New research shows that dancing may have helped prehistoric man survive.

LiveScience.com reports the moves were used to help early humans bond and communicate with each other during difficult times.

As a result, dancers today share two specific genes associated with predisposition for being good social communicators.

Scientists believe this ability gave prehistoric humans who were well coordinated and rhythmic an evolutionary advantage.

The researchers wrote: "Dance, like music, is an activity dating to prehistoric times that is sometimes a sacred ritual, sometimes a form of communication, and sometimes an important social and courtship activity."

They add, "We hypothesized that there are differences among individuals in aptitude, propensity, and need for dancing that may partially be based on differences in common [genes]."

Scientists compared the DNA of 85 elite dancers and their parents with people lacking any distinguishing characteristics and a group of athletes.

They studied genes that dictate two social and behavioral chemicals in the body: serotonin and vasopressin.

The findings showed that while the elite dancers were not unique physically, but they all shared genes that made them more social.

Steven J. Mithen, an archaeologist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, says this innate ability to socialize was crucial in prehistoric times.

He tells LiveScience.com, "Cooperation would have been essential for survival during the last Ice Age and this would have been facilitated by the social bonds that develop through communal dancing and singing."