Chimpanzees and humans share many similarities, which isn't surprising considering they're our closest living relatives. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week has added another to the list: third-party consolation. Researchers in England have discovered that chimps will calm each other down after conflicts and that the kissing and embracing help to alleviate the stress caused by the situation. Previous studies had focused on reconciliation between parties in conflict; this new work focuses on bystanders who come in afterward to offer solace.

Ive been thinking about chimps lately. I called them a who and not a which in a recent piece I produced for the American Museum of Natural History. This earned me a virtual slap by my copy editor. As in:

Chimpanzees, who WHICH are not bipedal…

I was just giving a nod to a fellow hominid—the taxonomic group that includes chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and humans. Pan troglodytes are 99.8% genetically similar to us, making them our closest living relative.