Tools and food on heat lamps: pyrocognitive sparks in New Caledonian crows?
(2021) In Behaviour 159-602. p.591-602- Abstract
Fire has substantially altered the course of human evolution. Cooking kindled brain expansion through improved energy and time budgets. However, little is known about the origins of fire use and its cognitive underpinnings (pyrocognition). Debates on how hominins innovated cooking focus on archaeological findings, but should also be informed by the response of animals towards heat sources. Here, we report six observations on two captive New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) contacting heat lamps with tools or placing raw food on them. The tools became singed or melted and the food had browned (and was removed). These results suggest that New Caledonian crows can use tools to... (More)
Fire has substantially altered the course of human evolution. Cooking kindled brain expansion through improved energy and time budgets. However, little is known about the origins of fire use and its cognitive underpinnings (pyrocognition). Debates on how hominins innovated cooking focus on archaeological findings, but should also be informed by the response of animals towards heat sources. Here, we report six observations on two captive New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) contacting heat lamps with tools or placing raw food on them. The tools became singed or melted and the food had browned (and was removed). These results suggest that New Caledonian crows can use tools to investigate hot objects,which extends earlier findings that they use tools to examine potential hazards (pericular tool use), and place food on a heat source as play or exploration.Further research on animals will provide novel insights into the pyrocognitive origins of early humans.
(Less)
- author
- Jacobs, Ivo LU ; von Bayern, Auguste and Osvath, Mathias LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Tool use, Fire, Cooking, Pyrocognition, Cognitive evolution
- in
- Behaviour
- volume
- 159-602
- pages
- 12 pages
- publisher
- Brill
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85130349431
- ISSN
- 1568-539X
- DOI
- 10.1163/1568539X-bja10138
- project
- Pyrocognition: the evolution of understanding fire and cooking
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 83209276-a205-44ab-8661-38a187926cb3
- date added to LUP
- 2021-11-24 12:35:25
- date last changed
- 2022-07-08 15:22:47
@article{83209276-a205-44ab-8661-38a187926cb3, abstract = {{<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%">Fire has substantially altered the course of human evolution. Cooking kindled brain expansion through improved energy and time budgets. However, little is known about the origins of fire use and its cognitive underpinnings (pyrocognition). Debates on how hominins innovated cooking focus on archaeological findings, but should also be informed by the response of animals towards heat sources. Here, we report six observations on two captive New Caledonian crows (<i>Corvus moneduloides</i>) contacting heat lamps with tools or placing raw food on them. The tools became singed or melted and the food had browned (and was removed). These results suggest that New Caledonian crows can use tools to investigate hot objects,which extends earlier findings that they use tools to examine potential hazards (pericular tool use), and place food on a heat source as play or exploration.Further research on animals will provide novel insights into the pyrocognitive origins of early humans.</p>}}, author = {{Jacobs, Ivo and von Bayern, Auguste and Osvath, Mathias}}, issn = {{1568-539X}}, keywords = {{Tool use; Fire; Cooking; Pyrocognition; Cognitive evolution}}, language = {{eng}}, pages = {{591--602}}, publisher = {{Brill}}, series = {{Behaviour}}, title = {{Tools and food on heat lamps: pyrocognitive sparks in New Caledonian crows?}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-bja10138}}, doi = {{10.1163/1568539X-bja10138}}, volume = {{159-602}}, year = {{2021}}, }