India, Nov. 21 -- A new study has found evidence that kissing evolved in the common ancestor of humans and other large apes around 21 million years ago, and that Neanderthals likely engaged in kissing too.

Kissing occurs in a variety of animals, but presents an evolutionary puzzle: it appears to carry high risks, such as disease transmission, while offering no obvious reproductive or survival advantage. Despite kissing carrying cultural and emotional significance in many human societies, up to now researchers have paid little attention to its evolutionary history, reads the University of Oxford's Department of Biology website.

The team also found that our extinct human relatives, Neanderthals, were likely to have engaged in kissing too....