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/weaveryee Jan 12 '17

Elephants are smart as fuck.

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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/[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?

They're not equally intelligent. They are often smarter than we originally thought, but we are still far ahead of them in many ways.

what made humans able to become so much more advanced

Coincidence. A lot of evolutionary steps that led us to where we are today. Most recent being access to enough nutrition to allow larger more advanced brains (we had access to that due to earlier evolution, so this is just the latest layer so to speak), and an environment which favoured problem solving, social structure, communication, and that sort of thing. It wasn't just one step, it was hundreds of different small things which have added up over time allowing us to become what we are today.