Friday 15 January 2016

Cave-Living Baboons and Lemurs Inspire Tall Evolutionary Tales


Some lemurs sleep in caves. Image courtesy of Alex Dunkel, Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0).




Joel Kontinen

Evolutionists tend to get exited when they see – or hear about – animals doing things that only humans usually do. The latest story features chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) and ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) that at least occasionally live in caves.

Bats, and some blind animals, such as crabs, arachnids and salamanders, live in caves, so this should not be such a big deal.

But perhaps it’s size that matters? When big mammals like baboons and lemurs take a nap in a cave, there seems to be no end to the excitement.

"Just like us?" New Scientist asks and begins to speculate on the origin of a South African cave where a massive amount of old bones were found.

Strange things do happen. Sometimes it's a cat that adopts ducklings instead of eating them, but that not evolution, either.

Source:

Sokol, Josh. 2016. These baboons and lemurs have left the trees to live in caves. New Scientist (14 January).