Science is Fun Fridays!


 A new modeling study has traced the act of kissing back 21 million years, from a shared ancestor of humans and other large apes.

Researchers concluded that Neanderthals likely kissed, and may even have kissed modern humans.

Since there are other animal behaviors that include mouth-to-mouth engagement, the scientists defined kissing as "non-aggressive mouth-to-mouth contact that did not involve food transfer."

Bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, macaques and baboons have all been observed in a kiss.

Scientists used Bayesian statistical methods to reconstruct the evolutionary history of kissing.  Treated as a biological trait, they tested many possible ways this behavior could have evolved.  They propose that kissing may have come from the act of sharing food, a bonding activity in itself.




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