Between gorillas and humans have more in common than previously thought.
Our closest relatives are apes chimpanzees. The similarity between us is not only in appearance but also in genetics. Depending on the method of calculation, the total genome monkey and human is from 94 to 99%. Further according to the similarity of gorillas are located, but the General appearance and the genetic traits we have much less. However, scientists from different parts of the world are trying to find between us the same features. Recently one of them was discovered by researchers from the US and the UK. More than ten years, they watched several groups of gorillas and found that they build friendly relationship almost as well as humans. That is, they always have several "best friends" and all the other individuals in the group remain just friends. Also the researchers noticed that the gorillas are sociable as man, so shy and silent.
The results of the study have been published . In the framework of scientific work, researchers for 12 years watched life of 13 groups of gorillas from Rwanda (Africa). They were mostly interested in the way in which the monkeys build a friendly relationship. Other primates demonstrate friendliness with courtship, but gorillas do not tend to. Therefore, the sign of friendship, scientists have to accept that individuals of the a long time next to each other. If the two gorillas often sat, it is meant that they are friends. If such meetings were rare, so it's just familiar.
Gorilla was first scientifically described in 1847 by Thomas Sevices
In the course of the observations the researchers found that these creatures, too, there is a certain group of close friends. Friendly relations occur at an early age and often go on into adulthood. However, over time, males are excluded from some "childhood friends". The researchers attribute this to the fact that by confining the promises they made to prepare for adult and independent life. But females don't do that and often retain their old acquaintances. In General, their behavior gorillas are very similar people.
It would be Logical to assume that in large groups, gorillas have a larger number of friends and in General their society is becoming more complicated and diverse. However, the relationship between group size and the number of friends in gorillas, scientists have not identified. It turns out that gorillas, like people, can support only a fixed number of friends and acquaintances. A limited number of permanent social ties in the scientific community is called Dunbar's number. If the observations of the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar is correct, the average person can routinely communicate only with 150 people. These include relatives, work colleagues and friends who can meet in the street, shops and so on.
Anthropology — the science concerned with the study of the origin, development, and human existence
In monkeys, the number of Dunbar is much less. It is believed that humanoid primates can communicate with a maximum of 50 individuals. Say around 5 of them are close friends, and the remaining 45 — with whom they may from time to time overlap. In General, the number of friends as people and friends can fluctuate greatly depending on their nature. Scientists claim that in the world of monkeys is sufficient and sociable individuals and skromna with a narrow range of communication.
In this photo, apparently captured real friends
Thus, the maintenance of friendly relations is another common feature between humans and gorillas. But don't forget about the other similarities — for example, those laid at the genetic level. Until about 2016, it was believed that the genome of humans and gorillas have a lot of differences. However, in the course of studying the genomes of 11-year-old Susie gorilla from a zoo in the American state of Ohio, scientists have discovered much more common. In a nutshell, the genomes of humans and gorillas differ by only 1.6%. The difference is is that the immune and reproductive systems, sense perception, the structure of the hair and nails, as well as the regulation of blood sugar.
One of the interesting similarities between humans and monkeys previously it was thought that our hair turns gray. However, if in the case of men, hair losing color due to aging, graying monkey entirely different reasons. To learn about the true reasons for the graying of hair .
