In The 'Laughter Evolutionary Tree', We're Closest To Chimps, Says Researcher
Friday, June 5, 2009 - 01:42
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Human laughter can be traced back 10-16 million years to the last common ancestor of humans and great apes, according to new research published today. Dr Marina Davila Ross, a primatologist of the psychology department at the University of Portsmouth, reconstructed the origins of human laughter by mapping the laughter sounds of great apes and humans on an evolutionary tree. In Davila Ross’s reconstructed evolutionary tree, humans were closest to bonobos and chimpanzees, more distant from gorillas and most distant from orangutans. Biologists always love when researchers in psychology departments reconfigure the evolutionary tree for them. read more
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