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Researchers Discover That Chimps Drum Rhythmically, Suggesting Human Musicality Originated in Our Last Common Ancestor
Researchers Discover That Chimps Drum Rhythmically, Suggesting Human Musicality Originated in Our Last Common Ancestor
Not only do chimpanzees maintain a rhythm while drumming on tree roots, but two subspecies use distinct tempos and techniques, according to a new study
A new study finds chimpanzees drum against tree roots with rhythm, suggesting they share an evolutionary trait with humans passed down by a last common ancestor.
DaFranzos via Pixabay
Wild chimpanzees often drum their limbs against the large roots of giant trees, sending out loud, booming sounds that resonate through the rainforest.
Previous research identified the behavior as a form of communication and demonstrated that the animals have individual drumming styles.
Now, a new study published Friday in the journal Current Biology shows chimpanzees also follow distinct, regular and non-random rhythms—traits that are building blocks of human music.
This suggests the origin of our own musicality may have originated in a last common ancestor with chimpanzees.
“They’re actually drumming often with their feet, so they’re using their hands to hold onto those roots, and then they’re kind of dancing,” Catherine Hobaiter, a co-author of the study and a primatologist at the University of St.
Andrews in Scotland, tells NPR’s Jon Hamilton.
“And sometimes they’re jumping between the roots and getting all of those different beat structures down, throwing a hand in if you want to get a little syncopated.”In the study, Hobaiter and her colleagues analyzed 371 drumming bouts produced by eastern and western chimpanzees in 11 communities across Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
The drumming “had a predictability to it,” Hobaiter tells the Guardian’s Nicola Davis.
“And when you’ve got predictability, you’ve got a really strong indicator that there’s rhythm there.”
Though some earlier studies indicate that captive chimps can drum rhythmically, this new paper is the first to truly demonstrate that ability in wild chimpanzees, says Valérie Dufour, an animal cognition biologist at the University of Clermont Auvergne in France who did not participate in the research, to Science’s Rodrigo Pérez Ortega.
“Showing that chimpanzees share some of the fundamental properties of human musical rhythm in their drumming is a really exciting step in understanding when and how we evolved this skill,” Hobaiter explains in a statement.
“Our findings suggest that our ability to drum rhythmically may have existed long before we were human.”
The team’s analyses revealed striking differences in drumming rhythm between the two subspecies: Western chimps used more regular intervals, while their eastern counterparts were more likely to alternate between faster and slower beats.
The two groups also integrated the drumming into their vocalizations in different ways: Western chimps drummed more and faster, and they combined it into their vocalizations—known as pant-hoots—earlier than eastern chimps did.
These contrasts might be linked to differences in social behaviors between the subspecies, researchers say.
Eastern chimpanzees tend to be more aggressive, live in bigger groups and have more hierarchical societies than the more egalitarian western chimpanzees.
The variations between their drumming styles might reflect differences in human language, reports National Geographic’s Olivia Ferrari.“This is the kind of science that wakes us up to the fact that every single population of chimpanzees is worth conserving and preserving,” Hobaiter tells National Geographic.
“We’re starting to recognize that they might have cultures in their communication, in their rhythm, in their social behavior… if you lose a group, you lose the unique culture that goes with it.”
In a similar way, two other recent papers are also shedding light on chimp behaviors that are uncannily close to human ones.
A study published May 7 in Biology Letters suggests western chimpanzees often throw previously collected rocks against tree trunks as a form of communication.
And other research published May 9 in Science Advances shows the primates communicate complex meaning by combining vocal sounds.
Taken together with recent work detailing a headbanging sea lion that can keep a beat and a key linguistic pattern in whale song, the research suggests humans’ rhythm and language abilities might not be as unique as we once thought.
“Humans are intrinsically rhythmic creatures,” Hobaiter tells BBC Science Focus’ Hatty Willmoth.
“We have rhythm in our music and in our dance and in our song, but also in our conversations—and it’s a human universal, so it might be part of our evolutionary heritage.”
