From this passage, the reader can conclude that ____
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We think of chitchat and small talk as the things people say to pass the time or kill an awkward silence. But new research suggests these idle conversations could be a social-bonding tool passed down from our ape-like ancestors. Scientists with Princeton University studied ringtailed lemurs, animals that are considered among the more ancestral forms of primates—the evolutionary lineage that includes humans, apes and monkeys. The study concludes that lemurs call to each other essentially as a replacement for mutual grooming, or cleaning each other’s fur, a widespread social-bonding behavior among non-human primates.