Arboreal theory Arboreal theory This theory is proposed by Grafton Elliott-Smith (1912) who was a neuroanatomist who was chiefly concerned with the emergence of the primate brain. The arboreal theory claims that primates evolved from their ancestors by adapting to arboreal life. Primates are thought to have developed several of their traits and habits initially while living in trees. One key component to this argument is that primates relied on sight over smell. They were able to develop a keen sense of depth perception, perhaps because of the constant leaping that was necessary to move about the trees. Primates also developed hands
Animals in Buddhism not expressly commanded in the Pāli canon, it is evidently viewed as an ideal state from which human beings have fallen; the Aggañña Sutta (DN.27) explains how human beings, originally sustained on various kinds of vegetable matter (compare Gen.1:29-30), as the result of increasing wickedness began to live by hunting, which was originally thought of as a demeaning occupation. In East Asian Buddhism and particularly in Tibet and China, the release of animals, particularly birds or fish, into their natural environment became an important way of demonstrating Buddhist pity. In Tibetan Buddhism it is known as "Tsethar"; whilst in China