It seems that we sacrificed some strength for greater endurance. The results fit neatly with the idea that early humans evolved to walk or run long distances. This adds to the evidence that walking is considerably more energy-costly for chimps than for people. In addition to having similar basic body structures, apes are highly intelligent and can exhibit human-like behavior. In evolutionary and genetic terms, ape species are much closer to humans than monkeys are. Fast-twitch fibres are more powerful, but use more energy and become fatigued faster.Īnother factor, O’Neill found, is that chimps have longer fibres on average, which also enhances their strength. Ape species include humans, gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons, and bonobos.
So why, on a pound-for-pound basis, are chimps slightly stronger than humans? The team went on to look at the muscle of chimps that had died of natural causes, which revealed that two-thirds of their muscle consists of fast-twitch fibres, whereas more than half of human fibres are slow-twitch. “Chimpanzee muscle is really no different than human muscle in terms of the force that individual fibres exert,” says O’Neill. Comparing the results with the many studies on those revealed that, contrary to the claims of several other studies, there is nothing special about chimp muscle. The same procedure is used to study human muscles. So they removed small samples of leg muscle from three chimps under general anaesthetic and measured the strength of individual fibres.
To create an accurate computer model of how chimps walk, the researchers needed to find out whether their muscles really are exceptionally strong. O’Neill’s team has been studying the evolution of upright walking. His findings suggest that other apes have similar muscle strength to chimpanzees.
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