Comparisons of human and non human organisms

Animal communication

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WOW! Bees?

Did they communicate with sound, gestures, ...

Do they have to be conscious to do this?

Gestures and sign language

A field study in 2018 found chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans used 33 different gestures to communicate with many of these animals using the same gesture in the same manner. What they communicate is orders: Give me that. Come closer. Groom my fur. Stop that…

Humans use many more gestures and sign language that goes beyond orders to include social contexts, emotions, and attitudes. Thumbs up, fist bump, okay signal, and hands to for a heart. Source

Vocal communicaton

Humans and other primates make vocal noises using the larynx. However, non-human primates also have a set of muscles called vocal membranes, above the vocal cords, which make it harder for them to control the sounds they make. Humans do not have these membranes and are able to more precisely control the sounds they make.

To consider other animals, beside humans, that are able to communicate with speech, you need to define speech. One definition is.

Speech is the ability to cognitively control the vocal apparatus, vocal folds (larynx or similar part), articulators (vocal organs above the larynx, including the tongue, lips, teeth, and hard palate), and respiratory system; for socially learned signals.

• Smithsonian magazine - evolutionary traits that may have led to human speech.
• Science - Evolutionary loss of complexity in human vocal anatomy as an adaptation for speech. Takeshi Nishimura et al. August 12, 2022. see image 1, image 2.

Human vocal language

While animal species can combine their calls, in simple combinations that simply add meanings together. Human language is much more complicated. In our speach we can combine words that communicate more than the sum of their parts. For instance, tall cook is a simple combination when it means someone who is tall and a cook. But good cook is not someone who is a good person and a cook. They are good at cooking and goodness is not implied in other areas. This kind of combination of words generates an enourmous possibility of new meanings.

So far only humans have this complex nature of communication. Melissa Berthet discovered Bonobo groups can combine sounds for new meanings, but not as complex as human speech. Source. Science April 4, 2025.

Human language is a sequential behavior composed of logical and consistent parts, such as words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, where elements within these parts exhibit statistical predictability. Over time, this language is repeatedly learned and used by multiple generations.

Whale songs are learned and appear to exhibit sequential structure. This structure is crucial for cultural transmission within whale populations.

Statistical coherent subsequences are present in whale songs, and their distribution follows patterns reminiscent of language. Notably, whale songs adhere to Zipf’s law of brevity, which reflects the sequential structure of their songs. Furthermore, the subsequences of whale songs also follow Zipf’s law of brevity.

Additionally, whale songs exhibit Zipfian distribution, which further underscores the sequential nature of their songs.

Furthermore, whale songs adhere to Menzerath’s law, which states that the longer a unit, such as a word, the shorter its constituent elements, such as phonemes. This law has been observed in various animals, including whales, primates, and birds.

Based on the available information, humpback whale songs and bird songs exhibit patterns that align with these laws and principles, yet they lack the semantic meanings conveyed by human languages.

Considering these similarities, it may be more appropriate to compare whale songs to human music. These significant parallels underscore the potential for convergence in communication systems among distantly related species, particularly those that are complex, culturally learned, and effective.

Animal self awareness or consciousness

Elephants

• Seem to have self awareness, consciousness, if, then thinking to explore, and the ability to think about what other elephants are thinking and cooperation ... Source: Elephant in the Mirror | Mind of a Giant (2:10)
  • Elephants were brought to a giant mirror where they viewed the image and explored it until they seemed convinced it was their own image in real time, not a picture, or video, of them self or another elephant. Then they explored areas of their body they could not see with out the mirror, nose, mouth, ...
  • Two elephants were shown an apparatus where they worked together to solve a problem. Cooperation for problem solving.
  • Elephant human relationship. Elephant rushes into stream to help man (0:53) ...
  • Elephants will comfort a herdmate in distress by touching them with their trunk.

Dolphins

• Self-Consciousness See Source: Dolphins in the mirror (1:41)
• Dolphins cooperate to create a circle of mud that act as a wall or net around a shole of fish. When the circle is closed, the fish attempt to escape by jumping over the mud, where the dolphin catch them. Source (1:38) Circles were observed from space satellites off the coast of southern Florida. Source What on Earth? documentary
• Dolphins off the coast of Laguna, Brazil cooperate with fishermen by herding mullets (fish) towards the shoreline, then signal the fishermen the best time for the fishermen to cast their nets. Source YouTube (3:41)

Primates

• Bonobos know when another could benefit from information they do not know. Source Smithsonian Magazine.
• Chimpanzees will sometimes care for anothers wound. They will wipe a leaf on it lick it, and touch it. They have also been observed carring a wounded.

Ants

• Ants have been observed treating nest mates with antibiotic fluid they secrete from a gland. They have also been observed amputating another ant's injured leg if the injury isn't severe enough to have a high chance of recovery. However, ant society is more like a super organism, where each ant functions like a cell, where we have cells that cure other cells, but would we say they are conscious or have empathy?
• Will carry an injured nestmate back to the nest.
• Will rescue a buried nestmake.

Rats

• Rats can recognize another rat in distress.
• Rats were taught to open a flooded cage and did so to save a cagemate when they recognized they ere in distress. Even when given a choice between saving them or getting a treat.

Dogs

• Show empathy. They will respond to crying with behaviors to comfort humans by nuzzling and licking.
• Dogs will adjust to different emotional cues of people in their lives.

Animal intelligence

 

Octopus intelligence

• The common octopus (Octopus vulgarius) has 500 million neurons, 5 times what hamsters have, large brains and can manipulate objects with their arms. The have been observed to steal fish from fisherman's nets, open bottles, solve puzzles, interact with humans, interact with mirrors, and appear to have consciousness. What the Octopus Knows by Olivia Judson January/February 2017, The Atlantic.

Animals that teach their young

• Meerkats take an active role in teaching their pups how to eat centipedes. Source
• Teacher ant teaches a student ant how to find food. Source - National Geographic: Why animal teachers are so rare—and remarkable sub story - Showing a friend the way in Meerkat

Human and animal math

• Basic numerical ability is being increasingly identified in nonhuman animals. Birds and bees hae show to be able to count or disciminate between different numbers of objects (synchrony) and greater than or less than. Crows have been foiund to count out loud from one to four using different calls for the different numbers. Source Science Crows Count the number of self-generated vocalizations May 24, 2024. p 874-876
• Alex, a highly intelligent African gray parrot. Knew his numbers: He could correctly order numbered magnets, say the numbers one to eight, and do simple math. According to researcher Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at Boston University.

Anatomy - Muscles & movement, skin,

Human Chimpanzee musculature comparison

Human Ape musculature comparison

Human Chimpanzee skin hair comparison

Primate family evolution comparison

Neanderthals may have used their hands differently from humans If you were to greet a Neanderthal with a handshake, it might feel a little awkward. Homo neanderthalensis had chunkier fingers compared to human digits — and used their hands differently from us, a new study suggests. However, they were able enough to make tools, clothes, cave pinting, sculpture, and other artifacts. Read more ...

Humans change in the same ways as other animals living in the same environements. Variation in hunter-gather behavioral actions converge with the same 15 characteristics common in birds and mammals in the same local regions. Traits such as: diet, movement, social group sizes, and parental interactions. However, social learning, linguistic distance between groups, and cooperation were more imporatant to determine human behavioral variations. Source: Science January 15, 2021. p 292, & 235.