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Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-discover-that-chimps-drum-rhythmically-suggesting-human-musicality-originated-in-our-last-common-ancestor-180986607/" style="color: #0066cc;">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-discover-that-chimps-drum-rhythmically-suggesting-human-musicality-originated-in-our-last-common-ancestor-180986607/
#researchers #discover #that #chimps #drum #rhythmically #suggesting #human #musicality #originated #our #last #common #ancestor
Researchers Discover That Chimps Drum Rhythmically, Suggesting Human Musicality Originated in Our Last Common Ancestor
Researchers Discover That Chimps Drum Rhythmically, Suggesting Human Musicality Originated in Our Last Common Ancestor
Not only do chimpanzees maintain a rhythm while drumming on tree roots, but two subspecies use distinct tempos and techniques, according to a new study
A new study finds chimpanzees drum against tree roots with rhythm, suggesting they share an evolutionary trait with humans passed down by a last common ancestor.
DaFranzos via Pixabay
Wild chimpanzees often drum their limbs against the large roots of giant trees, sending out loud, booming sounds that resonate through the rainforest.
Previous research identified the behavior as a form of communication and demonstrated that the animals have individual drumming styles.
Now, a new study published Friday in the journal Current Biology shows chimpanzees also follow distinct, regular and non-random rhythms—traits that are building blocks of human music.
This suggests the origin of our own musicality may have originated in a last common ancestor with chimpanzees.
“They’re actually drumming often with their feet, so they’re using their hands to hold onto those roots, and then they’re kind of dancing,” Catherine Hobaiter, a co-author of the study and a primatologist at the University of St.
Andrews in Scotland, tells NPR’s Jon Hamilton.
“And sometimes they’re jumping between the roots and getting all of those different beat structures down, throwing a hand in if you want to get a little syncopated.”In the study, Hobaiter and her colleagues analyzed 371 drumming bouts produced by eastern and western chimpanzees in 11 communities across Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
The drumming “had a predictability to it,” Hobaiter tells the Guardian’s Nicola Davis.
“And when you’ve got predictability, you’ve got a really strong indicator that there’s rhythm there.”
Though some earlier studies indicate that captive chimps can drum rhythmically, this new paper is the first to truly demonstrate that ability in wild chimpanzees, says Valérie Dufour, an animal cognition biologist at the University of Clermont Auvergne in France who did not participate in the research, to Science’s Rodrigo Pérez Ortega.
“Showing that chimpanzees share some of the fundamental properties of human musical rhythm in their drumming is a really exciting step in understanding when and how we evolved this skill,” Hobaiter explains in a statement.
“Our findings suggest that our ability to drum rhythmically may have existed long before we were human.”
The team’s analyses revealed striking differences in drumming rhythm between the two subspecies: Western chimps used more regular intervals, while their eastern counterparts were more likely to alternate between faster and slower beats.
The two groups also integrated the drumming into their vocalizations in different ways: Western chimps drummed more and faster, and they combined it into their vocalizations—known as pant-hoots—earlier than eastern chimps did.
These contrasts might be linked to differences in social behaviors between the subspecies, researchers say.
Eastern chimpanzees tend to be more aggressive, live in bigger groups and have more hierarchical societies than the more egalitarian western chimpanzees.
The variations between their drumming styles might reflect differences in human language, reports National Geographic’s Olivia Ferrari.“This is the kind of science that wakes us up to the fact that every single population of chimpanzees is worth conserving and preserving,” Hobaiter tells National Geographic.
“We’re starting to recognize that they might have cultures in their communication, in their rhythm, in their social behavior… if you lose a group, you lose the unique culture that goes with it.”
In a similar way, two other recent papers are also shedding light on chimp behaviors that are uncannily close to human ones.
A study published May 7 in Biology Letters suggests western chimpanzees often throw previously collected rocks against tree trunks as a form of communication.
And other research published May 9 in Science Advances shows the primates communicate complex meaning by combining vocal sounds.
Taken together with recent work detailing a headbanging sea lion that can keep a beat and a key linguistic pattern in whale song, the research suggests humans’ rhythm and language abilities might not be as unique as we once thought.
“Humans are intrinsically rhythmic creatures,” Hobaiter tells BBC Science Focus’ Hatty Willmoth.
“We have rhythm in our music and in our dance and in our song, but also in our conversations—and it’s a human universal, so it might be part of our evolutionary heritage.”
Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-discover-that-chimps-drum-rhythmically-suggesting-human-musicality-originated-in-our-last-common-ancestor-180986607/
#researchers #discover #that #chimps #drum #rhythmically #suggesting #human #musicality #originated #our #last #common #ancestor
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