Humans — the weakest of all great apes. The team performed biopsies on thigh and calf muscles collected from three anesthetized chimps housed at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Humans may lack the strength of chimps — our closest relatives on the tree of evolution — because our nervous systems exert more control over our muscles, says evolutionary biologist Alan Walker, a professor at Penn State University.
Since at least the 1920s, both anecdotal reports and more controlled experiments have indicated that the strength of a chimpanzee can exceed that of a human (6–12).
Humans are only weak compared to some primates, while quite strong when compared with others. For example, it's a pretty safe bet that a human could beat a squirrel monkey in an arm wrestle, especially since males only weigh about 2lbs (1kg) as adults, with females being slightly smaller.
A chimp would win a fight against a human. Although chimps and humans are carnivores with formidable fighting abilities, a chimp is far more aggressive and violent than a person. The ideal plan is to run as fast and as far as possible.
This result matches well with the few tests that have been done, which suggest that when it comes to pulling and jumping, chimps are about 1.5 times as strong as humans relative to their body mass. But because they are lighter than the average person, humans can actually outperform them in absolute terms, say O'Neill.
According to research, we're losing substantial bone strength – with up to 20% less mass than our ancestors had [4]. This trend toward less bone mass is one of the most conclusive signs that we are becoming weaker as a species.
A Hug a Day
Northern Muriqui Monkeys are the most peaceful primates in the world, living in uniquely egalitarian societies where relationships between males and females are free of conflict, and instead full of hugs.
Human Muscles Evolved Into Weakness, In Order to Boost Our Brains. Much like our brains, human muscles have evolved several times more rapidly than primate muscles, according to a new study — but that process has made us weaker over time in a process, while brains become more advanced.
Great apes like chimps, bonobos and gorillas can't make fists with their hands, so they can't actually punch, making it difficult to directly compare our fighting abilities with theirs.
Fun fact: Gorillas are about 10x stronger than the average adult human male. Even more closely related to humans are chimpanzees, with roughly 99% of their DNA in common with ours.
Despite their light skulls, human jaws are stronger than those of their ancient ancestors and ape cousins. MODERN HUMANS CAN BITE off more than apes can chew, according to new research.
There's a simple answer: Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees or any of the other great apes that live today. We instead share a common ancestor that lived roughly 10 million years ago.
Chimpanzees are about 1.35 times stronger than humans, according to a new study. But despite tales of superpower-like strength from chimps, this difference might be because humans are comparatively weak, not because our cousins are preternaturally strong.
Her research has revealed that Costa Rica's squirrel monkeys are among the most egalitarian and least aggressive primates in the world. She describes them as the peaceful primate in the peaceable kingdom.
Another Heart-Warming Way Apes Beat Us at Being Human
New research shows that free-loving bonobos are unselfishly kind to strangers.
The most dangerous of all primates is the Male Silverback Gorilla due to their size and temper of rivals invading their territory they're especially defensive to humans because humans like to wonder to close for comfort.
It should come as a surprise to no one that dogs are the number one most beloved animal. They're not just popular — historically, the symbiotic relationship between dogs and people helped both species survive. The second most popular animal is the cat.
Several studies corroborate the fact that our ancestors were far stronger than us, and that human strength and fitness has decreased so dramatically in recent years that even the fittest among us wouldn't be able to keep up with the laziest of our ancestors.
Humans have never stopped evolving and continue to do so today. Evolution is a slow process that takes many generations of reproduction to become evident.
The image of Neanderthals as brutish and culturally unsophisticated has changed in recent years – they could make cave art, jewellery, complex stone tools and may have had language and cooked foods. Yes, they were extremely physically strong – certainly stronger than the vast majority of humans living today.
Rats and house cats were the easiest presumed pushovers, with two-thirds of participants claiming they could see one off, while grizzly bears, elephants and lions were rightfully respected – only 2 per cent of pollsters claimed they would be able to take one down.
A kangaroo would win a fight against a human being.
Do not be fooled by videos of humans successfully attacking a kangaroo. In the wild, a kangaroo will try to grasp their prey and then tear into it with the claws on its feet. This will inflict devastating wounds on a human being or even disembowel them.