分类： science

When teams of athletes huddle close before a high-stakes match, or friends squeeze each other in a hug ahead of a stressful challenge, this instinct to reach for physical connection may be far older than humanity itself. New research published in *Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences* reveals that the use of affectionate, reassuring touch to build social cohesion before tense competitive events is a shared behavior between chimpanzees and bonobos — humanity’s closest living ape relatives — pointing to an evolutionary origin that stretches back at least seven million years. The work, led by researchers from Durham University, offers groundbreaking new insight into the deep ancestral roots of human social cooperation.

The research team conducted their observational study at two accredited great ape sanctuaries, one located in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the other in Zambia. To replicate the naturally competitive context of wild feeding scenarios, the team designed a controlled experiment: after the apes learned that a shipment of desirable peanuts was imminent, researchers documented all social interactions in the five-minute window before the food arrived. This setup created the controlled stressful competition needed to observe how apes prepare for potential conflict.

One of the study’s most surprising findings upends long-held popular assumptions about chimpanzee behavior. While chimpanzees are widely stereotyped as an inherently aggressive great ape species, the research documented frequent instances of pre-conflict reassuring physical contact between individuals. This contact ranged from gentle touching and embracing to more intimate gestures, such as mutual finger-to-mouth contact, that function to lower tension and build mutual trust. Bonobos, already known for more tolerant social dynamics, displayed even higher rates of this reassuring touch, matching their more collaborative species norms.

“Before stressful events, they come together, they reassure each other, they touch each other, they hug each other,” explained Professor Zanna Clay, one of the lead researchers on the project. Clay draws a parallel between this ape behavior and the pre-game huddles common in human team sports, framing the pre-competition contact as a collective “rallying cry.” “It’s like a ‘we’ rather than a ‘me,’” she added. The research also documented a unique collective behavior the team dubbed “reassurance trains,” where multiple apes take turns embracing one another in sequence to unify the whole group ahead of competition.

The team found that apes that engaged in this pre-stress touching and embracing saw tangible social benefits: these individuals were far more likely to access the contested food resource and eat alongside other group members without aggressive conflict. More socially tolerant groups of apes consistently showed higher levels of this reassuring pre-competition contact, confirming the link between the behavior and peaceful cooperation.

Dr. Jake Brooker, another co-author of the study, emphasized that comparing behavior in the two closely related great ape species opens a rare window into the evolutionary origins of human sociality. “Comparing bonobos and chimpanzees – our two closest relatives – offers fascinating insight into the evolutionary roots of social behaviour and how they, and we, manage tension, competition and cooperation,” Brooker said. The research team concludes that social touch, as a tool for building trust and cooperation, is one of the oldest forms of social communication, far predating the emergence of complex human language.

Based on the shared behavior of both chimpanzees and bonobos, researchers estimate that this social touch strategy dates back at least seven million years, to before the evolutionary split that separated the common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos into distinct lineages. That means when humans hug a nervous teammate, share a comforting handshake, or huddle close before a big challenge, we are drawing on an ancient social toolkit inherited from our shared ape ancestry — a biological instinct that has helped social primates navigate competition and build cooperation for millions of years.

A groundbreaking new finding in primatology has rocked the global conservation and scientific communities: researchers have formally identified a previously unknown species of monkey, a discovery conservation leaders are already calling extraordinary. While full details of the research, including the species’ specific geographic range, physical characteristics, and genetic sequencing data, are still being prepared for formal peer-reviewed publication, early confirmations have confirmed the discovery is legitimate.

Conservation biologists and field researchers have spent years surveying understudied forest habitats in search of unrecorded primate species, as many remote ecosystems remain underexplored by modern science. This new monkey, which was first documented through camera trap footage and later verified through genetic sampling of hair and fecal samples, fills a key gap in scientific understanding of primate biodiversity in the region where it was found.

Leading conservationist who was involved in the research project described the find as an “amazing discovery”, noting that new large mammal species are exceptionally rare to identify in the 21st century. Most new vertebrate species discovered in recent decades are smaller amphibians, reptiles, or rodents, making the identification of a new monkey species a particularly notable event for the scientific community.

The discovery also carries important implications for conservation efforts: the newly identified species is believed to occupy a limited habitat range, which means conservationists will immediately begin work to assess its population status and protect its ecosystem from threats like deforestation and illegal logging. Scientists are currently planning additional field surveys to learn more about the species’ behavior, social structure, diet, and overall population numbers to inform future protection plans.

Deep in the dense tropical tree canopy of central eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lomami National Park, an elusive, black-furred monkey with eye-catching pinkish-orange lips has been formally confirmed as a species new to global science. Only the fifth new African monkey species identified in the last 75 years, this discovery marks a major milestone for primate research and highlights the unstudied biodiversity remaining in one of the world’s most intact tropical forest ecosystems.

Local communities have long recognized the shy primate, calling it ‘Likweli’, but it took nearly 15 years of collaborative work between researchers from the DRC, the United States, and Germany to formally confirm it as a genetically distinct species. Conservation teams working in the park first documented an unusual primate matching Likweli’s description back in 2008, but only captured one low-resolution, blurry photograph that was insufficient for formal classification. A second confirmed sighting a decade later gave the international research team the opening they needed to launch a targeted study, combining field observations, audio recording of the monkey’s distinctive calls, high-resolution photography, and in-depth genetic analysis to prove the species was previously unknown to science.

Junior Amboko, a PhD candidate at Florida Atlantic University who led the field work for the project, described the moment of seeing the little-known primate clearly as an ‘amazing feeling’. Unlike many new species discoveries that find entirely unknown organisms in remote regions, this confirmation formalizes what local people already knew, but it fills a major gap in scientific understanding of African primate evolution.

Formally named *Colobus congoensis* by the research team, to honor the DRC’s extraordinary natural biodiversity, the new primate belongs to the colobus monkey group, a set of distinctive African primates defined by their lack of thumbs. As canopy-dwelling herbivores, these monkeys play a critical ecological role: they process tree seeds and support forest regeneration through their feeding habits, making them key to maintaining the health of the tropical forest ecosystem.

Lead researcher Professor Kate Detwiler, also of Florida Atlantic University, notes that the species’ unique bright pink-orange facial markings likely serve an important social function, acting as a visual signal to help individual monkeys identify one another or attract potential mates. Like many canopy primates, *Colobus congoensis* is more often heard than seen: it produces a distinctive, resonant roaring call that allows researchers to detect its presence, even when the shy animals remain hidden high in the treetops.

Field interviews with 52 local villages near the monkey’s range illustrate just how elusive the species is: only residents of eight villages reported ever having seen a Likweli monkey. Researchers currently believe the new species is rare, with a limited range restricted to a specific section of forest that provides the specialized habitat and food sources it requires. The species is also at risk from subsistence hunting for bushmeat, so the formal classification as a distinct species is a critical first step toward securing official protected status for the population.

The research team’s findings were published this week in the peer-reviewed journal *PLoS One*. Much remains unknown about this secretive new primate, and the team plans to conduct follow-up surveys to estimate the total population size and observe the species’ social and feeding behavior in its natural habitat.