Posted on 10/14/2013 8:38:08 AM PDT by null and void
Elephants understand humans in a way most other animals don’t, according to the latest research from the University of St Andrews. The new study, published October 10, 2013 by Current Biology, found that elephants are the only wild animals to understand human pointing without any training to do so.
The researchers, Anna Smet and Professor Richard Byrne from the University’s School of Psychology and Neuroscience, set out to test whether African elephants could learn to follow pointing — and were surprised to find them responding successfully from the first trial.
They said, “In our study we found that African elephants spontaneously understand human pointing, without any training to do so. This has shown that the ability to understand pointing is not uniquely human but has also evolved in a lineage of animal very remote from the primates.”
Elephants are part of an ancient African radiation of animals, including the hyrax, golden mole, aardvark and manatee. Elephants share with humans an elaborate and complex living network in which support, empathy and help for others are critical for survival. The researchers say that it may be only in such a society that the ability to follow pointing has adaptive value.
Professor Byrne explained, “When people want to direct the attention of others, they will naturally do so by pointing, starting from a very young age. Pointing is the most immediate and direct way that humans have for controlling others’ attention.
“Most other animals do not point, nor do they understand pointing when others do it. Even our closest relatives, the great apes, typically fail to understand pointing when it’s done for them by human carers; in contrast, the domestic dog, adapted to working with humans over many thousands of years and sometimes selectively bred to follow pointing, is able to follow human pointing — a skill the dogs probably learn from repeated, one-to-one interactions with their owners.”
The St Andrews’ researchers worked with a group of elephants who give rides to tourists in Zimbabwe. The animals were trained to follow certain vocal commands, but they weren’t accustomed to pointing.
Anna Smet explained, “We always hoped that our elephant subjects — whose ‘day job’ is taking tourists for elephant-back rides near Victoria Falls — would be able to learn to follow human pointing.
“But what really surprised us is that they did not apparently need to learn anything. Their understanding was as good on the first trial as the last, and we could find no sign of learning over the experiment.”
The researchers say that it is possible that elephants may do something akin to pointing as a means of communicating with each other, using their long trunk.
Anna continued, “Elephants do regularly make prominent trunk gestures, for instance when one individual detects the scent of a dangerous predator, but it remains to be seen whether those motions act in elephant society as ‘points.’”
The findings help explain how humans have been able to rely on wild-caught elephants as work animals, for logging, transport, or war, for thousands of years.
Professor Byrne explained, “It has long been a puzzle that one animal, the elephant, doesn’t seem to need domestication in order to learn to work effectively with humans. They have a natural capacity to interact with humans even though — unlike horses, dogs and camels — they have never been bred or domesticated for that role. Our findings suggest that elephants seem to understand us humans in a way most other animals don’t.”
As far as that ratio goes, there’s no reason to think much of it — there’s no record of any intent, it’s merely the consequence of their having stacked up stones and our having measured it, inferring an intent. Not much different than seeing a Face on Mars.
The alleged accuracy of the construction of the Great Pyramid is obviously greatly exaggerated, since A) it’s in very rough shape, so unless it was built in rough shape, the original accuracy must have been much different :’) and B) the exterior used to be faced with smooth limestone (inscribed with hieroglyphics to boot), now virtually gone, carted off to build mosques and whatnot in Cairo.
Thanks. Not only is the name of the 4th dynasty pharaoh who had it constructed known, the name of the 4th dynasty architect of the Great Pyramid is also known, the nearby site of his tomb is known, and at least one large image of Hemienu (excavated near the base of the GP) is known.
http://emhotep.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/htha01-hemienu.png
Houdin’s internal ramp theory:
http://emhotep.net/2009/09/12/locations/lower-egypt/giza-plateau-lower-egypt/hemienu-to-houdin-building-a-great-pyramid-introduction/
The Sphinx is older than the Pyramids; that information comes from a New Kingdom copy of an Old Kingdom record, and the longterm effects of water erosion of the oldest parts of the Sphinx are clear and obvious. But Khufu built the Great Pyramid.
His son and successor Djedjefre began construction of his own pyramid and tomb at Abu Roash, but died young (there may have been a dynastic struggle, or an invasion, but he very well may have just died of disease), the pyramid was not completed (circumstantial evidence for a dynastic struggle), and what remained of it was finally carted off on camels to build modern Cairo.
Djedjefre’s son was a child, may have briefly ruled after him, but Djedjefre’s younger brother Khafre succeeded one or both and built the second of the large Giza pyramids.
At least one of Khufu’s granddaughters was entombed (or at least had a tomb constructed) under the surface of the Giza plateau, which is somewhat riddled with catacombs, shafts, and tunnels.
Khafre’s son and successor was Menkaure, builder of the smallest of the large pyramids at Giza. It’s a pipsqueak compared with the others; Khafre’s appears as large as Khufu’s because it’s built on higher ground, but has something more than half the mass, and Menkaure’s was a fraction of that size. If memory serves, in modern times when accessed the Khafre burial chamber was found to hold the sarcophagus of a New Kingdom noble.
I wholeheartedly agree, there would be nothing much to find, and thousands of years for unfamiliar artifacts to be vandalized, melted down, reused in other ways, dumped somewhere else, incorporated into foundations, and of course, more or less permanently obscured by the last rise of the seas after the glaciers melted.
Stan: “Them! Don’ listen properly, do they? Don’ look properly either. Never notice nuffink, they don’”
Yeah ...he needs to be put out to pasture next time he’s up for reelection ......
My opinion !
Typical modern science: GIGO.
Yes, they do. But they’re been domesticated for a very long time.
Tests with wolves, even those reared with humans, demonstrate that understanding humans pointing is NOT inherent in wolves.
So the dog’s ability to understand human pointing has been a recent genetic development.
>> Elephants Understand Human Gestures
Or humans understand elephant gestures.
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