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Human Laughter Up To 16 Million Years Old

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-pierolapithecus-catalaunicus-walks-into-a-bar dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Published today in the journal Current Biology, a new study shows that laughter is not a unique human trait, but a behavior shared by all great apes. Tickle a baby chimpanzee and it will giggle just like a human infant. This is because laughter evolved millions of years ago in one of our common ancestors, say scientists."

4 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. That is not even Funny by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hrrmmpff.

  2. Re:The monsters! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    That's nothing! Back in the war, we chased the teddy bears into their cuddle bunkers, then had to tickle them out with machine hugs and fun throwers!

    ...They say the more soldiers you tickle, the easier it gets. Well, sir, it doesn't.

  3. Re:hmmm by psnyder · · Score: 4, Informative

    Shall I even mention the leap of faith required to even consider whether those same 2 animals evolved in the first place?

    If you have:

    1. variation
    2. heredity
    3. selection

    It's impossible NOT to have evolution.


    We observe these 3 things every day, in every new baby plant and animal.

    1. Variation: We see mutations in every baby. Brothers (who are not twins) do not look exactly alike, and do not have exactly the same traits. We can observe that this is because mother and father give different halves of their DNA to each AND we observe mutations occuring within the embryo.
    2. Heredity: We observe those same traits being passed on to the next generation.
    3. Selection: The organisms with traits that make it easier to survive long enough to reproduce will have more of their traits passed on. (They'll be making more babies.)

    These mutations are not selective to a specific sub-set of traits. They go across the board effecting every trait of an organism. Nature is constantly changing every aspect of every organism right in front of our eyes, with every new birth. If we do this for millions of years it's impossible NOT to have an incredibly different organism at the end.

    The misconception comes from the idea that an ape gave birth to a human. This is simply not the case. The change was very gradual, changing trait upon trait over time. Today's apes are VERY different from the apes of the past.

    The only reason we separate and classify into Homo erectus, sapians, neanderthalensis, etc. is to make sense of it all. We give different words to groups of organisms that have different traits. They're basically the same living thing with slightly different traits.

    Where we draw the line and call things different species, races, etc? Well it's very difficult, and so we're constantly refining what names we give to groups with different traits. But they're just NAMES. The traits change all the time.

    This gradual change in traits that we observe happening RIGHT NOW is what many people call evolution. There's LOTS of evidence (bones & fossils) to say that this has always happened.

    When observing all of this right in front of our eyes, it actually takes a leap of faith to say things don't evolve. Even the last 2 Catholic Popes (heads of a very non-liberal organization) have understood and agreed with it. Once you see it, you have to say, "I don't believe my eyes." And THAT is the true leap of faith.

  4. Re:hmmm by sillybilly · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are talking about a concept similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_realizability.