Tag Archives: apes

Kissing Likely Evolved in Our Common Ancestor with Great Apes 21 Million Years Ago

Posted on by
Reply

Kissing is common among most living great apes and likely was practiced by Neanderthals, having evolved in the ancestors of these groups between 21.5 million and 16.9 million years ago, according to a study led by researchers from Oxford University.

Neanderthal. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Kissing can be observed in various animal species, yet it poses an evolutionary enigma. While it carries significant risks, such as disease transmission, it lacks clear reproductive or survival advantages.

Until now, the evolutionary background of kissing has received limited attention, despite its cultural and emotional importance across numerous human societies.

In this recent study, Dr. Matilda Brindle and her team from the University of Oxford undertook the first investigation into the evolutionary history of kissing, utilizing a cross-species perspective based on primate family trees.

The findings indicated that kissing is an ancient characteristic of great apes, having developed in their ancestors between 21.5 and 16.9 million years ago.

This behavior has persisted through evolution and is still evident in most great apes.

The researchers also concluded that Neanderthals, distant relatives of modern humans, likely engaged in kissing as well.

This evidence, alongside earlier studies showing that humans and Neanderthals exchanged oral microbes (through saliva) and genetic material (via interbreeding), strongly implies that kissing occurred between the two species.

Dr. Brindle stated: “This marks the first exploration of kissing from an evolutionary standpoint.”

“Our results contribute to an expanding body of research that illuminates the incredible variety of sexual behaviors found among our primate relatives.”

To carry out the analysis, scientists needed to define what constitutes a kiss.

This task was challenging due to the numerous mouth-to-mouth interactions resembling kisses.

Given their investigation spanned a diversity of species, the definition had to be suitable for a wide range of animals.

Consequently, they defined kissing as non-aggressive mouth-to-mouth contact that does not involve food transfer.

After establishing this definition, the researchers concentrated on groups of monkeys and apes that evolved in Africa, Europe, and Asia, gathering data from the literature where kissing has been documented in modern primates.

Among these are chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans, all of which have displayed kissing behavior.

Following that, they conducted a phylogenetic analysis, treating kissing as a “trait” to map onto the primate family tree.

Using a statistical method known as Bayesian modeling, they simulated various evolutionary scenarios along the tree’s branches and calculated the chances that different ancestors also kissed.

The model ran 10 million simulations, producing robust statistical estimates.

Professor Stuart West from the University of Oxford noted: “Integrating evolutionary biology with behavioral data enables us to draw informed conclusions about non-fossilized traits like kissing.”

“This paves the way for studying the social behaviors of both extant and extinct species.”

While the researchers caution that current data is limited, particularly beyond great apes, this study sets a framework for future inquiries and offers primatologists a consistent method for documenting kissing behaviors in non-human animals.

“Though kissing may seem like a universal act, it’s only documented in 46% of human cultures,” remarked Dr. Katherine Talbot from the Florida Institute of Technology.

“Social customs and situations differ vastly among societies, prompting the question of whether kissing is an evolved behavior or a cultural construct.”

“This research represents a first step in addressing that question.”

This is part of a study published this week in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

_____

Matilda Brindle et al. 2025. A comparative approach to the evolution of kissing. Evolution and Human Behavior in press. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106788

Source: www.sci.news

Although these apes are patriarchs, they are not peaceful.

Posted on by
Reply

Some argue that male domination is the natural order of things. However, our genetic relatives, bonobos, who share nearly 99% of our DNA, challenge this notion.

Bonobos are great apes living in a society where women dominate, a rarity among mammals, especially those where males typically hold more power. Despite being smaller in size, female bonobos are the leaders in their society.

A recent study published in the Journal Communications Biology sheds light on how female bonobos acquire and maintain power within their communities. Researchers found that females form coalitions with males, creating a favorable power balance.

