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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–6Cite as

Fish, Amphibian, and Reptile Tool Use

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Synonyms

Aquatic; Cognition; Ectothermic animals; Tool use

Definition

A general definition of tool use describes the active manipulation of an external object to attain a goal.

Introduction

Fish, amphibians, and reptiles are frequently excluded from reviews of tool use (e.g., Bentley-Condit and Smith 2010) for a number of reasons including, first, the fact that there is a low expectation among cognitive scientists and comparative psychologists that these animals are clever enough to use tools and, second, that they are seldom observed with the same level of scrutiny afforded to primates and birds. Careful observations have, however, shown that there are examples of fish and reptiles using tools in the literature, though as yet there are no clearly documented examples for amphibians.

A Historical Perspective

Jane Goodall shocked the world when she first described tool use in primates in 1960 (Van Lawick-Goodall 1968). The idea that tools were solely the domain of Homo sapienswas...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecosystem Science and Management; Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, 410 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    B. Wren Patton

  2. Department of Ecosystem Science and Management; Center for Brain Behavior and Cognition, The Pennsylvania State University, 410 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Victoria A. Braithwaite

  3. Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870, 5817, Nordnes, Bergen, Norway

    Tore S. Kristiansen

  4. Place Gaby Coll, Ifremer, Place Gaby Coll, 17137, L’Houmeau, France

    Marie-Laure Bégout & Sandie Millot

Authors
  1. B. Wren Patton
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  2. Victoria A. Braithwaite
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  3. Tore S. Kristiansen
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  4. Marie-Laure Bégout
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  5. Sandie Millot
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to B. Wren Patton , Victoria A. Braithwaite , Tore S. Kristiansen , Marie-Laure Bégout or Sandie Millot .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Patton, B.W., Braithwaite, V.A., Kristiansen, T.S., Bégout, ML., Millot, S. (2016). Fish, Amphibian, and Reptile Tool Use. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3169-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3169-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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