* Astronomy

Bonobo squeaks hint at earlier speech evolution

Wild bonobos use a single high-pitched call in a variety of contexts, showing a flexibility in their communication that was thought to be uniquely human. That is the conclusion of a study by UK and Swiss psychologists.
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Chimpanzees use botanical skills to discover fruit

Fruit-eating animals are known to use their spatial memory to relocate fruit, yet, it is unclear how they manage to find fruit in the first place. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have now investigated which strategies chimpanzees in the Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa, use in order to find fruit in the rain forest. The result: Chimpanzees know that trees of certain species produce fruit simultaneously and use this botanical knowledge during their daily search for fruit.
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First human ancestor looked like a squirrel

Newly discovered fossilised bones for the world's oldest and most primitive known primate, Purgatorius, reveal a tiny, agile animal that spent much of its time eating fruit and climbing trees, according to a study.
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 Baboons recognise words on a screen

Baboons can recognise four-letter words on a computer screen, according to scientists in France.
Researchers found the monkeys could tell the difference between actual words and nonsense letter combinations.
After being trained, the baboons were able to make this distinction, despite not being capable of reading.
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