1May/07Off
Ape gesture and language evolution
Amy Pollick and Frans de Waal have published a new study in PNAS investigating getures in apes. They compared facial, vocal, and gestural signals in four groups of chimpanzees: two bonobo, and two chimp populations.
They showed that whilst facial and vocal communication is relatively standardised, the gestures varied differently between both the species of chimps, as well as between the two groups of each species. Additionally, the bonobos showed a wider range of gestures than the chimpanzees.
They suggest that this supports the theory that language originated from manual gestures (alternate link)
Abstract is here, ScienceNow and EurekAlert! also have coverage.