Associate Professor Federico Battiston and PhD Student Onkar Sadekar, both researchers from the Department of Network and Data Science at Central European University (CEU), contributed to research on chimpanzee culture with their network analysis insights.
"We found the existence of a reinforcement mechanism, where the chances of sharing a genetic link are high in the case of cultural links, but only if tools are complex. This suggests that a common ancestor is most likely the reason for the presence of shared complex tools," says Federico Battiston.
Recognizing his significant contributions to network science and its application in understanding cultural transmission, Federico Battiston was honored last Monday with the 2025 Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics by the German Physical Society. The award acknowledges his pioneering work in higher-order network science, which has helped uncover new insights into social and biological systems, including cultural evolution in chimpanzees. His research has demonstrated how interactions within groups shape collective behavior, a key factor in the study of cultural transmission.
"The award is not just a personal honor but a testament to the collaborative research environment at CEU and the invaluable contributions of my colleagues and students," Battiston said. His innovative approaches have played a crucial role in revealing the intricate connections between genetic and cultural evolution in non-human primates, bringing a fresh perspective to evolutionary science.
A New Perspective on Chimpanzee Culture
This study provides the strongest evidence yet that chimpanzees develop culture cumulatively, modifying and expanding on previous behaviors over time. While their cultural evolution is still in its early stages compared to humans, these findings suggest that the ability to build upon past innovations is not unique to our species.
This discovery not only deepens our understanding of chimpanzee behavior but also sheds light on the evolutionary roots of human culture itself.
Scientists have long known that chimpanzees pass on cultural traditions, such as tool use, from generation to generation-just like humans. However, while human culture continuously evolves and builds upon past innovations, chimpanzee culture has been thought to remain static. This led researchers to believe that only humans have the ability to develop increasingly complex cultures over time.
Now, a groundbreaking study published in Science challenges that assumption. Researchers have found that chimpanzees also develop culture cumulatively-although in a simpler, early-stage form.
Unraveling Chimpanzees' Cultural History
The study, titled "Population Connectivity Shapes the Distribution and Complexity of Chimpanzee Cumulative Culture," was conducted by an international team of anthropologists, primatologists, and geneticists from universities and research institutions in Austria, Switzerland, the UK, Germany, and Spain.
For years, scientists have debated whether chimpanzees can build more advanced cultural traditions over time. Some of their most complex tool-use behaviors-such as using multiple tools in sequence to extract hidden food-suggest that their culture may be cumulative. However, since most chimpanzee tools are made of perishable materials like sticks and leaves, researchers have lacked historical evidence to confirm this. To solve this puzzle, scientists turned to genetics.
How the Study Was Conducted
The researchers analyzed genetic markers from chimpanzee populations across 35 study sites in Africa. These genetic markers provide evidence of historical connections between different groups. Alongside this data, they examined various foraging behaviors that are thought to be culturally learned.
They categorized these behaviors into three levels of complexity:
- No tools used
- Simple tool use (e.g., using a leaf sponge to extract water from a tree hole)
- Complex toolsets (using multiple tools in sequence to accomplish a task)
Key Findings
One of the most important discoveries was that female chimpanzees, who migrate to new communities to breed, also help spread cultural innovations. As they move between groups, they introduce new techniques and tools to communities that previously lacked them-just as they pass on genetic material.
By tracing genetic links over thousands of years, researchers found that the most complex chimpanzee technologies-those involving entire toolsets-were the most strongly linked across now-distant populations. This suggests that cultural knowledge, like genetic material, has been transmitted across generations and geographic regions.
Additionally, where both complex toolsets and their simpler versions were found at different study sites, genetic evidence showed that these populations were historically connected through female migrations. This indicates that chimpanzee cultures likely evolved over time by building upon simpler traditions, much like human culture does.
