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Other great apes laugh in a similar way to humans, a new study has found. Just like us, they chuckle in a rhythmic pattern, suggesting they had a common ancestor around 15 million years ago that also laughed.
A team led by a researcher from the University of Warwick analyzed recordings of laughter from gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, chimpanzees, and humans. They were aged between six months and seven years old. The ape giggles were collected from tickling and playtime and were recorded for a study in the early 2000s.
Humans’ and great apes’ chuckles followed similar rhythms with regular timing between their laughs.
“We say that all the species have an isochronous rhythm, meaning that if you think of a metronome, the tick, tick, tick—the regularity is there. So, it’s always the same interval going between laughter bursts,” explains Chiara de Gregorio, the study author and a researcher at the University of Warwick.
The scientists think that because a rhythmic pattern was observed across all the apes they studied, it’s likely they had a common ancestor 15 million years ago that would have also laughed in a similar pattern.
Laughter has gotten faster and more complex over time, so human giggles have some aspects that set them apart. For one, our laughs sound different based on context—from a polite chuckle among colleagues to a full-bodied guffaw with close friends. Other apes do not show this variability.
“So, in a way we are very similar to other great apes because we’ve been laughing in a similar way for 15 million years. But at the same time we realize that our laughter holds more information than that is simple ‘I’m playing and having fun.’ And it’s something that maybe we don’t think about in everyday life: how we could communicate so many things without words,” says de Gregorio.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.