Active Now

Slartibartfast
DannyPetti
Discussion » Questions » Animals (Wild) » What are some very important differences between human beings and animals that you should know about?
Jaimie

What are some very important differences between human beings and animals that you should know about?

Posted - March 10, 2020
Tag : #Animalz

Responses


  • 7404
    Neat-O. Cheers :) 
      March 11, 2020 10:47 AM MDT
    0

  • 44608
    Humans don't eat placentas.
      March 10, 2020 7:55 PM MDT
    5

  • 14795
    Some do ....
      March 11, 2020 1:49 AM MDT
    2

  • 4624
    Actually, a few do.
    Among some hunter-gatherers it's an instant way of reclaiming lost blood and especially iron.
    Some of the more radical hippies in my generation copied this idea, in home births of course.
      March 11, 2020 3:26 AM MDT
    3

  • 44608
    Indeed...thank you for that nugget.
      March 11, 2020 8:29 AM MDT
    0

  • 7404
    Blah, good. 
      March 11, 2020 10:52 AM MDT
    1

  • 4624
    Depends on which kinds of animals one is talking about.
    If it's mammals, they have a limbic brain - which means they have acute emotions and emotional awareness, as well as a rudimentary ability to learn how to solve problems.
    They have no capacity for language, though they can learn by association to recognise the meanings of between 8 and 36 words (for horses. Each species is different).

    From New Scientist this February
    "Our brains could have more in common with our ape cousins than previously thought, which might require us to rethink ideas on the evolution of brain specialism in our early human ancestors.

    The left and right sides of our brains aren’t symmetrical; some areas on one side are larger or smaller, while other parts protrude more.

    The pattern of these anatomical differences, or asymmetries, was thought to be uniquely human, originating when our brain hemispheres became specialised for certain tasks, such as processing language with the left side.

    Now, it seems the pattern came first – before humans evolved. Brain pattern comparisons between humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans reveal that our brains’ left-right differences aren’t unique, but shared with great apes.

    “It suggests it is an ancestral pattern that was established far earlier during evolution, before the split of human and great apes lineages,” says Simon Neubauer at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

    To read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2233798-great-ape-brains-have-a-feature-that-we-thought-was-unique-to-humans/#ixzz6GLg0X91G

    ~

    This makes it more of a mystery as to why the great apes don't speak in complex language as we do.
    If a chimpanzee can learn the sign language for up to four hundred words, use them grammatically, and be creative in inventing new words - why can't she speak? Apparently, she does have the vocal equipment. Or am I wrong about that.

    Element 99 and the scientists here, please come to the rescue.
      March 10, 2020 9:49 PM MDT
    6

  • 7404
    Thanks :) we’ll see if element steps up to explain this..ELEMENT!!! 
      March 11, 2020 10:49 AM MDT
    1

  • 44608
    This one stumps me...I never studied anatomy, human or great apes. I don't know everything...
      March 11, 2020 11:37 AM MDT
    3

  • 4624
    I know your forté is physics, but surely as a science teacher you also had to teach chemistry, biology and evolution.
    At root, they are so closely interrelated and interdependent.

    And besides, I'd bet you're a wiz at looking things up. You probably know all the best science publications and how to find them online.

    My guess is that you probably read science journals and have a broad range of interests in all things scientific - is that not so?


      March 11, 2020 8:02 PM MDT
    1

  • 14795
    Most all animails don't kill for pleasure...
      March 11, 2020 1:51 AM MDT
    4

  • 16779
    Baboons and dolphins have been known to. Less routinely than humans, but it does happen.
      March 11, 2020 2:03 AM MDT
    3

  • 4624
    Dolphins? I'm not sure of that. Dolphin expert John Lily mentions no such behaviours. Dolphins can play very roughly, but he did not observe killing for pleasure.
    Unless you mean Orcas or Killer Whales which are considered by some to be better defined as dolphins than whales. Orcas definitely take pleasure in killing, and in playing with their food while it's still alive - like domestic cats.
      March 11, 2020 3:30 AM MDT
    2

  • 34272
    https://awesomeocean.com/dolphins/dolphin-plays-food/
      March 11, 2020 11:11 AM MDT
    1

  • 4624
    Thanks my2cents.
    Hurricane Irma - 2017 - and I hadn't seen that footage.
    It does say it's much more common with Orcas.
    Still, the guesses as to why the dolphins do it all seem plausible to me.

    It doesn't seem as though the dolphins are aware of being cruel to the fish.
    Perhaps, much like many humans, they don't recognise the sentience of their prey.
      March 11, 2020 8:14 PM MDT
    1

  • 14795
    I'm surprised about the Dolphins....what are they said to kill

    i can understand baboon doing it more being the kind of pack animal what they are...
      March 11, 2020 6:23 AM MDT
    1

  • 44608
      March 11, 2020 8:32 AM MDT
    2

  • 14795
    I believe they do it to show their young how to hunt...or maybe they have had a bad day at the office...or just a bad hair day....:( 
      March 11, 2020 2:12 PM MDT
    1

  • 7404
    I don’t think most people do either :) 
      March 11, 2020 10:49 AM MDT
    2

  • 14795
    There is no species as evil as the human race....not another single living creature has designed and used any weapon of mass distraction solely made to kill its own kind....
      March 11, 2020 2:21 PM MDT
    2

  • 13395
    Humans wear underwear under their clothing and animals wear nothing under their fur.
      March 11, 2020 6:40 AM MDT
    5

  • 7404
    Maybe really hairy people don’t wear underwear either... we  don’t know. 
      March 11, 2020 10:50 AM MDT
    4

  • 14795
    What about Australians when they are out in the bush...?   :)  
      March 11, 2020 2:33 PM MDT
    3

  • 7404
    commando:)  
      March 11, 2020 5:27 PM MDT
    3

  • 14795
    I can't Bare to think about that in the outback and front more like.....:)
      March 11, 2020 5:40 PM MDT
    2