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insects out of hives and nests, and, branches to get fruit from trees, etc. They tend to stay in the tops of trees, the safest place for them as they don't run fast enough while on all fours on the ground.

The chimps in Senegal, called the Fongoli Chimps, after the area they're found, are different. In Senegal, which is in the northern part of Africa, there aren't a lot of dense forests, not many trees, sparser landscapes, and not that many fruit trees. Yet, these chimps flourish. They've learned to take sticks, sharpen them and use them as weapons to kill bush babies, small nocturnal rodents that the chimps find in tree hollows during the day. Meat, protein that's very different from insects.

Also, because there aren't many trees, these chimps spend most of their time on the ground, walking around on two legs instead of galloping around on all fours like their cousins to the south. They are bipedal.

They have even been seen communicating in a very different for of way. They beat "drums"... tapping out signals to each other over long distances where their cousins tend to vocalize more.

They are passing the genetic code to their offspring necessary for them to survive in this new environment. These chimps are evolving, changing, adapting to an environment that is harsh and that would be toxic to them otherwise.

Right before our eyes, in this world that we know and understand, the theory of evolution is being played out. Scientists plan to watch the continued adaptation of these animals, making note of any changes in their environment and how they adapt with those changes either by doing things differently or moving away from the region.

I look forward to what might happen with them. I wonder how quickly they will evolve. I wonder how long it has taken them to get to this point in their evolution. I almost feel like Darwin as he considered his finches, and how each different sub species adapted to the world they lived in. Not much different from the chimps of Fongoli...or us even, depending on where we are and how we live.

The theory of evolution, the statement that said living organisms change and adapt to fit their environments, is so fundamental to all things. If one takes a moment to consider how all of this came to be, one is awestruck...my closet creationists sure are.

Learn more about this author, C.S. Stone.
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