Titled The Information Continuum, King's study is based in part on more than 1,000 hours of data gathered during a 14- month field study of baboons in Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

The anthropologist originally began her research to observe baboons' foraging habits. However, she soon became intrigued by the way the infants seemed to extract information from their mothers and other female relatives about how and what to eat.

Closely observing two groups of 110 baboons which included 19 infants, King noticed the primates attentively observed what plants their mothers ate and also how they ate them. Often, the infants simultaneously ate the same food their mothers consumed.

King recalled one rare, but dramatic instance, when an infant didn't follow an adult's lead and chose to eat a piece a bark, a substance that no baboon had ever consumed in King's presence. After eating it, the baboon soon became sick and vomited. Its mother, meanwhile, did nothing to help the child.

"This example is just one of many that convinced me how important it is for infant primates to be competent information gatherers rather than relying on their experimentation, which can be dangerous," said King.

Following up on her field research, King perused other studies of interactions between adult and infant primates while looking for and eating food, and noticed strikingly similar patterns of behavior. "In different ways and in different species, all infant primates are apparently obtaining and using information [during foraging]," said King.

King concedes her finding is applicable to an understanding of only one element of primate behavior. She said that much more research must be done to prove primates and humans share not only this ability to gather information, but also the ability to donate information.

The baboons that King studied did not donate information while foraging. But other evidence suggests that in some monkey and ape populations, the adults do guide their infants in food choices and other decisions.

Despite the need for clarifying this issue, King's study suggests baboons have the ability for complex information transfer. This finding, King argues, could revolutionize evolutionary models tying other primates and humans together.

"We are very arrogant as a species in thinking our ability to communicate through language makes us unique and special in the animal kingdom," said King. "Monkeys, apes and humans all use different forms of complex information transfer."

King speculates that generations of natural selection and disparate environmental conditions have shaped the differences between how primates and humans transfer information.

The harsh environmental conditions that primates typically face ultimately require that the infants learn foraging skills from adults, King added.

From an evolutionary perspective, King theorizes the "guiding, teaching" human adult is a relatively new role in the animal kingdom.

Stressing her book constitutes only "one piece of the [evolutionary] puzzle," King believes an interdisciplinary approach will likely produce a better understanding of the link between how humans and primates transfer information. Next year, King is organizing a five-day conference of 10 anthropologists, linguists and psychologists to consider this issue.

Whatever the outcome of the gathering, King hopes her interpretation has brought humanity one step closer to understanding its roots.

"There is a willingness of many people to deny our close behavioral, cognitive and language links with other primates," said King. "But we're not different in kind, only degree, from monkeys and apes. They are part of our evolutionary history."

by Poul E. Olson

Information provided by: http://warthog.cc.wm.edu