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Article: Aping the way we think?
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 19, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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OUR BRAIN weighs as much as a bag of sugar, uses up a quarter
of the energy we get from eating and has made us the smartest and
most dominant primate on the planet. Where did our phenomenal
intelligence come from and why? The question has traditionally been
the preserve of anthropologists studying the fossils of our
ape-like ancestors. But some scientists believe that in the search
for the roots of human intelligence it is just as valid to study
the behaviour of our closest living relatives, the apes such as the
chimpanzee and gorilla.
One such researcher, Dr Richard Byrne from the psychology
department at the University of St Andrews, goes even further by
suggesting that one of our most ...