What’s In A Kiss? 21 Million Years Of Evolution

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

How far back in evolutionary history does kissing go? Through phylogenetic analysis, an international team of scientists found that kissing was likely present in the ancestor of all apes – which lived 21 million years ago. Not only that: They were definitely kissing Neanderthals. The study was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. In this news roundup, we also talk about new clues about the collision that created our moon and a moss surviving the hardships of space.

Interested in stories about human evolution? Email us your question at [email protected].

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Transcript

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0:36.1	Listen, I like space, as you know, but I'm also a fan of apes making out, and that's why I'm here today. I heard that's a topic? Yes, we're going to pucker up to some weird research. We're also going to talk about space moss. Yes, and we are going to talk about another moon story, Scott. But this time, it's ours and how it was made. You know, I think last time we talked
0:54.6	about one of Jupiter's moons. So I'm glad we're closer to home this week. Yeah, moon, moon.
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