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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 15, 2025

Reverse Dissection and DiceCT Reveal Otherwise Hidden Data in the Evolution of the Primate Face

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Published on: January 7, 2019

The origin of great ape gestural forms.

Kirsty E Graham^1,2, Federico Rossano³, Richard T Moore⁴

¹School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Mary's St Mary's Quad, South St, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK.

Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

|August 28, 2024

Summary

Great ape gestures originate from recruiting existing behaviors, not ritualization or natural selection. This "recruitment view" explains communication continuity between humans and apes.

Keywords:

adaptation communication exaptation great ape gestures language evolution meaning pragmatics

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Last Updated: Jun 15, 2025

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Area of Science:

Primatology
Ethology
Evolutionary Biology

Background:

Existing theories on great ape gestural origins include the Leipzig view (ontogenetic ritualization) and the St Andrews view (natural selection).
These views predict different patterns of gestural diversity and universality.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose and evaluate an alternative "recruitment view" for the origins of great ape gestures.
To situate great ape gestural communication within a pragmatic framework continuous with human communication.

Main Methods:

Rejection of existing theories based on current data.
Proposal of the "recruitment view" and its underlying mechanisms.
Development of testable predictions to differentiate between the proposed and existing views.

Main Results:

The "recruitment view" posits that gestures recruit existing behavioral repertoire features for communication.
Gestures derive communicative functions from recognizable action schemas and body parts.
This view predicts inter- and intra-species comprehensibility without direct selection on gestural forms.

Conclusions:

The "recruitment view" offers a parsimonious explanation for great ape gestural origins and continuity with human communication.
It better explains existing data within a mechanistic framework.
Further research can adjudicate between the recruitment, Leipzig, and St Andrews views.