VICKIE'S WORLD

About a decade or so ago, my perceptions of the world were forever altered when I saw a documentary that revealed chimpanzee family groups attacking one another.  Normally, animals fighting one another is nothing out of the ordinary, but...in this case...the attack was not only premeditated, but carried out with the use of crude weapons.  Clubs and sticks.   The first group simply wandered in on the second group and set about making war.  Suddenly, man was no longer so unique on this planet.  Though I was certainly disturbed by what I saw, the scientist in me was also profoundly intrigued.

Imagine how further intrigued I was then, by last week's news of chimpanzees habitually and consistently making even more sophisticated weapons!  No one has yet reported that chimps are using these weapons for fighting one another, but many have been observed making spears, with which they hunt for prey.   For the first time in human history, we are able to actually observe the emergence of practical intelligence, crafting and tool making in a creature other than ourselves.  It opens a direct and up close look at the emergence of ourselves, so many millennia ago.  How much more exciting can an event become?

This is amazing news.  Bigger, more important, impacting and profound than any political story that has ever graced the headlines.  Please take the time to visit these links for more information on this revolutionary (and evolutionary) discovery!

http://www.blog4brains.com/2007/02/26/new-discovery-chimpanzees-making-weapons/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6387611.stm

http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles_t9/idt2007.02.26.06.26.44.html