Did you mean: pan troglodytes
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Biological Reviews of the Cambridge... Oct 2020The study of innovation in non-human animals (henceforth: animals) has recently gained momentum across fields including primatology, animal behaviour and cultural... (Review)
Review
The study of innovation in non-human animals (henceforth: animals) has recently gained momentum across fields including primatology, animal behaviour and cultural evolution. Examining the rate of innovations, and the cognitive mechanisms driving these innovations across species, can provide insights into the evolution of human culture. Especially relevant to the study of human culture is one of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Both wild and captive chimpanzees demonstrate an impressive ability to innovate solutions to novel problems, but also a striking level of conservatism in some contexts, creating a unique and at times puzzling, picture of animal innovation. Whilst the animal innovation field is rife with potential for expanding our knowledge of human and non-human cognition and problem-solving, it is undermined by a lack of consistency across studies. The field is yet to settle on a definition of the term 'innovation', leading to studies being incomparable across and even within the same species. Here, we fill two gaps in the literature. First, we discuss some of the most prevalent definitions of 'innovation' from different fields, highlighting similarities and differences between them. Secondly, we provide an up-to-date review of accounts of innovations in both wild and captive chimpanzees. We hope this review will provide a resource for researchers interested in the study of innovation in chimpanzees and other animals, as well as emphasising the need for consistency in the way in which innovations are reported.
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Cognition; Pan troglodytes
PubMed: 32307892
DOI: 10.1111/brv.12604 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Sep 2018Information about responses to death in nonhuman primates is important for evolutionary thanatology. This paper reviews the major causes of death in chimpanzees, and how... (Review)
Review
Information about responses to death in nonhuman primates is important for evolutionary thanatology. This paper reviews the major causes of death in chimpanzees, and how these apes respond to cues related to dying and death. Topics covered include disease, human activities, predation, accidents and intra-species aggression and cannibalism. Chimpanzees also kill and sometimes eat other species. It is argued that, given their cognitive abilities, their experiences of death in conspecifics and other species are likely to equip chimpanzees with an understanding of death as cessation of function and irreversible. Whether they might understand that death is inevitable-including their own death, and biological causes of death is also discussed. As well as gathering more fundamental information about responses to dying and death, researchers should pay attention to possible cultural variations in how great apes deal with death.This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Cues; Death; Pan troglodytes; Social Behavior; Thanatology
PubMed: 30012743
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0257 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Jan 2017Making subtle and extensive use of eye-tracking technology, Krupenye and colleagues showed that, like human infants, great apes - chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans -...
Making subtle and extensive use of eye-tracking technology, Krupenye and colleagues showed that, like human infants, great apes - chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans - can accurately anticipate the goal-directed behaviour of an agent that holds a false belief. How do they do it, by mentalising or by submentalising?
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Comprehension; Concept Formation; Hominidae; Humans; Pan paniscus; Pan troglodytes; Theory of Mind
PubMed: 27919697
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.11.006 -
Nature May 2023The naming of Australopithecus africanus in 1925, based on the Taung Child, heralded a new era in human evolutionary studies and turned the attention of the then... (Review)
Review
The naming of Australopithecus africanus in 1925, based on the Taung Child, heralded a new era in human evolutionary studies and turned the attention of the then Eurasian-centric palaeoanthropologists to Africa, albeit with reluctance. Almost one hundred years later, Africa is recognized as the cradle of humanity, where the entire evolutionary history of our lineage prior to two million years ago took place-after the Homo-Pan split. This Review examines data from diverse sources and offers a revised depiction of the genus and characterizes its role in human evolution. For a long time, our knowledge of Australopithecus came from both A. africanus and Australopithecus afarensis, and the members of this genus were portrayed as bipedal creatures that did not use stone tools, with a largely chimpanzee-like cranium, a prognathic face and a brain slightly larger than that of chimpanzees. Subsequent field and laboratory discoveries, however, have altered this portrayal, showing that Australopithecus species were habitual bipeds but also practised arboreality; that they occasionally used stone tools to supplement their diet with animal resources; and that their infants probably depended on adults to a greater extent than what is seen in apes. The genus gave rise to several taxa, including Homo, but its direct ancestor remains elusive. In sum, Australopithecus had a pivotal bridging role in our evolutionary history owing to its morphological, behavioural and temporal placement between the earliest archaic putative hominins and later hominins-including the genus Homo.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Biological Evolution; Fossils; Hominidae; Pan troglodytes; Skull; Tool Use Behavior; Aging
PubMed: 37138108
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05957-1 -
Science (New York, N.Y.) Oct 2023Signs of menopause in wild chimpanzees provide insights into human evolution.
Signs of menopause in wild chimpanzees provide insights into human evolution.
