Topic description and stories

Chimpanzee

Tree-dwelling mammals survived after asteroid strike destroyed forests

14 Oct 2021

An asteroid strike 66 million years ago wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and devastated the Earth’s forests, but tree-dwelling ancestors of primates...

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Baboon troop

Baboons watch neighbours for clues about food, but can end up in queues

20 Apr 2016

Baboons learn about food locations socially through monitoring the behaviour of those around them. While proximity to others is the key to acquiring...

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Grooming

Baboons prefer to spend time with others of the same age, status and even personality

13 May 2015

Latest research shows that, within large troops, baboons spend more time grooming those with similar dominance rank and boldness to themselves...

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A chimpanzee uses a stone to crack a nut

Opportunity, and not necessity, is the mother of invention

12 Nov 2014

When food is scarce, tool use among non-human primates does not increase. This counterintuitive finding leads researchers to suggest that the driving...

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Cast of Laetoli footprints, Tanzania, in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Natural killer cells played a vital role in human evolution

08 Feb 2013

Natural killer cells – a vital part of the immune system – have a dual role in protecting against infection and ensuring reproduction. Scientists...

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High stress levels found in monkeys forced to spend more time foraging

24 Jan 2013

New research shows that disturbed habitats are resulting in increasingly poor diets for monkeys, and that the additional time and energy required to...

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Tree-nesting.

Earlier relatives may have climbed out of family tree

16 Apr 2012

Chimpanzee behaviour suggests tree-to-ground transition occurred before the emergence of ancient humans.

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Orangutan

Student gets up close and personal with orang-utans

10 Feb 2010

A Cambridge PhD student is swapping the comforts of city life for a small hammock in the jungle while he studies orang-utans in Borneo for the next...

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Neanderthal, New York

Does evolution always lead to bigger brains?

26 Jan 2010

The commonly held assumption that as primates evolved, their brains always tended to get bigger has been challenged by a team of scientists at...

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