"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article , Cliff
wrote:

....
some octopuses appear to also use tools.
[...]
“To date, invertebrates have generally been regarded as lacking the
cognitive
abilities to engage in such sophisticated behaviors,” wrote Museum
Victoria
biologists who described the octopuses in a paper published Monday in
Current
Biology. “The discovery of this octopus tiptoeing across the sea ?oor with
its
prized coconut shells suggests that even marine invertebrates engage in
behaviors that we once thought the preserve of humans.”
]

Tool use hasn't been "thought the preserve of humans" for a _long_ time,
except by the massively ignorant. Observations of seagulls dropping
mollusks
onto rocks from a considerable height (to break open the shells) are at
least
several centuries old. Even tool-*making* isn't exclusive to humans;
chimps do
it too.



i think the news in this news story is *"invertebrates"*. did you see the
video on tv. it's humorous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DoWdHOtlrk


b.w.