Chimp drumming reveals building blocks of human rhythm

OUT west, they groove with fast, evenly spaced beats. In the east, it’s more free-form and fluid.

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Like humans, chimpanzees drum with distinct rhythms - and two subspecies living on opposite sides of Africa have their own signature styles, according to a study published recently in Current Biology.

The idea that ape drumming might hold clues to the origins of human musicality has long fascinated scientists, but collecting enough clean data amid the cacophony of the jungle had, until now, proven elusive.

"Finally, we've been able to quantify that chimps drum rhythmically - they don’t just randomly drum,” lead author Vesta Eleuteri of the University of Vienna said.

The findings lend fresh weight to the theory that the raw ingredients of human music were present before our evolutionary split from chimpanzees six million years ago.