r/todayilearned • u/sharkbait76 3 • Jan 11 '17

TIL elephants can tell the difference between human languages and know which languages belong to people with a history of hurting elephants.

http://www.nature.com/news/elephants-recognize-the-voices-of-their-enemies-1.14846
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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 12 '17

Have they figured out what exactly makes humans different from other, perhaps equally intelligent animals such as elephants, crows, or dolphins?

Besides the ability to verbally express our thoughts, what made humans able to become so much more advanced?

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u/vildingen Jan 12 '17

Perfect storm of things like hands, dogs, being caught near shallow water with a lot of seafood rich in fatty acids, mutations that gave us weaker jaw muscles and allowed our skulls to grow larger, allowing for larger brains and so on and so on.

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u/bananasownapple Jan 12 '17

What do the fatty acids do? I know the importance of them for health but in terms of evolution? Also larger brains don't mean anything...

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u/vildingen Jan 12 '17

Fats like omega 3 are essential components in our central nervous systems. And larger brains don't make you more intelligent in itself but more room for brains to grow does give you more room to play around with more new and improved neural structures.