Chimpanzees use quick-fire gestures for effective communication.
Chimpanzees rely on rapid gestures for communication
Experts have studied thousands of gestures made by wild primates in east Africa and found notable parallels with the turn-taking that is prominent in human conversations and the speed of responses.
The research suggests that humans and apes share fundamental features of communication either dating back to their ancient ancestors or which have been developed separately because of the benefits it brings.
Chimps have a varied range of hand gestures for simple requests such as 'stop it', 'follow me' or 'groom me'. In some cases, the animals traded up to seven gestures in a row and typically took 120 milliseconds to respond to one another.
Dr. Gal Badihi, an animal behaviour expert at the University of St Andrews, said: "Chimpanzees use gestures in almost every aspect of their life.
"Some groups use a big, loud, scratch gesture and then start grooming together. In the middle of the grooming interactions they might gesture to each other to change position or to start grooming in a new place."