top of page
topographic-map-background.png
  • Writer's pictureJeannette De Wyze

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.


2. The 'Peter Pan' Ape