talking and waving their hands in the air

Interesting research, but why the need to constantly hook these stories to the human angle? Why isn't it enough to study bonobo and other primates for their own sake?

Bonobos and chimps 'speak' with gestures

Human spoken language may have evolved from a currency of hand and arm gestures, not simply through improvements in the basic vocalisations made by primates. This "gesture theory" of language evolution has been given weight by new findings showing that the meaning of a primate's gesture depends on the context in which it is used, and on what other signals are being given at the same time. Gesture is used more flexibly than vocalised communication in nonhuman primates, the researchers found. A proto-language using a combination of gesture and vocalisation is therefore more likely to have given rise to human language, than simply an improvement in the often involuntary vocalisations that primates make, they say.… [22:00 30 April 2007, NewScientist.com by Rowan Hooper]

[drawing by Doug Millison]