When a male bonobo challenges the status quo, nearby females band together to confront or intimidate him. This results in the male losing social rank, which is then transferred to the female aggressor, providing better access to resources and protection for her offspring.

Bonobos and chimpanzees are our closest living relatives. Initially believed to be a subspecies of chimpanzees, they were recognized as a separate species over a century ago. These endangered apes are primarily found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are challenging to study in their natural habitat.

To conduct their research, scientists like Harvard University’s Martin Surbeck spent thousands of hours navigating the dense jungle to observe these apes.

Contrary to the peaceful image often associated with bonobos, researchers have noted instances of aggressive behavior within their communities. These findings challenge previous stereotypes about these primates.

Gender conflicts are not uncommon among bonobos. Observations from researchers who tracked conflicts between males and females between 1993 and 2021 show that females often collaborate to assert dominance.

These conflicts can turn violent, resulting in severe injuries and even death for the males involved. The power dynamics within bonobo society have been a subject of interest for scientists for decades.

By studying data collected over years, researchers have found evidence supporting the “female coalition hypothesis,” shedding light on how female bonobos maintain power and influence in their communities.

As research continues to unveil the complexities of bonobo behavior, it becomes increasingly crucial to protect these endangered species.

Bonobos serve as a mirror to humanity, offering insights into our evolutionary past. Preserving these remarkable creatures is essential for understanding our own origins.

The study challenges the notion of male domination as an intrinsic biological trait, highlighting the unique social structures observed in bonobo communities.

Dr. Sarbeck emphasizes that patriarchy and male dominance are not evolutionary imperatives, as exemplified by the social dynamics of bonobos.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Threat to great apes from mining for electric car batteries

Posted on by
Reply

Noise pollution, habitat loss and disease spread associated with mining could threaten chimpanzee populations in some African countries

Ali Wid/Shutterstock

More than a third of Africa's great apes are threatened by soaring demand for minerals essential to creating green energy technologies such as electric vehicles.

Africa has about one-sixth of the world's remaining forests, and its habitat is in countries such as Ghana, Gabon, and Uganda. The continent is also home to his four species of great apes: chimpanzees, bonobos, and two gorillas.

However, many of these great apes live in areas that mining companies are eyeing as potential places to extract goods. for example, More than 50 percent of the world's cobalt and manganese reserves are found in Africa22 percent of graphite.

To assess the scale of the threat to great ape populations, Jessica Juncker Researchers at Re:wild, a non-profit conservation organization in Austin, Texas, analyzed available data on the location of operating and planned mines and the density and distribution of great ape populations across 17 African countries. Superimposed.

The research team considered both direct impacts on great ape populations, such as noise pollution, habitat loss, and disease spillover, as well as indirect disturbances, such as building new service roads, to A 50km “buffer zone” was created around the area. And infrastructure.

A total of 180,000 great apes, just over a third of the continent's population, may be threatened by mining activities, researchers have found.

The West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Guinea had the greatest overlap between great ape populations and mining sites. In Guinea, a study found that 83 percent of the great ape population could be affected by mining.

Juncker said the team was only considering industrial mining projects. The threat may be even greater when considering the impact of man-made mines, where miners typically work in primitive and often dangerous environments.

Cobalt, manganese, and graphite are all used to make lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles. Other materials found in these countries, such as bauxite, platinum, copper, graphite, and lithium, are used to power hydrogen, wind turbines, solar panels, and other green technologies.

Juncker argues that companies should stop mining in areas important to great apes and instead focus on recycling these important materials from waste. “There is great potential in metal reuse,” she says. “All we need to do is consume more sustainably. Then it will be possible to leave at least some of the areas that are so important to great apes intact.”

She is also calling on mining companies to publicly conduct biodiversity assessments of potential mining sites. “Increasing transparency is the first step.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Research reveals that apes lack a good sense of humor

Posted on by
Reply

Have you ever tapped someone on the far shoulder only to see them spin the wrong way, and then do it again immediately? Why is this funny? You might think that it’s an inherent human trait to find things like this funny, and that complex communication and context are needed for a gag to work, but you’d be wrong.

