BACKGROUND Using tools to act on non-food objects--for example, to make other tools--is considered to be a hallmark of human intelligence, and may have been a crucial step in our evolution. One form of this behaviour, 'sequential tool use', has been observed in a number of non-human primates and even in one bird, the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides). While sequential tool use has often...

In this paper, we discuss and critique existing hypotheses about the geology of Middle-earth in light of current geological theories of planetary formation, mountain building (orogeny) and plate tectonics. We dispute the prevailing tectonic explanation for the major geological features of Middle-earth and Arda on the basis of evidence as yet not fully considered about the formation of the plane...

Large-scale, comparative cognition studies are set to revolutionize the way we investigate and understand the evolution of intelligence. However, the conclusions reached by such work have a key limitation: the cognitive tests themselves. If factors other than cognition can systematically affect the performance of a subset of animals on these tests, we risk drawing the wrong conclusions about ho...

New Caledonian crows were presented with Bird and Emery's (2009a) Aesop's fable paradigm, which requires stones to be dropped into a water-filled tube to bring floating food within reach. The crows did not spontaneously use stones as tools, but quickly learned to do so, and to choose objects and materials with functional properties. Some crows discarded both inefficient and non-functional objec...

Introduction. The once popular idea that changes in planetary volume play an important role in terrestrial orogeny and tectonics [ I ,2] was generally discarded with the acceptance of plate tectonics. It is nonetheless likely that the Earth has been steadily cooling over the last 3-4 billion years [e.g., 3,4], and the global contraction that accompanied such cooling would have led to a secular ...

Sandalwoods encompass 19 species restricted to southeast Asia and the Pacific. The species Santalum austrocaledonicum Vieill. (Santalaceae) is endemic to New Caledonia (Grande-Terre, Isle of Pines, Loyalty Islands) and Vanuatu, where several varieties are recognized. The Loyalty Islands sandalwood variety is here reinstated as Santalum austrocaledonicum var. glabrum Hürl. emend. Butaud & P.Firm...