Milk of Human Kindness Also Found in Bonobos

Sindya N. Bhanoo
January 7, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/science/the-unexpected-altruism-of-bonobos.html?ref=science&_r=0


Summary: Evolutionary anthropologists Brian Hare and Jingzhai Tan from Duke University have been researching the behavior of Bonobos. Their observations suggest that they may have found the origin of altruism in human, the behavior of an animal that benefits others of its kind but not itself. In one experiment, bonobos were given food and then given the chance to release a stranger or group mate from other rooms. The bonobos shared the food with the strangers they released. This trait is not shown in chimpanzees who are the closest relatives to humans. This evidence creates a new scenario in which chimps, human, and bonobos had a common ancestor with this trait.





Connection: This article connects to our current unit on evolution. Just like how we did the online activity to find the closest relative to the whale through anatomy and molecular biology, these evolutionary anthropologists are using the same type of methods but finding similarities based on the behavior of these different species. Just like how we found the closest ancestor of the whale by finding homologous structures between the whale and other organisms, the same sort of method is being applied to the bonobos. Because they express altruism like humans, but the chimpanzees do not, Tan and Hare concluded that humans chimpanzees, and bonobos share a common ancestor.