New research published in today’s journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B found evidence of monkey business (sorry) in four species of great apes, shedding light on the evolutionary origins of humor.

The findings suggest that the playful teasing exhibited by 8-month-old human children may have deeper roots in our primate relatives than previously thought.

Such behavior involves intentionally subverting the expectations of others. Examples include repeatedly offering and withdrawing goods, or intentionally disrupting another person’s activities by creating an element of surprise.

To understand these behaviors, the researchers observed spontaneous social interactions among populations of orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. They in turn analyzed everything from the teasing person’s body movements and facial expressions to how the target of the teasing (the teasing person?) reacts.

In addition to this, the researchers investigated whether the teasing behavior was targeted at specific individuals, whether it continued or escalated over time, and whether the teasing behavior was waiting for a response from the target. We tried to investigate the intentions behind the teasing.

“Our findings support the idea that teasing great apes is a provocative, purposeful, and often playful behavior.” Isabel Romersaid the postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study. BBC Science Focus. “It is usually asymmetric and can take a variety of forms with varying proportions of playful and aggressive characteristics.”

In total, the researchers identified 18 distinct teasing behaviors. These include repeatedly shaking or brandishing objects in the center of the target’s visual field, hitting or poking them, staring into their faces, and pulling their hair. How fascinating!

Unlike play exhibited by all animals in the animal kingdom, playful teasing has several unique characteristics. “Apes’ playful teasing is one-sided and mostly comes from teasing,” he explained. Erica Cartmill Senior author of the study.

“Animals also rarely use play cues, such as the primate ‘play face,’ which resembles what we call a smile, or the ‘grasping’ gesture that signals intent to play,” she continued. Ta.

Cartmill recalled seeing such behavior in apes for the first time in 2006. Then he observed a young orangutan begging his mother by repeatedly waving a stick in front of her. “It didn’t look like a joke that would fit in a stand-up special on Netflix, but it seemed like a simple joke that could be used with young human children,” she said.

Almost 20 years after this interaction, this research has provided important insights not only into great ape behavior but also into our own behavior. “Depending on the species, great apes share 97 to 99 percent of our DNA, so we have a lot in common,” Romer said.

“The existence of playful teasing in all four great apes, and its similarity to playful teasing behavior in human infants, suggests that playful teasing and its cognitive prerequisites may have been associated with the last human species at least 13 million years ago. This suggests that it may have existed in a common ancestor.

Going forward, Romer and her team will investigate whether other primates and large-brained animals tease each other in hopes of better understanding the evolution of this important (and highly entertaining) behavior. intend to do something.

About our experts

Isabel Romer I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Radolfzell/Konstanz. She is a primatologist and cognitive biologist with 10 years of experience studying great apes and Goffin parrots. Her main research areas are within physical cognition, tool use and manufacturing, tool innovation, template matching from memory, flexible multidimensional decision making based on reward quality and tool functionality. is focused on. Her work also delves into social cognition, exploring prosociality, aversion to inequality, delay of gratification, theory of mind, and playful teasing with these animal subjects. .

Erica Cartmill He is a professor of anthropology, cognitive science, and ethology at Indiana University. Her research bridges the fields of biology and linguistics, using both comparative and developmental methods to examine communication. Her research with great apes and humans includes observing spontaneous interactions between communication partners and employing communication games that allow for more controlled experiments. Her research focuses specifically on whether gestures played a role in the origin of human language.

read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

The origin of humor in great apes: teasing each other.

Posted on by
Reply

Chimpanzees enjoy teasing each other

apple2499/Shutterstock

Bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees all poke, tickle, and even steal from their companions as a form of teasing. Understanding the mischievous behavior of these apes could help biologists uncover the origins of the human sense of humor.

