WE THE ANIMALS
Have you heard about Dr.Jane Goodall ? she is the one who discovered we are not the only creature who can make tool.
"At that time—the 1960s—the defining characteristic of man was that he alone, among all the creatures on God's green Earth, made tools. We called ourselves Man the Toolmaker, and that skill allegedly distinguished us from every other living thing...Jane's discovery was the talk of the scientific world, causing Leakey to proclaim, “Now we must redefine tool,redefine man,or accept chimpanzees as humans.” Harvard's Stephen Jay Gould would call her observation “one of the great achievements of twentieth-century scholarship."
I recomand you to read this interesting article published in National Geographic magazine. I'm sure you will be inspired by the story of this woman who devoted her whole life to explore chimpanzees world, to expand our viewpoint and idea about ourselves as human and our relation with other animals. I think her discoveries made us (humans) to come up with a new narrative about ourselves and a less lonely one.
In the shadow of man
Now, let's learn a little more about our ape causins.
Monkeys, chimpanzees, and humans are primates. Primates are mammals
that are characterized by their advanced cognitive development and
abilities, grasping hands and feet, and forward-facing eyes, along
with other characteristics. Some primates (including some great apes
and baboons) are typically terrestrial (move on the ground) versus
arboreal (living in the trees), but all species of primates have
adaptations to climb trees . Millions of years ago, primate ancestors
evolved different defining characteristics from one another, branching
into many species within different groups. This can get confusing
because of the numerous categories of primates: great apes, lesser
apes, and Old/New World monkeys, are seemingly similar. All of the
groups have similar characteristics, but there are characteristics
that separate us. Great apes
(humans, chimps, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans)
generally have larger brains, larger bodies, and no tail. Dr. Goodall
often likes to use Mr. H (a monkey plush toy who travels with her
everywhere she goes) in her lectures to demonstrate this difference by
asking the crowd, “How can we tell that Mr. H is not a chimpanzee?”
She will then dangle Mr. H by his tail and say, “Chimps have no tail!”
You can learn more about our ape family.