Quote:

---

Originally posted by chrisisall:
Just wanted to test the waters here. Some think we are above animals- that we are unique due to our superiour intelligence, opposable thumbs, souls or whatnot.
Others (like myself) feel that we are merely well-groomed talking chimps, with no exclusive franchise on "souls" or varieties of intellect.



"We are all animals, my Lady."


The laughing Chrisisall

"I only do it to to remind you that I'm right and that deep down, you know I'm right, you want me to be right, you need me to be right." - The Imperial Hero Strikes Back, 2010

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by perfessergee:

Quote:

---

Apparently not, as Ardi walked upright, based on hipbone and foot structure. The other major suprise comes from the fact that Ardi is more than 6 million years old - about 2 million years older than the split between chimps and us. And Ardi is more like us than a chimp. We had always thought that the common ancestor would be chimplike, and that we evolved from that state into the animal that we now are. In other words, we not only didn't evolve from chimps or the other animals currently called "great apes" they evolved from us!

---

I agree with almost everything you have said here. I was just trying to get across the point that our common ancestor with the chimp may not have been the ape like creature that has been assumed in the past. I wasn’t trying to imply that we aren’t closely related to the chimp, only that because the split came so much earlier than had previously been suspected that maybe a redefinition of what is an ape is in order. Citizen thinks we are apes because we share a common ancestor with the chimp. We also share a common ancestor with the cat and about 90% of our DNA. We share a common ancestor and DNA with all animal life on earth, how we choose to define ourselves is up to us.

Quote:

---

I'd also question your assertion that making other species go extinct makes us superior, but I guess that depends on how you define "superior". A survivor most definitely - we've certainly survived all of our closest relatives (neandertals, Homo erectus, Homo floresensis), and all of our other close relatives (chimps, gorillas and orangutans) are highly endangered in the wild, mostly as a result of human activity. Not a record I'd point to with pride and assert our superiority.

---

I never said that we are superior to species we killed off. I said we are superior to those that didn’t survive due to natural selection. That’s kind of the whole idea behind survival of the fittest.

Quote:

---

I'd go with Chris's "well groomed talking chimps".

---

I think what you have pointed out is that it would be more appropriate to call a chimp in a tuxedo just a well dressed Quadra pedal human. As you have said they my have evolved from us and not the other way around.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by rue:
Niki

It sounds like you did what I dream of doing.

I wish I could remember the thread - to recap:

I was at the Shedd Aquarium and they were doing their last demo for the day about belugas - what they eat, how they communicate etc. At the end everyone else in the audience got up and left. I don't know whatever possessed me, but I stayed and decided to go down to the railing and literally TALK to the whales (there were three belugas). I thought about what they would hear well and it occurred to me that they would either be attuned to low pitches (carries well in water) or high pitches (communication). So I pitched my voice higher, like baby-talk. And one of the belugas spy-hopped for the whole 15 minutes I was there, just staring at me. Never once did she take her eyes off of me or change position in the water. (Though for a while she turned her head to look at me with one eye, and a few minutes later turned her head to look at me with the other eye, then resumed looking at me with both eyes.)

I have NO idea what transpired. But I was SO tempted to put my hand out - I just had this gut feeling that if I did, something would have happened.

One of the trainers was standing nearby watching the whole thing. Afterwards she remarked that she had never seen anything like that before.


***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

---