By Jennifer Viegas for Discovery News
Laughs and smiles in chimps turn out to be far more human-like than previously thought and they date to at least 5 million years ago, suggests a new study on chimpanzee facial expressions and vocalizations.
Laughter is not 100 percent identical between the two primates, but people who hear a chuckling chimp usually have little trouble figuring out what the sound generally means.
Chimps go “h-h-h,” while humans sound more like “ha-ha-ha” or “he-he-he,” said Marina Davila Ross, a senior lecturer in the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Psychology and lead author of the study in PLOS ONE.
Then there is the flexibility of the sounds and related expressions.
“Chimpanzees, like humans, can produce their facial expressions free from their vocalizations,” Ross explained. “This ability is important for humans. For instance, it allows us to add a smile while talking or laughing, and we can also produce smiles silently. Until now, we did not know that non-human primates also have this ability.”
It’s even possible that the skills first emerged in the common ancestor of chimps and humans.
Chimps might appear human like to those who’ve decided that humans evolved from primates. These people tend to ignore big differences. For one thing chimps don’t smile, They can’t. Only humans smile, giggle and guffaw. The exquisite design behind the muscles and nerves the ingenious control measures them plus the intended purpose of relating to God and to one another through smiles all affirm that God made man in HIS image, NOT some ape !