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	Podcast:		Science (Audio)
	Episode:		CARTA: Bird Nests: Adaptive Variation on Innate Bauplans with Susan Healy
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:18:21
	Publish Date:		2024-10-29 21:00:00
	Description:		As distinct from the buildings of termites (interesting though these are), bird nests offer a more apropos point of comparison for human buildings – they are conducted by single vertebrate (or a few) and can be adapted to varied circumstances, with even a small effect of social learning. However, the basic Bauplan remains species-specific, unlike the creativity of the human architect. Since nonhuman primates lack interesting building skills, and so we suggest that bird nest construction may come to play a similar comparative role for architectural design. The static Bauplan of birds can be compared to the near-stasis of human tool use until the end of the Paleolithic, challenging us to assess the changes in human practice that unlocked an increasingly rapid process of cultural evolution. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 40159]
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