生物谷報道：長期以來,，人們認為不同黑猩猩群體之間的差異乃是遺傳水平上的不同所致,。但是利物浦大學的一個研究小組卻發(fā)現(xiàn),，遷移到其它群落的黑猩猩的行為會發(fā)生改變，證明了他們也會跟人類一樣建立自己的“文化”,。
圖片說明：黑猩猩種群間存在“文化”差異,。
（圖片來源：physorg網(wǎng)站）
靈長動物專家Stephen Lycett博士解釋說，我們已了解不同群落的黑猩猩的行為表現(xiàn)不同,，但我們不知道為什么,。有人認為幼小的黑猩猩從雙親遺傳得到某些基因，并發(fā)育成特定的行為特征,，但這個假設沒有確切的證據(jù)支持,。還有人認為這些行為是黑猩猩的生物本能，它們并不像我們?nèi)祟愐粯佑形幕?/p>
研究人員在觀察黑猩猩如何制備食物時發(fā)現(xiàn),，一個群落的黑猩猩用石頭做工具敲開堅果,，另一個群落的黑猩猩既用石頭也用木棍。他們發(fā)現(xiàn),，這些制備食物的方法,，在過去的100,000年間從非洲東部流傳到西部（非洲東西部相距約4000千米，生物谷注）,。這個研究團隊也發(fā)現(xiàn),，其它技巧如裝飾等也是如此,。該研究表明，不同行為與黑猩猩如何進行社會化組織有關,，而不是之前所認為的由遺傳所決定,。
為了進一步研究該理論，研究人員建立了非洲東部和西部黑猩猩的行為進化樹,，以及其遺傳進化樹,。他們本來期望找出具有相似遺傳背景的黑猩猩，也具有相似的行為特性,。但結果卻發(fā)現(xiàn),，具有相似行為特性的黑猩猩，遺傳背景并不一樣,。
Lycett博士進一步說明,，這解釋了為什么一些群落會采用特定的行為和方法去適應不同的環(huán)境，比如相似的找食物的方法,。
該項研究結果發(fā)表在2008年1月8日的PNAS雜志上,。（生物谷 www.bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Published online before print October 29, 2007, 10.1073/pnas.0707930104
PNAS | November 6, 2007 | vol. 104 | no. 45 | 17588-17592
From the Cover
ANTHROPOLOGY
Phylogenetic analyses of behavior support existence of culture among wild chimpanzees
Stephen J. Lycett,, Mark Collard, and William C. McGrew¶
British Academy Centenary Research Project, School of Archaeology, Classics, and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Hartley Building, Brownlow Street, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6; and ¶Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge CB2 1QH, United Kingdom
Edited by Alan Walker, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, and approved September 17, 2007 (received for review August 24, 2007)
Culture has long been considered to be not only unique to humans, but also responsible for making us qualitatively different from all other forms of life. In recent years, however, researchers studying chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have challenged this idea. Natural populations of chimpanzees have been found to vary greatly in their behavior. Because many of these interpopulation differences cannot be readily explained by ecological factors, it has been argued that they result from social learning and, therefore, can be regarded as cultural variations. Recent studies showing social transmission in captive chimpanzee populations suggest that this hypothesis is plausible. However, the culture hypothesis has been questioned on the grounds that the behavioral variation may be explained at a proximate level by genetic differences between subspecies. Here we use cladistic analyses of the major cross-site behavioral data set to test the hypothesis that the behavioral differences among the best-documented chimpanzee populations are genetically determined. If behavioral diversity is primarily the product of genetic differences between subspecies, then population data should show less phylogenetic structure when data from a single subspecies (P. t. schweinfurthii) are compared with data from two subspecies (P. t. verus and P. t. schweinfurthii) analyzed together. Our findings are inconsistent with the hypothesis that the observed behavioral patterns of wild chimpanzee populations can be explained primarily by genetic differences between subspecies. Instead, our results support the suggestion that the behavioral patterns are the product of social learning and, therefore, can be considered cultural.
social learning | cultural transmission | Pan troglodytes | cladistics
