Bonobos and chimpanzees are closely related members of the great ape family, and both species use gestures to communicate. In this study by Graham et al., the authors were able to deduce the meaning of great ape gestures by assessing whether the signaler was satisfied by the response elicited in the recipient of the gesture (i.e. whether they then stopped gesturing). This allowed them to define the meaning of bonobo gestures, and then to compare the meanings of bonobo gestures with those of chimpanzees. They found that many of the gestures share the same meanings, and that bonobos and chimpanzees could, in principle, understand one another's gestures. The image shows bonobos grooming, a frequent outcome of gesturing.
Image Credit: Catherine Hobaiter
Editorial
Conservation stories from the front lines
PLOS Biology: published February 5, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005226
Essay
How the microbiome challenges our concept of self
PLOS Biology: published February 9, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005358
Related Articles
Perspectives
Making America great again requires acting on scientific knowledge
PLOS Biology: published February 5, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004337
Witnessing extinction in real time
PLOS Biology: published February 6, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003080
Resurrection and resilience of the rarest butterflies
PLOS Biology: published February 6, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003488
A case for conserving common species
PLOS Biology: published February 7, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004261
The jaguar and the PhD
PLOS Biology: published February 7, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004152
Primers
Fruit flies are multistable geniuses
PLOS Biology: published February 14, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005429
Related Articles
With a pinch of extra salt—Did predatory protists steal genes from their food?
PLOS Biology: published February 2, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005163
Related Articles
Lipids at the crossroad: Shaping biological membranes heterogeneity defines trafficking pathways
PLOS Biology: published February 26, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005188
Related Articles
Revealing how an adenylate cyclase toxin uses bait and switch tactics in its activation
PLOS Biology: published February 27, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005356
Related Articles
Research Articles
Bonobo and chimpanzee gestures overlap extensively in meaning
PLOS Biology: published February 27, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004825
Beyond fitness tracking: The use of consumer-grade wearable data from normal volunteers in cardiovascular and lipidomics research
PLOS Biology: published February 27, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004285
Empirical evidence that metabolic theory describes the temperature dependency of within-host parasite dynamics
PLOS Biology: published February 7, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004608
Related Articles
Vocal development through morphological computation
PLOS Biology: published February 20, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003933
Related Articles
Compositional shifts in root-associated bacterial and archaeal microbiota track the plant life cycle in field-grown rice
PLOS Biology: published February 23, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003862
Design of synthetic bacterial communities for predictable plant phenotypes
PLOS Biology: published February 20, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003962
Multi-stability with ambiguous visual stimuli in Drosophila orientation behavior
PLOS Biology: published February 13, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003113
Related Articles
Parallel trends in cortical gray and white matter architecture and connections in primates allow fine study of pathways in humans and reveal network disruptions in autism
PLOS Biology: published February 5, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004559
Catecholamines alter the intrinsic variability of cortical population activity and perception
PLOS Biology: published February 8, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003453
A damped oscillator imposes temporal order on posterior gap gene expression in Drosophila
PLOS Biology: published February 16, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003174
Effective polyploidy causes phenotypic delay and influences bacterial evolvability
PLOS Biology: published February 22, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004644
Neutrophils kill the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis using trogocytosis
PLOS Biology: published February 6, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003885
Olig2 and Hes regulatory dynamics during motor neuron differentiation revealed by single cell transcriptomics
PLOS Biology: published February 1, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003127
Identification of FAM173B as a protein methyltransferase promoting chronic pain
PLOS Biology: published February 14, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003452
Meta-Research Article
Reproducibility of preclinical animal research improves with heterogeneity of study samples
PLOS Biology: published February 22, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003693