Researchers from the University of Birmingham (UK) and the University of Neuchatel (Switzerland) have found that wild bonobos, our closest living relatives in the primate world, communicate using a high-pitched call type, or “peep,” that requires context to be understood. The findings, published in the journal PeerJ, echo the context dependent manner in which human […]
Duke University anthropologists have been measuring more than 1,400 ancient and modern skulls, leading them to theorize that modern humans emerged at the same time as a lowering of testosterone levels. While modern humans appear in the fossil record from around 200,000 years ago, it was only about 50,000 years ago that the creation of […]
Bonobos and chimpanzees are closely related but bonobos lack of aggression, playfulness, and strong familial ties make them very different to their chimp cousins. Now, researchers say that these behavioral differences might be because bonobos retain elevated thyroid hormone concentrations well into adulthood, whereas in humans and chimps, levels decline after puberty. The researchers, from […]
Unlike their chimpanzee relatives, bonobos enjoy a make-love-not-war image. But a new study in Current Biology offers the first direct evidence of wild bonobos hunting and eating the young of other primate species. “These findings are particularly relevant for the discussion about male dominance and bonding, aggression and hunting – a domain that was thought […]
Chimpanzees and bonobos are both close cousins to humans, but it’s usually been thought that chimps outdo bonobos in the intelligence stakes. While chimps have been observed hunting cooperatively and using tools to gather food, the poor old bonobos have mainly been noted for their enthusiastic and diverse sexual behaviors. But thanks to their free-loving […]
