I remember reading something in a science book when I was much younger that listed all the things that made humans unique in the animal world. It had things such as writing, agriculture, tool use, teaching, etc. In the last couple of decades I have seen almost everything on that list be left at the wayside as each thing previously considered unique to humans was found to be not-that-original after all.
The world is a wonderfully weird place indeed.
A team of researchers at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Human and Environment Studies has discovered that a species of the damselfish cultivates its food, Polysiphonia algae, on coral reefs.
The study is part of display at a meeting of the Japan Society of Evolutionary Studies that began Tuesday in Tokyo.
The research team, headed by Hiroki Hata, who is also a special researcher of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, confirmed that a species of damselfish, Dusky Gregory (Stegastes nigricans), and Polysiphonia algae are closely dependent on each other as the algae cannot grow without the fish.
read the whole story…
August 31st, 2006 at 1:59 pm
I’d venture to say that the only thing that makes humans unique is the fact that we think we’re unique.