Culture, from a biological point of view, is behavior that is passed on through social contact. But what are the origins of culture? And what is it about humans that has allowed us to develop such rich and diverse cultures?

Our relatives might hold the answers.

Chimpanzees, our closest relatives, show a wide range of cultural behaviors, from tool use to signaling. That indicates that culture arose at least 7 million years ago, the point at which ancestors of chimps and humans diverged.