![]() ![]() ![]() The researchers began by critically examining the scientific literature, where studies reported a wide range of estimates for how chimpanzees outstrip humans in strength and power, averaged about 1.5 times over all. Details of this work, supported in part by a National Science Foundation grant to Umberger, appear in the current early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Umberger was part of the team led by Matthew O’Neill at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix, and others at Harvard and Ohio State University. Since at least the 1920s, anecdotes and some studies have suggested that chimpanzees are “super strong” compared to humans, implying that their muscle fibers, the cells that make up muscles, are superior to humans.īut now a research team reports that contrary to this belief, chimp muscles’ maximum dynamic force and power output is just about 1.35 times higher than human muscle of similar size, a difference they call “modest” compared with historical, popular accounts of chimp “super strength,” being many times stronger than humans.įurther, says Associate Professor of Kinesiology Brian Umberger, an expert in musculoskeletal biomechanics, the researchers found that this modest performance advantage for chimps was not due to stronger muscle fibers, but rather the different mix of muscle fibers found in chimpanzees compared to humans.Īs the authors explain, the long-standing but untested assumption of chimpanzees’ exceptional strength, if true, “would indicate a significant and previously unappreciated evolutionary shift in the force and/or power-producing capabilities of skeletal muscle” in either chimps or humans, whose lines diverged some 7 or 8 million years ago.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |