Des Moines, Iowa March 1, 2010 You may have more in common with
Kanzi, Panbanisha and Nyota, three language-competent bonobos
living at Great Ape Trust, than you thought. And those
similarities, right at your fingertip, might one day tell
scientists more about the effect of culture on neurological
disorders that limit human expression. Among humans, pointing is
a universal language, an alternative to spoken words to convey a
message. Before they speak, infants point, a gesture scientists
agree is closely associated with word learning. But when an ape
points, scientists break rank on the question of whether
pointing is a uniquely human behavior. Some of the world's
leading voices in modern primatology have argued that although
apes may gesture in a way that resembles human pointing, the
genetic and cognitive differences between apes and humans are so
great that the apes' signals have no specific intent. Not so,
say Great Ape Trust scientists, who argued in a recently
published scientific paper, "Why Apes Point