Differences in human and great ape laughter reveal clues to the origin of speech

Researchers studying great apes have uncovered a curious clue about how humans developed language: the rhythm of our laughter. The Conversation reports that scientists analyzed laughing patterns across humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans—discovering that humans laugh far more rapidly and variably than any of our closest relatives. That flexibility in controlling the speed and timing of vocalizations may represent a key evolutionary step that eventually enabled speech. The research suggests early human ancestors, three to four million years ago, may have already been developing this vocal control, leaving a hidden evolutionary record in one of our most familiar sounds.

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