the ones scientists have found is only a few examples of their populations, in other words, they are original, and other members do not operate in this way.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > said at the end</h1>
Species on Earth have their own well-defined niches, and eating enough for some species to suddenly show up, otherwise it is difficult for other species to seize it. Just like the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago because an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers hit the earth, the vacant ecological niche and sufficient living space and living resources allowed mammals to seize the opportunity to quickly dominate in about 10 million pieces. If the dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct, mammals wouldn't have had a chance.
Therefore, unless future human beings leave the earth facing the sea of stars, certain species on the earth may have the opportunity to become the hegemons of the earth after humans!
Text/science black hole, image source network intrusion deletion.