Arizona State University and University of Arizona researchers are among more than 20 coauthors of a new article in the journal Science about a deadly split in a large group of chimpanzees.

Chimps and bonobos are humans’ closest living relatives.

Researchers have spent decades studying wild chimps living in a Uganda national park. Then the group split in two over several years.

UA professor Jacob Negrey is a coauthor of the article, which labels the ensuing violence a civil war not seen before.

“And that became very clear to us when this split kind of escalated into lethal conflict when members of one of the new groups began to kill members of the other group,” Negrey said. Around the time of the group split, some of the oldest male chimps died and the highest ranking male was overtaken.

ASU professor Kevin Langergraber is also a coauthor.

“These things might have been important, but they’ve all happened before and no split occurred. What was unusual was the group had grown and grown and grown for so long that they got to be the largest chimpanzee group ever known. And that’s probably at the bottom of it in the end,” Langergraber said.

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