Apes and humans share the ability to laugh and may have inherited this trait from a common primal ancestor, according to a recent study. Orangutans have a sense of empathy and mimicry; essential parts of laughter.
A BBC report
details a new study that claims that laughter possibly originated in an ancient primal ancestor that is common to both humans and modern apes.
Dr Marina Davila Ross, from the University of Portsmouth and Professor Elke Zimmermann at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover, Germany, found that orangutans had a sense of empathy and mimicry which forms an essential part of laughter.
The orangutans were able to copy certain facial expressions such as the open, gaping mouth that resembles laughter.
The study says that the pace at which the gestures were mimicked suggests that the expressions were involuntary or contagious.
The team studied the play behaviour of 25 orangutans aged between two and 12 at four primate centres around the world.
If an orangutan displayed an open, gaping mouth, its companion would frequently display the same expression less than half a second later.
Dr Davila Ross commented: "In humans, mimicking behaviour can be voluntary and involuntary. Until our discovery there had been no evidence that animals had similar responses.
"What is clear now is the building blocks of positive emotional contagion and empathy that refer to rapid involuntary facial mimicry in humans evolved prior to humankind."
Laughter Links Humans and Apes
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