The greater strength of chimpanzees, relative to humans, may have been explained by American scientists. A study suggests the difference is mostly due to a higher proportion in chimps of a muscle fibre type involved in powerful, rapid movements. The findings do not support previous work suggesting mechanical aspects of chimp muscles are responsible.
In the 1920s, the evidence along with investigations by the biologist John Bauman, found that chimps were between four and eight times stronger than an adult human. But later studies failed to prove these figures, as researchers found that chimps did not greatly outperform adult males when given physical tasks.
Dr Matthew found that, on average, they are 1.5 times more powerful than humans in pulling and jumping tasks. According to ideas put forward in previous work, the difference might be accounted for if chimpanzee muscles were able to give more force per area.
Dr O’Neill and his colleagues set out to test these ideas and others, by directly measuring the properties of muscle fibres taken from chimps that had been frozen after death. “We really wanted to find out whether they were different from those of human muscle,” he explained. “What we found was that there was really no difference in the fundamental properties of chimp muscle fibres and human muscle fibres, for any of the individual fibres.” However, they did find key differences in the length of the fibres—chimp muscle fibres tend to be longer than those in humans.
Chimps possess about twice the amount of “fast” muscle fibre. This type of fibre contracts quickly and is useful for rapid movements. But fast fibres have a downside: they quickly tire. Human muscles are controlled by “slow” muscle fibres, which contract more slowly, but keep going for longer. They are useful for activities that require endurance.
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