Category: Animal minds
Some life forms can be scared to death
| October 28, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, News |
Even if they are not at risk. more
Animal minds: Do wolves need to be smart? – a computer model
| October 27, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, News |
The modellers seem to overlook the fact that intelligence is mostly required for the pack’s day-to-day life together. more
Almost infinite bacterial conversations affect climate change?
| October 17, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design, News |
“I think it’s amazing that there are a near-infinite number of these conversations going on in the ocean right now, and they are affecting Earth’s carbon cycle.” more
Nazca boobies studied to help explain child abuse
| October 12, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Darwinism, News |
Because the attacks by unrelated adults are similar to the sibling attacks, there may be a “maladaptive side effect” of something that makes evolutionary sense … more
Humans lost sixth sense? Some animals kept it?
| October 11, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, News |
People experience the world through five senses but sharks, paddlefishes and certain other aquatic vertebrates have a sixth sense. more
The amoeba is one cell of a guy – especially when a bunch of them get together
| October 5, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design, News |
(It could get testy if they needed a Parliament … ) more
From the Animals ‘r just like us desk: Fish uses tools?
| September 29, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design, News |
Smashing something against a rock is enterprising, but does not constitute using a tool. more
Lizard brain debunked: Some lizards are as smart as some birds, but we have a hard time finding out because …
| September 26, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design, News |
What if it turns out that some lizards are curious and prefer solving problems for a reward to sitting motionless in a terrarium until someone tosses a cricket in? more
Fish behavior study suggests that aquarium fish are more aggressive than wild ones
| September 24, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, News |
… than what you might expect to find in nature. From “Aquarium Fishes Are More Aggressive in Reduced Environments, New Study Finds” ( ScienceDaily (Sep. 22, 2011)”, we learn something that won’t surprise many: Oldfield quantified aggressive behavior as a series of displays and attacks separated by at least a second. Displays are body signals… more
Darwinian ethics
| September 16, 2011 | Posted by David Anderson under Animal minds, Darwinism, Evolutionary psychology, Eyes Rolling, Selfish gene |
In this article in the Daily Telegraph (UK), we see some typical philosophical and cultural applications of Darwinism: People are unfaithful to their marriages Therefore, it is natural Therefore, it is right i.e. What is, is what is right. Since we are no more than nature, all that we do is thus natural – and… more
Study of ants shows some much better informed than others, questions self-organization
| August 29, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, News, Self-Org. Theory |
It also leads to a promising question: How do some ants get to be more informed than others, and why do the others listen to them? more
Study: Penguin parents’ amazing feeding balance
| August 29, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design, News |
The interesting thing is that they come back at all, given that they were starving. Starving animal parents often just abandon their brood, or eat them. more
Do birds care about the personality of their mates?
| August 25, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design |
The trouble is, the researchers had restrained half of the test males in glass boxes, to make them look less adventurous. The hen birds could easily have been reacting to some sense that those males were caged. more
Another “altruistic chimps” story that doesn’t demonstrate what is claimed
| August 21, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Evolution, News |
As a social species, chimpanzees do not readily break up a harmonious group. The chimp partners who spat water were thereby revealing that they were not harmonious group members. No chimpanzee was giving her own reward to another. more
Lampreys fear death? Well, not exactly
| August 7, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds |
Actually, this story makes way more sense than “weasel foresight”: more
Weasel relative can plan for future?
| August 7, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design |
In relentless pursuit of evidence that animals think like people, Science publishes “Do Tayras Plan for the Future?” by Helen Fields (5 August 2011): Humans buy unripe bananas, then leave them on the kitchen counter. The tayra, a relative of the weasel native to Central and South America, appears to do much the same thing,… more
Hyped saga of clever chimp magically transforms the chimp into rational being
| August 5, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds |
Hyped saga of clever chimp magically transforms the chimp into rational being more
Animal minds: Insects have feelings?
| August 3, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Intelligent Design |
There is no way of determining what it feels like to be an insect, as was demonstrated by Thomas Nagel in “What is it like to be a bat?” The weasel word is “like “. more
The selfish gene: Darwinism is so self-referential now that it sheds light only on itself.
| July 29, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds, Darwinism |
Darwinism is so self-referential now that it sheds light only on itself. more
Parrots learn their calls from their parents; not born with them
| July 26, 2011 | Posted by News under Animal minds |
In “Why Do Parrots Talk? Venezuelan Site Offers Clues” (Science, 22 July 2011) Virginia Morell explains Researchers have discovered details of the parrotlets’ ecology and life histories, and the project has now entered a new phase focusing on their communicative skills. Last week, researchers reported that the contact calls of wild parrotlet nestlings—vocalizations that function… more
