Topic: Research News

Scientists studied laughter in humans and great apes. They found that human laughter has remained consistent for 15 million years. This discovery helps us understand how human speech evolved.

A team of researchers from the University of Warwick discovered an interesting connection between human laughter and speech. By analyzing laughter recordings from four orangutans, two gorillas, three bonobos, four chimpanzees, and four humans, they found that every species produces laughter with evenly spaced rhythmic intervals.

This shared rhythmic pattern likely originated in a common ancestor that lived around 15 million years ago. The researchers believe that the basic structure of human laughter has remained remarkably stable throughout evolution. Dr. Chiara De Gregorio said,

Implications

Scientists studied laughter in humans and great apes. They found that human laughter has remained consistent for 15 million years. This discovery helps us understand how human speech evolved.