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You already know that chimps have been known to throw their own poop, but as it turns out, the more often they throw it and the better they aim, the smarter they happen to be. As it turns out, the poop throwing might be specifically related to the part of their brains that handle communication:
The chimps who throw their poop the most frequently and most accurately not only have the largest and best developed motor cortex — duh — but also comparatively well-connected and developed Broca’s areas and left hemispheres in general. If that wasn’t enough, the kicker is that the specific areas and connections that are well-connected and developed are the same ones that play important parts in speech for humans.
I wonder what the results indicate about humans who are good at communication.
Link Via Geekosystem
I didn’t know until just now, but December 14th is Monkey Day! {wiki} The day is set aside to raise awareness about monkey issues, monkeys in the news, and ways you can help monkeys (apes and other primates are included as well). In honor of the occasion, holiday founder Casey Sorrow put together a roundup of monkey news, links, and videos from the past year for your education and entertainment. Link
(Image credit: 123 Greetings)
Forget DNA! Scientists have re-traced our evolutionary tree and confirmed human’s relationship to fellow apes through laughter.
Who says you can’t learn anything by tickling chimps?
To investigate that, Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth in England and colleagues carried out a detailed analysis of the sounds evoked by tickling three human babies and 21 orangutans, gorillas, chimps and bonobos.
After measuring 11 traits in the sound from each species, they mapped out how these sounds appeared to be related to each other. The result looked like a family tree. Significantly, that tree matched the way the species themselves are related, the scientists reported online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
They also concluded that while human laughter sounds much different from the ape versions, its distinctive features could well have arisen from shared ancestral traits.
After measuring 11 traits in the sound from each species, they mapped out how these sounds appeared to be related to each other. The result looked like a family tree. Significantly, that tree matched the way the species themselves are related, the scientists reported online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
I know all animals are beautiful in a “life is beautiful, so are the creatures living it” kind of way, but this Snub-Nosed Monkey is the creepiest thing ever. The lack of lips, the slits for nostrils, it looks like a skull. Gross!
