Neanderthals and Modern Humans Were Likely Kissing, Researchers Suggest
From seabirds to polar bears, primates to orangutans, certain species engage in mouth-to-mouth contact. Now, researchers suggest that Neanderthals did it too – and possibly exchanged kisses with early Homo sapiens.
Shared Oral Evidence
This isn't the initial instance experts have suggested Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were closely connected. Among previous studies, scientists have discovered humans and their Neanderthal relatives shared the same mouth microbe for millions of years after the evolutionary divergence, implying they exchanged oral fluids.
"Probably they were engaging in intimate contact," the researcher noted, adding that the concept chimed with research that has revealed people of non-African ancestry contain ancient genetic material in their genetic makeup, demonstrating genetic mixing was occurring.
Romantic Spin
"It certainly puts a different spin on human-Neanderthal relations," the lead researcher commented.
Publishing in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, the researcher and her team report how, to explore the historical roots of kissing, they first had to develop a description that was not limited to how people smooch.
Describing Kissing
"There have been some efforts to define a intimate act, but it's very much been human-centric, which implies that essentially other animals do not engage in this. Currently we understand that they probably do, it might just not look from what human kissing looks like," explained Brindle.
Nonetheless, she noted some behaviors that looked like intimate contact were something rather different – such as the chewing and transfer of food, or "kiss-fighting", observed in fish known as French grunts.
As a result the team came up with a description of kissing based on friendly interactions involving directed oral interaction with a individual of the same species, with some motion of the mouth but no transfer of food.
Research Methods
The lead researcher explained they concentrated on reports of intimate behavior in non-human species from Africa and Asian regions, including primates, chimpanzees and great apes, and employed digital recordings to verify the observations.
Scientists then combined this information with details on the evolutionary relationships between living and ancient types of such animals.
Historical Origins
The team propose the findings suggest kissing evolved somewhere between 21.5 million and 16.9m years ago in the predecessors of the large apes.
The position of Neanderthals on this evolutionary lineage suggests it is probable they, too, engaged in a intimate act, the scientists conclude. But the behavior might not have been limited to their specific group.
"The fact that humans engage intimately, the reality that we now have demonstrated that Neanderthals very likely kissed, suggests that the two [species] are also likely to have engage," Brindle added.
Evolutionary Importance
Although the evolutionary explanation is debated, Brindle said intimate contact could be employed in reproductive situations to possibly increase reproductive success or assist in selecting between partners, while it could assist strengthen connections when used in a non-sexual manner.
Another expert in the activities of primates said that as kissing behavior was observed in a broad spectrum of apes it was logical its origins extend far into our ancient history, and an examination of different forms of kissing among a broader range of species might extend its beginnings back further still.
"Things that we consider as characteristics of human life, like intimate contact, are not unique to us if we examine carefully at different species," he said.
Cultural Elements
An archaeology expert said that kissing had a cultural element as it was not common to all societies.
"Nonetheless, as people we thrive or fail on the quality of our relationships, and ways of promoting confidence and intimacy will have been significant for eons," she said. "It might be an image that seems a bit contradictory to our incorrect assumptions of a supposedly aggressive and ancient history, but actually it should be expected that Neanderthals – and including Neanderthals and our own species collectively – engaged intimately."
