Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives and are constantly challenging our notion of what makes humans unique; the cognitive divide between Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes is becoming less and less distinct. Chimpanzees have self-awareness, can beat college students at memory tasks, and react to the deaths of their companions in ways that we would find uncannily familiar. 

Complex tool use may be the best example of chimpanzees’ advanced cognitive abilities; a review in last week’s issue of Science summarizes some of the most interesting instances of tool use among chimpanzees.

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