In context of symbols, this may be of interest. http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_antonsen_math_is_the_hidden_secret_to_understanding_the_world?
They tell us something about their species and what may have caused their common or unique bio-chemistry. As Antonson said "equations are symbolic representations of equal value, but viewed from different perspectives. Which brings deeper knowledge and understanding of how the world and life in particular functions, from which we can describe something in the abstract
That's a bit inaccurate. Animals don't "tell us" about their observations, we tell ourselves about what they can observe, given what we know about their sensory experience. Animals don't write down equations or study biochemistry. We are the only animal that does those kinds of things that we know about.
You're equivocating - bifurcating bunnies. It is a commonly-accepted phrase to say that animals, - even things - tell us stuff. Heck, the geomorphology (such as shatter cones) around the Sudbury Basin tells us quite a bit about an impactor event 2 billion years ago.
Except I was not equivocating. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Animals really do tell us a lot when we observe them.
You need to expand your perspectives in order to understand. Animals and even flowers talk to each other, in many different languages. Our problem is to understand what they are saying. Please do take the time to watch the link offered in post #21, then you'll understand what I am telling you and why you understand my symbolic communication in this post. But if I told you the same thing in Chinese language, could you understand a single word of it? After all, I am telling the same story, human to human. Interestingly, Koko, the gorilla has a symbolic language of some 2000 words and gestures. She can't talk, because she has no vocal chords like us, yet she has shown extra-ordinary ability for communicating abstract thought and emotions, such as expressing grief when she lost "All ball", her beloved Manx kitten which had no tail and therefore looked like a little round b all. Moreover, if your DNA can "tell" you about your ancestry , so can animal DNA tell us about their ancestry. The stories are already there, we just need to listen or look for common or uncommon patterns which can tell us (exhibit, give) the information which can then be formalized into human symbolic scientific language. How do we know what sets humans apart from other great apes? Easy, humans have 23 chromosomes, whereas all other apes have 24. The interesting part is that human chromosome 2 is a fusion of two chromosomes in our common ancestor, into a single chromosome in humans. From which we can deduce that even as our chromosome count is different, we can clearly see that the missing chromosomes still exists in humans, but only as part of the fused chromosome. The story that tells us how" http://www.evolutionpages.com/chromosome_2.htm
