Chimpanzeesandbonobosare amazingly similar to us — and each other : The two mintage of great ape have genome that are nearly the same as ours , and they resemble each other to the point that pygmy chimpanzee were once called “ pigmy chimpanzees . ” But chimpanzee and bonobos also have some not - so - subtle differences . Let ’s take a looking at .
Chimp vs. Bonobo Cheat Sheet
Chimpanzee
Bonobo
Height
3 - 5 feet
3 - 4 foot
free weight
70 - 130 pounds
60 - 90 lbf.
Build
Brawny , mesomorphic
slender , graceful
Hair vividness
dim or brown
Black , tomentum parts in the center
Head shape
big gun muzzle , larger brow ridge
Smaller face , rounder head
Appearance of vernal
pinkish case that work darker with age
Black face that does n’t change with years
mountain range
Mainly Gabon , Cameroon , Central African Republic , Democratic Republic of Congo
Democratic Republic of Congo
Size and Appearance
The easy way to blemish a Pan paniscus ( Pan paniscus ) is by their true dark fuzz , which lie in flat on their question with a distinct middle part likeAlfalfa’sinThe Little imp . They ’re born with hairless black grimace and pinkish lips that they retain through adulthood . In demarcation , chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ) are hold with pink , hairless faces and dark tomentum , both of which get dark as they get senior .
Bonobos are about thesame sizeas chimps but are more slender and lissom , with longer legs and smaller , rounder head . Chimps have a heavy frame and a more pronounced eyebrow ridge .
Behavior and Personality
Both chimps and Pan paniscus hold up infission - fusionsocieties , mean that the master group of about 20 to 80 extremity will often split up into littler group for part of a year for a especial purpose , such as searching for solid food . The smaller groups will then riposte the larger group .
These apes , though , are better known for their stark conflict inbehaviorand personality . Bonobo society is matriarchal , while malesdominatechimpanzee society . Bonoboswill percentage resourcesand chemical bond with members of other chemical group ; they often employ sex as a way of quelling conflict and bonding . chimpanzee are extremely territorial — theypatrol the bordersof their domains and have vehement conflicts with foreigner .
Bonobos have a reputation as the peace - loving “ flower child ” anthropoid , but they can be aggressive , too . virile Pan paniscus willfightamong themselves even more than chimps do and female person will quell fuss with forcible force .
Diet
Chimps and bonobos both eat a lot of yield andplants , whichhelps distribute seedsthroughout their forested habitats . yield is the majority of the bonobo diet and scientists long believed they were n’t sum eaters , but , like chimp , they will exhaust insect and nightcrawler , insect larvae , eggs , modest mammals , and evenother primates .
Chimpanzees in Guinea have been observeddrinking ribbon wine , the by nature fermented sap of raffia palm . accord to a 2015paperinRoyal Society Open Science , the chimp fold leaves into a loving cup to sip the liquid state .
Evolution
Pan troglodytes and Pan paniscus burst into unlike specie about 1.7 million years ago . The widely swallow hypothesis is that their usual ancestor survive north of the Congo River .
A2015 studyinEvolutionary Anthropologyexamined the origins of the river — which is theworld ’s deepestwith a maximum depth of 720 base — and its role in primate organic evolution . researcher look at river sediment and suggested that , at times when the river ’s flow decrease , some brave somebody of the common ancestor specie were able to transmigrate to the other side . Then , they were permanently separated from the larger group when the river rise again . ( Modern chimps and bonobos are poor swimmers . )
The group that get across the river evolved into Pan paniscus . Life was pretty breezy on the south side . There was sight of uninhabited rainforest and food for thought was abundant . female developed social internet that ensured their reciprocal safety from pushy males . Skills like cooperation and sociability were able to thrive . A2012 studyon bonobo nous discover more gray matter in the part that comprehend distraint in others and one ’s self , and larger pathways to aggression ascendancy and preconception against harming others .
The group that did n’t speculation forth terminate upevolvinginto chimpanzees , and they had a problematical go of it . Food was less plentiful and there were gorillas to fight against for soil . durability and aggression were worthful survival traits .
Today , the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) consider both of our confining relativesendangeredwithdecreasingpopulations . The prelate are poach and hunted for meat , and they must contend with an environment altered for human consumption like mining , ranching , and housing . Pan paniscus in particular are in risk from from civil fermentation and military natural process in the Democratic Republic of Congo .
Can chimps and bonobos interbreed?
Chimps and bonobos are lie with tointerbreed in imprisonment , and astudypublished in 2016 in the journalSciencefound that it ’s materialize in the past among barbarian populations . scientist studying the genomes of 75 wild bonobos and chimpanzees from various regions of Africa found that there was likely a crossing of genes between 200,000 to 550,000 years ago , and another less than 200,000 years ago , leaving a small ( less than 1 per centum ) contribution of bonobo gene in the central African chimpanzee genome .
Are chimps or bonobos closer to humans?
Pan paniscus deal about 99.6 percent of their genome with chimpanzee and98.7 per centum with human beings , while chimps share98.8 percentof their genome with humankind .
A 2021paperin the journalNatureshowed , via new bonobo genomic data that allowed comparison with the genomes of other ape coinage , that2.52 percentof the human genome is more standardized to bonobos than chimps , and 2.55 percent is more similar to chimpanzee than bonobos . Chimpanzees thus have a very slight border over bonobos as our closest sustenance relatives .
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