It is generally accepted that humans are animals, but what really sets us apart from other animals? In the past several centuries, many people thought that humans were the only ones to display a variety of traits such as using tools, laughter, fire, reasoning, and more, but that has all been proven false.

A variety of animals have been shown to use all of these things, and many more. Naturally, humans tend to be better at them and are able to use these traits in some incredible ways.

Dr. Thomas Morgan of Arizona State University, Tempe, and Professor Marcus Feldman of Stanford have recently published a paper in Nature Human Behavior that shows how animals (and even some types of plants and fungus) exhibit many of the same types of traits that humans do.

One thing that they do argue is unique to humans, however, is our ability to dominate the ecological environments in which we live. This is shown by the way that humans can move into almost any environment and not only thrive but also change the area to meet our needs.

It is this type of flexibility that really sets humans apart from anything else in the animal kingdom. In a statement about the paper, Dr. Morgan says:

“Ten years ago it was basically accepted that it was the ability of human culture to accumulate and evolve that made us special, but new discoveries about animal behavior are challenging these ideas and forcing us to rethink what makes our cultures, and us as a species, unique.”

No matter what type of situation humans face, it seems that we are able to adapt and overcome any issues. Beyond that, we are able to change the situation to benefit ourselves, even in the face of adversity.

So, while our intelligence is absolutely an essential trait that sets us apart from animals, it may be our drive to dominate our areas that really make us unique.

Humans have changed the environment to meet our needs.

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