Press releases (archive)

Accumulative stone throwing chimpanzees like tree species with a resonating timbre

New study from Leipzig provides insights into the first steps

Monkeys cooperatively share information about the presence of snakes with group members

Humans’ ability to read dogs’ facial expressions is not innate

First "ManyPrimates" study published

Considered an oil palm pest, macaques can in fact diminish a more severe pest: rats

Cell atlas of great ape forebrain development illuminates dynamic gene-regulatory features that are unique to humans

Males can thus distinguish between cycle phases

Female gorillas must balance the reproductive costs of staying with or leaving an older male

New insights help to explain why same-sex sexual interactions are so important for female bonobos

Researchers discover remarkably complete 3.8 million-year-old cranium of Australopithecus anamensis at Woranso-Mille in Ethiopia

How does the playing behaviour of children influence their prosocial behaviour?

Sometimes recording what animals do not do or fail to find can lead to revealing insights into their expectations, and thus cognition

Long-term study of Amazonian community shows the interconnectedness of cooperation and status hierarchy

A long-term study of western gorillas in Gabon has revealed an unexpected behaviour – they use their teeth to crack open and eat nuts

Travel linearity increases in humans when they travel in increasingly large groups, while chimpanzees travel more goal-directed when they are on their…

Human foragers of both sexes use the sun for finding direction from a very young age

Contrary to humans, chimpanzees did not use search strategies to facilitate their task

Flies carrying deadly pathogens form long-term associations with monkeys and apes following them through the rainforest

From African golden cats to zebra duikers, Chimp&See lets you get up close and personal with African wildlife

Female mammals kill the offspring of their competitors when resources are scarce

Study offers a possible answer on how our human ancestors may have met their nutritional needs of iodine in the Congo basin

Early ancestors of the last Neandertals lived in Europe already 120,000 years ago

Mankind’s closest living relatives – chimpanzees – are disappearing from the earth, because their habitats are destroyed and they are being eaten into…

Scientists discover the oldest systematically produced stone artifacts to date

An in situ exhibition at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig

Wild chimpanzees eat tortoises after cracking them open against tree trunks

Mothers’ presence influences the reproductive success of their adult sons

Denisovan mandible likely represents the earliest hominin fossil on the Tibetan Plateau

By focusing on a group of organisms taxon-specific databases make a broad range of high-quality data accessible

DNA sequences from Indonesia and New Guinea reveal new branches of the Denisovan family tree

Songbirds that work together with raising their young coordinate its attention and exchange itself intensively with each other

Wild female chimpanzees copulate more frequently with males who share meat with them over long periods of time, according to a study led by …

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, welcomes Daniel Haun as new Director

Visual artists Elmar Hermann and Emanuel Mathias are interested in the relationship between science and art, language and image. In their new…

African wild apes notice and often react to novel items in their environment

New research leads the way in validating a promising human brain model

Human impact reduces the behavioral repertoire of chimpanzees

Increased dust loads result in decreased chewing efficiency in chimpanzees

Study describes unique behavioral patterns of Bili-Uéré chimpanzees in the DR Congo

Isotope analyses performed on single amino acids in Neandertals’ collagen samples shed new light on their debated diet

Orangutans make complex economic decisions about tool use depending on the current 'market' situation

Chimpanzees learn nut-cracking technique and reach expert efficiency relatively faster than humans

The language we speak affects the way we process, store and retrieve information

New studies reveal deep history of Denisovans and Neanderthals in southern Siberia

Scientists can reconstruct the feeding behavior and habitats of extinct vertebrates

Plant phytolith and water content cause differing degrees of…