Poop-throwing by chimps may actually be a sign of intelligence

mmn ^ | Sun, Dec 04 2011

[InvisibleChurch]

Tossing feces with pinpoint accuracy may not immediately strike you as sophisticated behavior, but researchers studying the brain activity of captive chimpanzees have found that the smartest apes also happen to pitch the most accurate poop, according to Physorg.com.

Playing dodgeball with poop-wielding chimpanzees may sound like an odd career choice, but Bill Hopkins of Emory University, who spent the last several years observing the throwing accuracy and brain scans of chimpanzees, had a hunch that this behavior had a deeper significance.

Particularly curious to Hopkins was the fact that chimpanzees are the only species besides humans known to regularly throw objects with a clear target in mind. Since chimps are our closest living biological relatives, Hopkins wondered if throwing behavior had some sort of connection with higher order intelligence.

Not too surprisingly, Hopkins discovered that the chimps which threw more often, and more accurately, also showed heightened development in the motor cortex-- an area of the brain involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary motor functions. But Hopkins also noticed something more surprising: the most throw-happy chimps also displayed a richer network of connections between their motor cortex and their Broca’s areas, which is a brain area important for speech in humans.

[InvisibleChurch]

[big'ol_freeper]

See, the author assumes that Dhimmicrats are intelligent, so the same behavior is deemed intelligent.

But in reality they both lack intelligence.

[digger48]

Oh great.

Just when I thought they had given up trying to defend the Occupy crowd.

[Notwithstanding]

Proof that
Paulbots,
Mythbots and
Perrywinkles
are more smarterer
than the rest of FReepers.

[JoeProBono]

[WKUHilltopper]

It’s what liberals have done for decades—sling s##t.

[Cicero]

Does “heightened development in the motor cortex” explain why Obama has to play golf all the time?

[mikrofon]

Prospective journalists?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Playing dodgeball with poop-wielding chimpanzees may sound like an odd career choice

I don't know what they're paying him, but I'd say he's earning every penny of that paycheck. I'd rather go work at the cheese factory (did that for a summer during college, not fun).

[KarlInOhio]

Occupy Wall Street is the missing link between humans and apes.

[Rebelbase]

“Particularly curious to Hopkins was the fact that chimpanzees are the only species besides humans known to regularly throw objects with a clear target in mind. “

A friend growing up had a spider monkey who’d throw it at you if you pissed him off.

[BfloGuy]

Playing dodgeball with poop-wielding chimpanzees may sound like an odd career choice

I can hear Limbaugh now in his little-boy voice saying, "Daddy, when I grow up I want to play dodgeball with poop-throwing chimpanzees."

[RichInOC]

Sounds like politics.

[InvisibleChurch]

agreed

[bksanders]

"researchers studying the brain activity of captive chimpanzees"

Only the confined chimpeeeeez throw their $hit.
Must be a drag out there in real chimpdom.
Could be the inaccuate tossers just don't give a $hit.
Wonder how many of my tax dollars went to this dork?

[bt_dooftlook]

Well, I guess that proves that Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi are not chimpanzees...