
Gorillas found to live in ‘complex societies’ - hhs
https://www.cam.ac.uk/gorillasociety
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lisper
Previous discussion from last week:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20466542](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20466542)

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rubyn00bie
Really interesting article, one thing I thought fascinating, was the idea: we
and gorillas (and chimps) share a common ancestor that developed complex
societies, but chimpanzees have lost a lot of this trait. It makes we wonder
what was the stimulus that caused their genus to undergo a regression of
social skills?

Also, the "Darwin" hoodie the Dr. Morrison is wearing at the bottom is
awesome.

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jacobush
How do we know the common ancestor had better socials skills than chimps?

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molloy
By the reasoning of who you're replying to, the answer to your question would
be that it's because we share the same common ancestor with both chimps and
gorillas—gorillas also inheriting the improved social skills that humans have,
making chimps the odd ones out.

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jacobush
Which is a leap - maybe our common ancestor had something which bloomed in
gorillas and humans, but not in chimps. It's not necessarily the case that the
chimps have reverted.

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otabdeveloper4
The societies of ants are even more complex. Just sayin'.

