A new book titled “Baboon Metaphysics: concludes, based on extensive experiments, that baboons’ minds are specialized for social interaction, for understanding the structure of their complex society and for navigating their way within it.

Although the baboon and human lines of descent split apart some 30 million years ago, the species have much in common. Both are primates whose ancestors came down from the trees and learned to survive on the ground in large social groups. The baboon mind may therefore shed considerable light on the early stages of the evolution of the human mind.