(ORDO NEWS) — Observations of chimpanzees have found that when they move in a group, they involuntarily synchronize their steps. Until now, this ability has been considered a human prerogative, an important factor that allowed us to solve complex problems together and ensured our evolutionary success.
People easily synchronize their movements with each other. This allows you to dance, play football, dress children, carry weights together.
This ability is believed to have played a critical role in the evolution and success of our species, allowing us to perform complex tasks together. It works unconsciously, it is not for nothing that when walking, we often imperceptibly begin to keep pace.
Even the closest relatives of a person do not show any special inclinations for joint action. However, they are also present at some level in chimpanzees.
This is indicated by new work carried out by scientists from the Scottish University of St. Andrews. Article Manon Schweinfurth (Manon Schweinfurth) and her co-authors published in the journal Current Biology.
Ethologists observed the behavior of chimpanzees in semi-natural conditions at the Chimfunshi Wildlife monkey nursery, which operates in Zambia, providing shelter to animals that have suffered from habitat destruction. The authors tracked the movements of chimpanzees of different sexes, both singly and in groups.
It was found that when walking in a group, they synchronize their movements: 79 percent of the steps are made with a gap of no more than 0.5 seconds.
It seems that these animals are quite capable of basic coordination of their movements, although they do not have mechanisms that can provide joint activity at a higher level.
“The work shows that humans share simple forms of motor coordination with their closest living relatives,” says Manon Schweinfurth. “The difference is only in the presence of more complex forms of coordination that require the work of more complex mechanisms. New research will help identify these mechanisms.”
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