ABSTRACT
This chapter uses the nonverbal side of DCT to interpret the evolution of the minds of nonverbal animals. Animal minds had eons of time to evolve before there was any glimmering of language. Over millions of years, evolutionary pressures favored developments in all of the component systems that collectively define cognition, permitting flexible adaptation to increasingly varied and complex environments, including social environments. The emerging skills necessarily included nonverbal communication systems and we touch on those here, postponing more detailed discussion to the subsequent chapters on language origins and evolution.
