A new study further strengthens ties with our chimpanzee relatives. Because it seems that, according to researchers at the University of Portsmouth, they also laugh (and smile) like us.
To verify this, they videotaped the expressions of 46 specimens that lived in the Chimfunshi Orphanage (Zambia) and analyzed them with a system called ChimpFACS, which allows us to examine the most subtle gestures of primates and compare them with those of humans. The result has surprised scientists, since the gestural repertoire is more similar between both species than previously believed.
“Humans have the flexibility to show our smile without sounds, that is, without laughing or speaking, which adds versatility to communication. Until now we thought that chimpanzees were not capable of behaving like this, but we have observed that they are also capable of producing facial expressions without emitting any sound ”, commented Marina Davila-Ross, the director of the study. In addition, researchers have analyzed the gestures that accompany laughter and have found that their evolutionary origin is the same for chimpanzees and people. Possibly they come from a common ancestor.
There is, however, an important difference between their laugh and ours: they rarely get wrinkles in their eyes. That is, they do not have crow's feet.
