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Life Sciences, Wiley-Blackwell

Chimpanzee Ground Nests Offer New Insight into Our Ancestors Descent from the Trees

Chimpanzee Behaviour Suggests Tree-to-Ground Transition Occurred Before Emergence of Ancient Humans


An international team of primatologists from the University of Cambridge and Kyoto University, led by Dr Kathelijne Koops, studied the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) population in the Nimba Mountains in Guinea, West Africa. All species of great ape build nests to sleep in each night. Construction of these shelters takes minutes as the apes bend, break and interweave branches into a circular frame, followed by tucking in smaller branches to form a sturdy but comfortable sleeping platform.

“We believe that, like modern apes, the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans also slept in the trees 6 million years ago,” said Dr Koops. “However, these nests are not preserved in the fossil or archaeological record, so it is impossible to study directly the ancient transition from sleeping in trees to building shelters on the ground. Recording this rare behaviour in the chimpanzee, our closest relative, may provide vital clues.”


The team showed that as chimpanzees sleep both on the ground and in the trees, the transition from trees to the ground did not require a special evolutionary adaptation. This suggests that early hominins may have slept on the ground before the emergence of Homo erectus (‘upright man’), the first species which was fully adapted to living on the ground. “This is intriguing as it has long been believed that coming down from the trees was a crucial evolutionary shift,” said Koops. “However, this chimpanzees’ behaviour suggests a more deep-seated, gradual transition from tree-to-ground sleep.”

Other theories for the tree-to-ground transition have included the use of fire and the scarcity of trees in open habitats. The team demonstrated that neither is a prerequisite for ground sleeping, as the chimpanzees live in a plentiful evergreen rainforest and do not create fire.
