Humans and chimpanzees are very similar, but we’re also different in many ways. They share 97.7% of the same DNA and look virtually identical, but they’re less closely related than humans are to chimps. Take willow warblers and chiffchaffs as an example. Species in the same genus are closely related, so much so that sometimes they might be distinguishable only to experts. Chimpanzees belong to one genus while humans belong to three: Homo troglodytes, Homo paniscus, and Homo sapiens. There’s even more separation between us and them when you consider genus (plural genera). Humans and chimpanzees have a common ancestor but are placed in different families: Hominidae for humans and Pongidae for chimpanzees. However, some taxonomists believe that genetic distance is the main factor in classifying animals. In most encyclopedias, humans are classified as primates. It’s actually pretty close, so much so that some scientists consider us to be a part of the same family. That means that only 1 percent of DNA separates us from chimpanzees, which is a small amount considering that it also contains the genetic tools for unique human attributes such as language, art, and technology. The results are pretty striking: 96.4 percent of our genes match orangutans’, 97.7 percent match gorillas’ and 98.6 percent match chimpanzees’. However, exactly how genetically similar are we? Scientists can now analyze the human genome and find out just how alike we are to our wild cousins. It’s not hard to see similarities between humans and other primates. Big Idea #1: Science shows that humans are more genetically similar to other primates than previously thought. There’s also a theory about how language emerged, and it suggests that humans may have been better off as hunter-gatherers.

Technology has made it possible to better understand humans, but the brutal truth about them is also important to know.Ĭhimpanzees are considered human by some taxonomists.

They’re fascinating creatures that have been around for thousands of years, and they’re still evolving today. In fact, it may be more surprising that we aren’t closer to them than previously thought. It makes sense that we’re closely related to other primates, because they’re our closest evolutionary cousins. King Kong, Tarzan, Planet of the Apes and the orangutans at zoos are just some examples.

People have been fascinated with apes for a long time. 1-Page Summary of The Third Chimpanzee Overview

The third chimpanzee book