Baboon Walking Upright

I apologise for the amateurish animation, but you get the idea. Recently I re-read Richard Leakey's book 'The Origin of Humankind' which is a fantastic read for anyone who wants to learn about our ancestors, from a man who found plenty of important early human fossils.

Let's assume that the common ancestor of humans and African apes possessed a level of self awareness equivalent to modern chimpanzees. From what we've learned about the biology and social organisation of the australopithecine species, they were essentially bipedal apes: the social structure among these species would have been no more intense than we see in modern baboons. There is therefore no cogent reason why their level of self awareness would have been enhanced during the first 5 million years of the human family's existence (p.196).

Isn't it interesting that our direct ancestors were really nothing more than baboons that walked upright? You see this all relates back to the question of how animals think and despite protestations to the contrary, I honestly don't think cats, dogs or baboons experience the world in anything like the same way we do.

This one's dedicated to our ancestors, the upright apes. Without whom, we wouldn't be sat here today.