The Evolution of Thought Evolutionary Origins of Great Ape Intelligence

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.

Great apes are the most intelligent primates next to humans, but exactly how this intelligence arose has been debated for many years. Here, paleontologists, biologists, anthropologists and psychologists are brought together to review the reasons for, and the nature of, great ape intelligence and its implications for human intelligence.

Anne E. Russon is a Professor of Psychology at Glendon College of York University in Toronto, Canada.
David Begun is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.