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What separates humans from other primates?

Species and Population Read more from
Chapter Heredity, Natural Selection, and Evolution

Morphologic and molecular studies suggest that our closest living relative species is the chimpanzee, although some of the evidence is conflicting. We do know that analysis of protein structure in both chimps and humans shows that approximately 98 percent of our gene sequences are functionally identical, meaning that if the gene sequences differ it is not enough to radically change the proteins produced from them. It is also estimated that our last common ancestor with the chimp would have lived at least five million years ago.

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