Ha-Ha! Ape study traces evolution of laughter

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Baby orangutan Enero laughs while being tickled in Sabah, Malaysia, in this file photo. It took a lot of tickling of chimps and other apes, but scientists say they've traced the origin of laughter well back into humankind's evolutionary past.

Associated Press

NEW YORK - When scientists set out to trace the roots of human laughter, some chimps and gorillas were just tickled to help. Literally.

That's how researchers made a variety of apes and some human babies laugh. After analyzing the sounds, they concluded that people and great apes inherited laughter from a shared ancestor that lived more than 10 million years ago.

Experts praised the work. It gives very strong evidence that ape and human laughter are related through evolution, said Frans de Waal of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta.

As far back as Charles Darwin, scientists have noted that apes make characteristic sounds during play or while being tickled, apparently to signal that they're interested in playing.

It's been suggested before that human laughter grew out of primate roots. But ape laughter doesn't sound like the human version. It may be rapid panting, or slower noisy breathing or a short series of grunts.

So what does that have to do with the human ha-ha?

To investigate that, Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth in England and colleagues carried out a detailed analysis of the sounds evoked by tickling three human babies and 21 orangutans, gorillas, chimps and bonobos.

After measuring 11 traits in the sound from each species, they mapped out how these sounds appeared to be related to each other. The result looked like a family tree. Significantly, that tree matched the way the species themselves are related, the scientists reported online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

They also concluded that while human laughter sounds much different from the ape versions, its distinctive features could well have arisen from shared ancestral traits.

Jaak Panksepp of Washington State University, who studies laughter-like responses in animals but didn't participate in the new work, called the paper exciting.

It's the first formal study of how chimps and other apes respond to tickling, a highly detailed examination that compares an unusually wide range of species to humans, he said.

Panksepp's own work concludes that even rats produce a version of laughter in response to play and tickling, with chirps too high-pitched for people to hear. So he believes laughter goes even farther back in the mammalian family tree than the new paper proposes.

Robert Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who wrote the 2000 book, "Laughter: A Scientific Investigation," said the new paper reveals some important insights, like details of the ape sounds that hadn't been appreciated before.

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/...ter0604-ON.html

[almaty 19]

think Im sophisticated

cos Im living my life like a good homosapien

But all around me everybodys multiplying

Till theyre walking round like flies man

So Im no better than the animals sitting in their cages

In the zoo man

cos compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees

I am an ape man

I think Im so educated and Im so civilized

cos Im a strict vegetarian

But with the over-population and inflation and starvation

And the crazy politicians

I dont feel safe in this world no more

I dont want to die in a nuclear war

I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an ape man

Im an ape man, Im an ape ape man

Im an ape man Im a king kong man Im ape ape man

Im an ape man

cos compared to the sun that sits in the sky

Compared to the clouds as they roll by

Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies

I am an ape man

In mans evolution he has created the cities and

The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance

And Id be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle

cos the only time that I feel at ease

Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree

Oh what a life of luxury to be like an ape man

Im an ape, Im an ape ape man, Im an ape man

Im a king kong man, Im a voo-doo man

Im an ape man

I look out my window, but I cant see the sky

cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes

I want to get out of this city alive

And make like an ape man

Come and love me, be my ape man girl

And we will be so happy in my ape man world

Im an ape man, Im an ape ape man, Im an ape man

Im a king kong man, Im a voo-doo man

Im an ape man

Ill be your tarzan, youll be my jane

Ill keep you warm and youll keep me sane

And well sit in the trees and eat bananas all day

Just like an ape man

Im an ape man, Im an ape ape man, Im an ape man

Im a king kong man, Im a voo-doo man

Im an ape man.

I dont feel safe in this world no more

I dont want to die in a nuclear war

I want to sail away to a distant shore

And make like an ape man.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

They better not be laughing at me if they know what's good for 'em.