Bonobos - Our ‘Living Ancestor’
Humans have a lot in common with bonobos
By Jeannette De Wyze
How are bonobos and humans alike? Let’s count some of the ways.
1. Genetics
Perhaps the best-known bond lies deep within our cells, in the genetic instructions that make us what we are. For the last 10 years, it’s been known that humans share 98.7% of their genome with both bonobos and chimpanzees.
We have no closer genetic relatives than the members of those two species. There’s growing evidence, moreover, that in other key ways, humans and bonobos resemble each other most of all.