![]() Results supported the first, but not the second hypothesis: bipedalism induced the subjects to become more lateralized, but not in any particular direction. The hypotheses tested were 1) bipedal posture will increase the strength of hand preference, and 2) a bipedal stance, without the use of one hand for support, will elicit a right hand preference. Neither bipedal tool use nor these supported conditions have been previously evaluated in apes. We experimentally induced tool use in a supported bipedal posture, an unsupported bipedal posture, and a seated posture. We investigated the relationship between hand preference and posture during tool use in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) during bipedal tool use. This result has interesting implications for theories of the evolution of tool use and bipedalism, as the combination of bipedalism and tool use may have helped drive extreme lateralization in modern humans, but cannot alone account for the preponderance of right-handedness.Ībstract = "The degree to which non-human primate behavior is lateralized, at either individual or population levels, remains controversial. Instead, it appears that subtle pre-existing lateral biases, to either the right or left, were emphasized with increasing postural demands. The research is published in the journal PLOS Biology.The degree to which non-human primate behavior is lateralized, at either individual or population levels, remains controversial. “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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