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Chimp and gorilla brains resist weight loss with age — unlike human brains
Older apes’ brains are just as big as those of younger apes. Credit: Anup Shah/Nature Picture Library
In humans, the brain tends to start losing weight at around the age of 45 to 50, even in the absence of disease. But a new analysis of the brains of 601 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) suggests that the same might not happen in humans’ closest living relatives1.
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Hrvoj-Mihic, B. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 123, e2609260123 (2026).
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