Topics: Animals; Female; Humans; Menopause; Pan troglodytes; Biological Evolution
PubMed: 37883538
DOI: 10.1126/science.adk7119 -
Evolutionary Anthropology Sep 2016Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus) are our closest living relatives, with the human lineage diverging from the Pan lineage only around five to seven... (Review)
Review
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus) are our closest living relatives, with the human lineage diverging from the Pan lineage only around five to seven Mya, but possibly as early as eight Mya. Chimpanzees and bonobos even share genetic similarities with humans that they do not share with each other. Given their close genetic relationship to humans, both Pan species represent crucial living models for reconstructing our last common ancestor (LCA) and identifying uniquely human features. Comparing the similarities and differences of the two Pan is thus essential for constructing balanced models of human evolution..
Topics: Animals; Anthropology, Physical; Behavior, Animal; Biological Evolution; Humans; Models, Biological; Pan paniscus; Pan troglodytes; Social Behavior; Species Specificity
PubMed: 27753219
DOI: 10.1002/evan.21501 -
Integrative Psychological & Behavioral... Mar 2022A perennial challenge of evolutionary psychology is explaining prosocial traits such as a preference for fairness rather than inequality, compassion towards suffering,...
A perennial challenge of evolutionary psychology is explaining prosocial traits such as a preference for fairness rather than inequality, compassion towards suffering, and an instinctive ability to coordinate within small teams. Considering recent fossil evidence and a novel logical test, we deem present explanations insufficiently explanatory of the divergence of hominins. In answering this question, we focus on the divergence of hominins from the last common ancestor (LCA) shared with Pan. We consider recent fossil discoveries that indicate the LCA was bipedal, which reduces the cogency of this explanation for hominin development. We also review evolutionary theory that claims to explain how hominins developed into modern humans, however it is found that no mechanism differentiates hominins from other primates. Either the mechanism was available to the last common ancestor (LCA) (with P. troglodytes as its proxy), or because early hominins had insufficient cognition to utilise the mechanism. A novel mechanism, sub-group level selection (sGLS) is hypothesised by triangulating two pieces of data rarely considered by evolutionary biologists. These are behavioural dimorphism of Pan (chimpanzees and bonobos) that remain identifiable in modern humans, and the social behaviour of primate troops in a savannah ecology. We then contend that sGLS supplied an exponential effect which was available to LCA who left the forest, but was not sufficiently available to any other primates. In conclusion, while only indirectly supported by various evidence, sGLS is found to be singularly and persuasively explanatory of human's unique evolutionary story.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Fossils; Hominidae; Humans; Pan troglodytes; Social Behavior
PubMed: 33893612
DOI: 10.1007/s12124-021-09606-y -
Primates; Journal of Primatology May 2021
Topics: Animals; Pan troglodytes
PubMed: 33835330
DOI: 10.1007/s10329-021-00903-z -
Evolutionary Anthropology Nov 2021Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are the only great apes that inhabit hot, dry, and open savannas. We review the environmental pressures of savannas on chimpanzees, such as... (Review)
Review
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are the only great apes that inhabit hot, dry, and open savannas. We review the environmental pressures of savannas on chimpanzees, such as food and water scarcity, and the evidence for chimpanzees' behavioral responses to these landscapes. In our analysis, savannas were generally associated with low chimpanzee population densities and large home ranges. In addition, thermoregulatory behaviors that likely reduce hyperthermia risk, such as cave use, were frequently observed in the hottest and driest savanna landscapes. We hypothesize that such responses are evidence of a "savanna landscape effect" in chimpanzees and offer pathways for future research to understand its evolutionary processes and mechanisms. We conclude by discussing the significance of research on savanna chimpanzees to modeling the evolution of early hominin traits and informing conservation programs for these endangered apes.
Topics: Animals; Grassland; Pan troglodytes
PubMed: 34542218
DOI: 10.1002/evan.21924 -
Science (New York, N.Y.) Nov 2023Cooperation beyond familial and group boundaries is core to the functioning of human societies, yet its evolution remains unclear. To address this, we examined grooming,...
Cooperation beyond familial and group boundaries is core to the functioning of human societies, yet its evolution remains unclear. To address this, we examined grooming, coalition, and food-sharing patterns in bonobos (), one of our closest living relatives whose rare out-group tolerance facilitates interaction opportunities between groups. We show that, as in humans, positive assortment supports bonobo cooperation across borders. Bonobo cooperative attitudes toward in-group members informed their cooperative relationships with out-groups, in particular, forming connections with out-group individuals who also exhibited high cooperation tendencies. Our findings show that cooperation between unrelated individuals across groups without immediate payoff is not exclusive to humans and suggest that such cooperation can emerge in the absence of social norms or strong cultural dispositions.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Grooming; Pan paniscus; Pan troglodytes; Group Processes; Cooperative Behavior; Social Norms
PubMed: 37972165
DOI: 10.1126/science.adg0844