May 1, 2009 Researchers at Harvard University have found that
humans aren’t the only ones who can groove to a beat — some
other species can dance, too. The capability was previously
believed to be specific to humans. The research team found that
only species that can mimic sound seem to be able to keep a
beat, implying an evolutionary link between the two capacities.
The study was led by Adena Schachner, a doctoral candidate in
psychology at Harvard, and is published in the current issue of
Current Biology. Schachner’s co-authors are Marc Hauser,
professor of psychology at Harvard; Irene Pepperberg, lecturer
at Harvard and adjunct associate professor of psychology at
Brandeis University; and Timothy Brady, a doctoral candidate at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Schachner and her
colleagues closely studied Alex, a well-known African grey
parrot who passed away shortly after the study, and Snowball, a
sulphur-crested cockatoo whose humanlike dancing behavior has
led to online fame. “Our analyses show