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Dust.
Neuropsychologists observing that chimps use the same procedure to identify each other's rears as humans do faces, have concluded that the evolution of the two body parts is linked.
The similarities? Chimpanzee rears and human faces are symmetrical, always on show - keys to locating mates. They also communicate signals such as ovulation and embarrassment. The study (DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0165357) also showed chimps suffer the same inversion effect with their rears as humans do with faces (they find them much harder to recognise when turned upside down).
In other recent simian related news, research provides an insight into how primates might sound if they could speak. The research (DOI:10.1126/sciadv.1600723), involving X-rays of macaque monkey vocal tracts, dispels previous suggestions that primates could not speak due to anatomical limitations and points to it being a matter of neural development.
The researchers produced a computer model, based on their data, to synthesise how the speech might sound:
Shades of Mercedes McCambridge
The similarities? Chimpanzee rears and human faces are symmetrical, always on show - keys to locating mates. They also communicate signals such as ovulation and embarrassment. The study (DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0165357) also showed chimps suffer the same inversion effect with their rears as humans do with faces (they find them much harder to recognise when turned upside down).
In other recent simian related news, research provides an insight into how primates might sound if they could speak. The research (DOI:10.1126/sciadv.1600723), involving X-rays of macaque monkey vocal tracts, dispels previous suggestions that primates could not speak due to anatomical limitations and points to it being a matter of neural development.
The researchers produced a computer model, based on their data, to synthesise how the speech might sound:
Shades of Mercedes McCambridge
