Comments on: Sponge-Wielding Dolphins Teach Their Daughters How to Use Tools

By: brenatevi

brenatevi — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:59:58 +0000

“Their foraging grounds are a few metres deeper than the sand flats where other dolphins hunt, meaning they spend more energy on feeding. “But ultimately they’re doing as well as others,” says Mann. Mann believes they may be exploiting an otherwise unused larder, as the density of females in channels is lower than out on the sand flats [New Scientist]. But even if the spongers are profiting from exploiting a forgotten niche in the ecosystem, researchers don’t think that gives them an evolutionary edge:”

I don’t think it gives them an edge but helps them compensate for a disadvantage, like a lot of tools do. A spear helped man compensate for not having claws and mass.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:49:35 +0000

Sorry to burst your bubble guys but “engaging in wars and invasions and the brutal suppression of entire populaces” does in fact give an evolutionary edge. By making war we cause a large amount of people to be killed and yet at the same time this same activity spurs an tremendous effort to be as creative as possible in creating what might be new weapons. This then translates into new tools and technology for the general advancement of mankind. I’m not saying that war is a good thing just that because it affects our creative efforts (thus new tools) it does have an evolutionary impact.

By: Bystander

Bystander — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:04:21 +0000

btw… This article reminded me of the ‘fishing bird’ I read about years ago. Apparently, this crane had been loitering by a pond in a park watching people feed the fish with pieces of bread. So when the people went on their way, the crane swooped over the water and retrieved a piece of bread yet uneaten by the fish and returned to the shore. The bird then proceeded to repeatedly drop the bread in the water, wait for a fish to come nibble at it and it would eat it, then pick up and drop the bread again.

Interesting story but unfortunately this is the only recorded incident of this kind that I’m aware of. I know it’s not an ‘animal uses tool’ story but how can you not be at least a little awed by the simple genius of that crane ;)

By: Bystander

Bystander — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:58:48 +0000

“Smoking, doing drugs, racing motorcycles, BASE jumping” ~ Do not make you less likely to reproduce any more or less than anyone else so those behaviors do not lack any ‘evolutionary edge’.

“engaging in wars and invasions and the brutal suppression of entire populaces” ~ These on the other hand *may* indeed affect your reproductive success.

‘to become doctors and yoga swamis, who by all accounts live far more healthily than the aforementioned humans and have a definite evolutionary edge.” ~ While I’ll admit that an avid yoga practitioner may increase their life span and therefore the possibility of more reproductive years, doctors or any other ‘moral’ profession will not give you any ‘ evolutionary edge’.

*offers you a bag* Here, this is for your bias.

By: nick

nick — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:18:28 +0000

“If it did, all the other dolphins in Shark Bay would have caught on to the behavior by now, Mann says.”

One only needs to take a quick glance back at the human race to see what utter poppycock this statement is.

Smoking, doing drugs, racing motorcycles, BASE jumping, engaging in wars and invasions and the brutal suppression of entire populaces… these are not giving humans an evolutionary edge, yet you don’t see people flocking from those behaviors to become doctors and yoga swamis, who by all accounts live far more healthily than the aforementioned humans and have a definite evolutionary edge.

In fact, I would have to say that, according to how the human race works, the fact that only a few dolphins are doing it makes it more likely that it gives an evolutionary edge – only the best and luckiest few survive to pass on their genes , why else would we say that all humans trace their genetics back to 7 common female ancestors from around the European/Asian/African realms (though I suspect that number will fluctuate with time, I doubt it’s going to suddenly become 700 or 7000).

It’s known that all throughout histories, scientific breakthroughs came from single people or small groups, that there was always a sizable population that resisted them, thought they were stupid, whatever. I’m sure the friends of the people that left Africa stayed behind and thought them fools that would never be seen from again.

So, anyway, just because one animals performs a smart behavior and other animals ignore it doesn’t signify that the smart behavior doesn’t have any advantage, it may just signify a fact we know: large populations of a given life form can be stupid, or maybe just too comfortable to want to change.