chimpanzees

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Wild chimpanzees appear not to regularly experience menopause

A pioneering study of wild chimpanzees has found that these close human relatives do not routinely experience menopause, rebutting previous studies of captive individuals which had postulated that female chimpanzees reach reproductive senescence at 35 to 40 years of age.

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Unlike humans, chimpanzees don't go through menopause

Researchers have found no evidence that chimpanzees in the wild undergo menopause in the way that women do, according to a new report published online on December 13th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. That’s despite the fact that reproduction tends to peter out at a similar age in both species.

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Young chimps top adult humans in numerical memory

Young chimpanzees have an “extraordinary” ability to remember numerals that is superior to that of human adults, researchers report in the December 4th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.

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Human ancestors: more gatherers than hunters?

Chimpanzees crave roots and tubers even when food is plentiful above ground, according to a new study that raises questions about the relative importance of meat for brain evolution.

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Fair Play in Chimpanzees

New research from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany shows that unlike humans, chimpanzees conform to traditional economic models. The research, conducted by Keith Jensen, Josep Call and Michael Tomasello, used a modification of one of the most widely used and accepted economic tools, the ultimatum game.

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Male chimpanzees use stolen food to win over opposite sex

They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and the same could be said for female chimpanzees. Researchers studying wild chimps in West Africa have discovered that males pinch desirable fruits from local farms and orchards as a means of attracting female mates.

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Why Humans Walk on Two Legs

A team of anthropologists that studied chimpanzees trained to use treadmills has gathered new evidence suggesting that our earliest apelike ancestors started walking on two legs because it required less energy than getting around on all fours.

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Origin of human bipedalism

While no one has an authoritative answer, anthropologists have long theorized that early humans began walking on two legs as a way to reduce locomotor energy costs.

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Human impact on chimpanzees' cognitive abilities

Human interaction and stimulation enhance chimpanzees' cognitive abilities, according to new research from the Chimpanzee Cognition Center at The Ohio State University. The study is the first to demonstrate that raising chimpanzees in a human cultural environment enhances their cognitive abilities, as measured by their ability to understand how tools work.

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Chimpanzees can sustain multiple-tradition cultures

Scientists have long wondered if local animal cultures exist, and now, based on findings by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, the University of Texas and St. Andrews University, Scotland, they have their answer: Yes.

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'Cultured' chimpanzees pass on novel traditions

The local customs that define human cultures in important ways also exist in the ape world, suggests a study reported online June 7th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Indeed, captive chimpanzees, like people, can readily acquire new traditions, and those newly instituted "cultural practices" can spread to other troops.

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Human ancestors learnt to walk upright in the trees

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that humans' ability to walk upright developed from ancestors foraging for food in forest tree tops and not from walking on all fours on open land.

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