Previous research They found that chimpanzees can use painful teasing, or harassment, to reinforce their hierarchical position. But he says teasing can also be a form of play and fun when the right balance of fun and aggression is struck. Isabel Romer at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany.

“So far, the playful nature of teasing has not been systematically studied,” she says. “Therefore, our goal was to identify and create standards for play that teases great apes.”

To do so, Romer and her colleagues studied five species of great apes, bonobos (Pampan Niscus), Sumatran orangutan (pongo abeli), Western Gorilla and Eastern Gorilla (gorilla gorilla and gorilla beringay) and chimpanzees (pan-troglodytes). There were a total of 34 great apes, all housed in the zoo.

The researchers recorded 504 social interactions between individuals from 75 hours of video footage. Of these, 142 were classified as playful teasing, and included 18 acts such as pecking, hitting, hair pulling, impeding movement, and stealing.

“Teasing is characterized by an element of provocation,” Romer says. “It usually starts with a teaser, is often one-sided, and repeats itself over and over again.”

Researchers found that teasers tended to stare at the target's face immediately after the action. This suggests that the teaser was anticipating the reaction. If there is no response from the target, the teaser will usually escalate the teasing by poking the target further.

One of the most important signs that the teasing is playful rather than hostile is that it usually takes place in a calm and comfortable environment. “During the interaction, participants tended to relax,” Romer says.

Cases of theft were considered to be play if the item provided no obvious benefit to the teaser or if the teaser lost interest in the item shortly after pinching it.

“We found that playful teasing is present in all four species of great apes,” Romer said. Like play in general, this behavior can also help build relationships between groupmates and test social boundaries, she says.

Romer added that the last common ancestor between humans and other great apes likely also playfully teased, which may have been a precursor to our love of jokes. Ta.

“Studying great apes is important for understanding which cognitive and behavioral traits humans share and likely evolved in a common ancestor millions of years ago.” says the doctor. Christopher Krupenier at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “This study provides exciting evidence that all great apes appear to engage in playful teasing behavior, and also points the way for future research in other species.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Great apes display remarkable recollection of distant companions

Posted on by
Reply

A groundbreaking study has revealed that great apes possess exceptional social memories, allowing them to recognize former mates over 25 years later. This discovery indicates that there are significant cognitive similarities between humans and great apes, emphasizing the depth and longevity of social connections among these close animal relatives. Published today in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this research demonstrates the longest-lasting non-human social memory ever recorded.

The study, led by Christopher Krupenier, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, explores the remarkable social memory capabilities of great apes, particularly chimpanzees and bonobos. The research team found that these animals can recognize individuals even after decades of separation, and exhibit heightened responses to individuals with whom they had positive relationships.

To conduct the study, the researchers worked with chimpanzees and bonobos at various zoos, collecting photos of apes that had left the zoos or passed away. They then presented these photos to the apes and measured their response using non-invasive eye-tracking equipment. The results indicated that the apes displayed enduring social memory, as they looked longer at their former group members and friends, despite prolonged periods of separation. One notable example was a bonobo named Louise, who showed a strong bias toward her sister and nephew, despite not having seen them for over 26 years.

The findings suggest that great apes possess social memories that may persist for over 26 years, similar in duration to human social memory. This suggests that such memory was likely already present in the common evolutionary ancestor of humans and great apes. Moreover, these long-lasting social memories may have played a crucial role in the evolution of human culture, influencing unique forms of social interaction and relationships.

According to the researchers, this study also raises questions about the emotional impact of separation on great apes, highlighting the potential negative consequences of poaching and deforestation on their social relationships. Going forward, the team hopes to further investigate the unique social memory capabilities of great apes and examine how it may compare to other primate species.

This research, made possible by the Templeton Global Philanthropic Foundation grant TWCF-20647 and the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program, offers valuable insights into the social cognition of great apes and underscores the importance of preserving their social networks and relationships.

Source: scitechdaily.com