Ape family tree suggests human ancestors weren’t particularly violent

The final widespread ancestor of people, chimpanzees and bonobos wasn’t particularly susceptible to violence, in accordance with a research making an attempt to reconstruct the evolution of warlike behaviour amongst apes. Hostility between teams of this ancestor might have been tempered by bonds between unrelated females, the research suggests – however researchers warn that its conclusions are extremely speculative.

The query of whether or not violence is integral to human nature has been debated for hundreds of years. Biologists have tried to reply it by chimpanzees, which, alongside …