The researchers in this study were skeptical of this idea and wanted to test its merits. Proponents of this hypothesis believe the last common ancestor was more "monkey-like" and less similar to, say, chimpanzees or bonobos. The researchers suggest the ancient ancestor of humans swung from trees like chimps. However, this evidence has given rise to a disputed hypothesis: Humans evolved from a quadrupedal ancestor that used all four limbs for movement on the ground, rather than a bipedal ancestor that suspends from trees.Ī chimpanzee in a tree. Some background - Most scientists recognize that the highly dextrous human hand seems to differ in shape and form from the hands primates use to swing from trees. Prang, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, tells Inverse. "Our findings support the view that humans and chimpanzees evolved from an ancestor that had similarities to modern apes in their locomotor adaptation," lead author Thomas C. What's new - Research published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances suggests the last common ancestor of hominids - a category of great apes that includes chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and humans - climbed and swung in trees. Before this ancestor experienced an evolutionary shift toward using hands for tools and legs for walking, they likely knuckle-walked on the ground and glided across canopies. The study seemingly resolves a long-standing scientific debate over our ancestor's ability for brachiation - the ability to swing from tree limbs only using one's arms. The research is published in the journal PLOS Biology.Tarzan swinging from tree to tree might seem like a Hollywood attempt at imagining the life of primitive men, but new findings suggest our ancient ancestors really were swingers. “By showing participants videos of common great ape gestures instead, we found that people can understand these gestures, suggesting that they may form part of an evolutionarily ancient, shared gesture vocabulary across all great ape species including us.” “All great apes use gestures, but humans are so gestural – using gestures while we speak and sign, learning new gestures, pantomiming – that it’s really hard to pick out shared great ape gestures just by observing people,” says co-lead researcher Dr Kirsty E Graham. Read more: Marine parks no refuge for whales from noisy, dangerous ship traffic It may also be the case that humans and other great apes share an ability to interpret signals because of similar intelligence, physical appearance, and social goals. The authors are unsure whether our ability to understand great ape signs is inherited. While we no longer use these gestures, the experiment suggests we may have retained an understanding of this ancestral communication system. The results of the test of our ability to understand ape hand gestures indicates a different kind of understanding. But this “understanding” is inference built up over time. Indeed, pet owners will tell you (even if you didn’t ask) that they can understand their dog, cat, horse or other domesticated beast. Is it possible that humans could have retained some understanding of ape hand gestures? Humans and chimpanzees are thought to have a common ancestor which lived about 6 to 7 million years ago. As a Mediterranean boy, I know this very well: □□īut our hand signs are thought to no longer incorporate the apes’ gestures despite humans being more closely related to chimpanzees and bonobos. Of course, we humans are ourselves gestural creatures. There are even similarities between the signs of distantly related apes such as chimpanzees and orangutans – living on opposite sides of the globe. Now, over 80 hand signals have been identified, many of which are shared across non-human apes. Great ape hand gestures were the first recorded evidence of intentional communication outside of our human language. Using videos – which anyone can try – they found that chimp and bonobo sign language can be largely understood by humans, despite the fact we no longer use the hand gestures ourselves. Mostly, research has been done to see if apes can understand humans. In a turn around for science, researchers in the UK have discovered that humans are quite good at interpreting the sign language used by some apes.
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