The Evolution of Thought
Evolutionary Origins of Great Ape Intelligence

Reviews the reasons for and the nature of great ape intelligence and its implications for human intelligence.

Anne E. Russon (Edited by), David R. Begun (Edited by)

9780521039925, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 July 2007

396 pages, 36 b/w illus. 48 tables
22.6 x 18.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.705 kg

'it may be impossible to travel back in time in order to reconstruct exactly the sequence of events that shaped the cognitive architecture of our nearest living and extinct relatives, but books like this one do a good job of allowing us to imagine the most likely scenarios, and of exposing gaps in knowledge that have to be filled for the complete picture to emerge.' Primates

Research on the evolution of higher intelligence rarely combines data from fields as diverse as paleontology and psychology. In this volume we seek to do just that, synthesizing the approaches of hominoid cognition, psychology, language studies, ecology, evolution, paleoecology and systematics toward an understanding of great ape intelligence. Leading scholars from all these fields have been asked to evaluate the manner in which each of their topics of research inform our understanding of the evolution of intelligence in great apes and humans. The ideas thus assembled represent a comprehensive survey of the various causes and consequences of cognitive evolution in great apes. The Evolution of Thought will therefore be an essential reference for graduate students and researchers in evolutionary psychology, paleoanthropology and primatology.

List of contributors
Preface
1. Evolutionary reconstructions of great ape intelligence Anne E. Russon
2. Enhanced cognitive capacity as a contingent fact of hominid phylogeny David R. Begun
Part I. Cognition in Living Great Apes: Introduction Anne E. Russon: 3. The manual skills and cognition that lie behind hominid tool use Richard W. Byrne
4. The cognitive complexity of social organisation and socialisation in wild baboons and chimpanzees: guided participation, socialising interactions and event representation Sue Taylor Parker
5. Gestural communication in the great apes Joanna Blake
6. Great ape cognitive systems Anne E. Russon
Part II. Modern Great Ape Adaptation: Introduction Anne E. Russon: 7. What's in a brain? The question of a distinctive brain anatomy in great apes Carol E. MacLeod
8. Life histories and the evolution of large brain size in great apes Caroline Ross
9. Evolution of complex feeding techniques in primates: is this the origin of great ape intelligence? Gen Yamakoshi
10. The special demands of great ape locomotion and posture Kevin D. Hunt
11. Great ape social systems Carel P. van Schaik, Signe Preuschoft and David P. Watts
12. Diet and foraging of the great apes: ecological constraints on their social organisations and implications for their divergence Juichi Yamagiwa
Part III. Fossil Great Ape Adaptations: Introduction David R. Begun: 13. Paleoenvironments and the evolution of adaptability in great apes Richard Potts
14. Cranial evidence and the evolution of intelligence in fossil apes David R. Begun and László Kordos
15. Life history and cognitive evolution in the apes Jay Kelley
16. Fossil hominoid diets, extractive foraging and the origins of great ape intelligence Michelle Singleton
17. Paleontology, terrestriality and the intelligence of great apes Daniel L. Gebo
18. Body size and intelligence in hominoid evolution Carol V. Ward, Mark Flinn and David R. Begun
Part IV. Integration: 19. Evolutionary origins of great ape intelligence: an integrated view Anne E. Russon and David R. Begun
Author index
Species index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Primates [PSVW79], Animal behaviour [PSVP], Physical anthropology [JHMP]