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Orangutan In Argentina Zoo Recognised By Court As 'Non-Human Person' Sandra, 29, can be freed in Buenos Aires and transferred to a sanctuary Animal rights campaigners win after filing habeas corpus petition Tommy the chimp is not a person, New York court decides Sandra the orangutan 21 December 2014 An orangutan held in an Argentinian zoo can be freed and transferred to a sanctuary after a court recognised the ape as a “non-human person” unlawfully deprived of its freedom, local media reported on Sunday. Animal rights campaigners filed a habeas corpus petition – a document more typically used to challenge...

All great mind reading begins with chocolate. That’s the basis for a classic experiment that tests whether children have something called theory of mind—the ability to attribute desires, intentions, and knowledge to others. When they see someone hide a chocolate bar in a box, then leave the room while a second person sneaks in and hides it elsewhere, they have to guess where the first person will look for the bar. If they guess “in the original box,” they pass the test, and show they understand what’s going on in the first person’s mind—even when it doesn’t match reality. For...

Dr Moya-Sola with colleagues discovered the fossil specimen of Pierolapithecus in Spain in 2002. They estimated that the hominid lived about 11.9 million years ago, arguing that it could be the last common ancestor of modern great apes: chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, gorillas and humans... the shape of the specimen’s pelvis indicates that Pierolapithecus lived near the beginning of the great ape evolution, after the lesser apes had started to develop separately but before the great ape species began to diversify... “The ilium – the largest bone in the pelvis – of the Pierolapithecus is wider than that of Proconsul nyanzae,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An ape that lived 13 million years ago in what is now Spain may have been the last common ancestor of all apes, including chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans, researchers said on Thursday. The fossil provides a missing link, not directly between humans and an apelike ancestor, but between great apes and lesser apes such as gibbons, the researchers said. The creature, named Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, had a stiff lower spine and flexible wrists that would have made it a tree-climbing specialist, the researchers write in this week's issue of the journal Science. "This probably is very close...

ATLANTA -- A 13-million-year-old fossil found in Spain may be that of the last common ancestor to all living great apes, including humans, researchers reported yesterday. The great apes, including orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas, are thought to have diverged from lesser apes, which include gibbons, between 11 million and 16 million years ago. But until now, there hasn't been much fossil evidence of any sort of ancestral great-great-grand-ape. Spanish paleontologists say the discovery of an exceptionally well-preserved fossil near Barcelona is the most ancient ape to exhibit the upright posture, short face and other traits of living great apes, including...