What do chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans and humans all have in common?

We laugh.

That means laughter evolved over 14 millions years ago, when orangutans split from the great ape line leading to humans.

All of us laugh when tickled and when engaged in social play. All of us are subject to contagious laughter in lighthearted moments.

Here’s an orangutan - my favorite great ape - laughing:

Laughing Orangutan.jpg

And my second favorite, a bonobo:

Laughing Bonobo.jpg

Aren’t they (we) precious?

References:

Marina Davila Ross, Michael J Owren & Elke Zimmermann (2010) The evolution of laughter in great apes and humans, Communicative & Integrative Biology, 3:2, 191-194, DOI: 10.4161/cib.3.2.10944

Orangutan genome (part 1): The quest for Leakey’s ancestral great ape by Susanne Kassube/The Orangutan Foundation; Mar 28th 2014

The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson (2018) Oxford University Press; ISBN-10: 0190495995