Human laugh lines traced back to ape ancestors
Laughter’s evolutionary story may be written on chimpanzees’ faces.
Chimps at play make open-mouth facial expressions while either laughing out loud or staying silent, say psychologist Marina Davila-Ross of the University of Portsmouth in England and her colleagues. These results suggest for the first time that a nonhuman primate can use facial expressions to communicate without making a sound, the researchers report June 10 in PLOS ONE.
Muscle movements in chimps’ laughing faces resemble those of humans in many ways, Davila-Ross’ team says. People’s mirthful facial expressions, sometimes paired with laughter, evolved from a simpler connection between open-mouthed expressions and laughter in ape ancestors of humans and chimps, the scientists propose.
Chimps at play make open-mouth facial expressions while either laughing out loud or staying silent, say psychologist Marina Davila-Ross of the University of Portsmouth in England and her colleagues. These results suggest for the first time that a nonhuman primate can use facial expressions to communicate without making a sound, the researchers report June 10 in PLOS ONE.
Muscle movements in chimps’ laughing faces resemble those of humans in many ways, Davila-Ross’ team says. People’s mirthful facial expressions, sometimes paired with laughter, evolved from a simpler connection between open-mouthed expressions and laughter in ape ancestors of humans and chimps, the scientists propose.
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