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b_b  ·  4446 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Are western chimpanzees a new species of Pan?

Perhaps, but the most interesting aspect is that clearly these structures were around before complex tasks and tool making were around, if we assume that reptiles, who don't display these behaviors, haven't taken a step backwards, which is possible, of course. However, the same structures are employed by birds and mammals to complete higher order processing. That's fucking convergence. And its mind-blowing, really. Pre-WWI, the German General Staff Academy used to preach that it was up to the individual officer to come up with creative solutions to battlefield problems, arguing that the German officer was so well trained that they would all come up with the same solution anyway, the optimal one. Evolution seems to work better than the German army, and that says a lot, because they were pretty damn good.