Humans and Chimpanzees Have a Common Ancestor

Super fact 81 : Humans are not descended from chimpanzees, or monkeys, or any other primate living today. However, humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived roughly 5 to 7 million years ago. The two species evolved separately to become modern humans and chimpanzees. Humans and chimpanzees are closely related and share approximately 98.8% of their DNA. Studying the DNA, it is possible to determine how long ago this ancestor lived despite not having any fossils from this ancestor.

Chimpanzee genome sequencing and the sequencing of human DNA has led to the realization that human and chimpanzee DNA is very similar and that humans and chimpanzees share an ancestor. The fact that the great apes have 48 (24 pairs) chromosomes while humans have 46 (23 pairs) is not an issue. What happened was that the ancestral chromosomes corresponding to modern chimpanzee chromosomes 2A and 2B fused to create human chromosome 2. We can see that the genes in 2A and 2B line up with chromosome 2 and we can also see where the 2A and 2B merge in the human chromosome 2 (see picture below).

The picture is a graph that shows that gorillas, chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor with orangutans. In turn bonobos, chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor with gorillas and finally chimpanzees and bonobos share a common ancestor with humans. | Humans and Chimpanzees Have a Common Ancestor
Evolution of humans via phylogenetics and differentiation between humans, chimpanzees, and other primates. Shutterstock Asset id: 2448150743 by kanyanat wongsa

The graph above shows that gorillas, chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor with orangutans. At the next level bonobos, chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor with gorillas and finally chimpanzees and bonobos share a common ancestor with humans. We can deduct these things from DNA without needing fossils. We have found millions of fossils corresponding to more than 250,000 species. However, the best evidence for so called “macro evolution” and the best tool for determining relationships between species may not be the fossil record but DNA.

It should be noted that the terms “macro-evolution” and “micro-evolution” are terms that creationists like to use but that scientists do not like to use. Creationists like to say that microevolution is possible (it is observed) but not macroevolution. However, macroevolution is the result of repeated microevolution, so you cannot claim that microevolution is possible but not macroevolution. In addition, speciation is relative. An animal A may be able to successfully interbreed with an animal B, and that animal B may be able to successfully interbreed with an animal C, but animal A and C cannot interbreed.  The border between microevolution and macroevolution is fuzzy.

The fact that we can determine evolutionary ancestry by sequencing DNA of living creatures may come as a surprise to many people. In addition, we can also determine how long ago a common ancestor lived. It may also come as an additional surprise to many that we are not descended from the great apes but share a common ancestor. Super fact 81 is a super fact because we know it is true, it is surprising to many, and important to know.

Identifying a common ancestor using DNA Sequencing

Below is a very high-level image of human and chimpanzee chromosomes referred to as a Karyotype. A karyotype is a laboratory-produced image or visual profile of an individual’s complete set of chromosomes, arranged in pairs by size, shape, and number.

The pictures show the set of the human 46 chromosomes on the left and the set of the chimpanzee 48 chromosomes on the right. The chromosomes look very similar between the two species, except human chromosome 2 which is split into chromosome 2A and 2B in the chimpanzee.
Comparison between human and chimpanzee karyotypes isolated on background. Shutterstock Asset id: 2432966649 by kanyanat wongsa

Based on the similarity in transposons, or jumping genes, pseudo genes, and genes in general (all of the genome) we know that the closest related living animals to humans are chimpanzees and bonobos. You can read more about this in the book Relics of Eden by Daniel Fairbanks, a book I highly recommend. According to the author the latest and perhaps best evidence for evolution as well as the fact that humans and chimpanzees have a common ancestor comes from so called junk-DNA. DNA that is not currently used but contains scientifically informative remnants of our evolutionary ancestry trapped in our DNA. The author refers to these remnants as relics.

Hominini species

Another interesting fact derived from DNA research is that chimpanzees and humans are more closely related than chimpanzees than to the other great apes. Based on the genetic record chimpanzees are no longer classified as great apes but as Hominini together with humans. The fact that there are three Hominini species (homo sapies – us humans, chimpanzees and bonobos) could maybe be another super fact.

Homo skull changes of hominids from Wikipedia<>. SimplisticReps, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Speaking about hominini species, we have found more than 6,000 hominin fossils corresponding to dozens of species including Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis, Homo Neanderthalis, and Homo Sapiens. This link features a cool phylogenetic tree that includes Homo Sapiens (us), Neanderthals, as well as chimpanzees and bonobos.

Other Evolution Related Super Facts

To see the other Super Facts click here

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

49 thoughts on “Humans and Chimpanzees Have a Common Ancestor”

    1. That is very interesting. It is great to take some interesting classes outside of your focus. My focus in college was engineering and physics but I also took classes in economics, philosophy and other topics. I agree this is an interesting topic. I have to say I got into this topic through a backdoor, being a creationist when I was young, but I came to realize I was totally wrong as learned more science.

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    2. I liked how you located this post within your own learning history. It quietly affirms that ideas like these don’t just live in textbooks—they stay with us over time.

      Your comment adds a sense of continuity that complements the article beautifully.

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    1. That is very interesting Maggie. Yes, when I was young there was no DNA sequencing, well it was in its early stages. Now we’ve done DNA sequencing on thousands of species including hundreds of extinct species. Science keeps marching on. Well I guess you know that. I have never taken a class in geneological studies but I am thinking that now when I am retried I should take some classes.

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  6. It’s really cool how we branched off from chimpanzees a while ago. It’s funny when people say we evolved from monkeys. Yes, apes, but not from apes we see today!
    There’s some cool info about Lucy who’s one of our ancestors. It’s so interesting that walking upright changed our evolution a lot,

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    2. That’s a thoughtful extension of the idea—seeing how genetic knowledge moves from theory into real-world application.

      It’s a good reminder that this science doesn’t stay abstract; it actively reshapes how we understand identity, history, and responsibility.

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      1. I mis-spoke, assuming that homonin was just a synonym for homonid. It turns out all apes are hominids and always have been. Homonins or homonini are the narrower subset that used to include only humans but now includes chimpanzees and bonobos. It’s actually not a new category/tribe, as I understand, but until recently homo sapiens were believe to be the only homonini currently living.

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    2. I really appreciated the care you took with the terminology here. That kind of precision doesn’t just clarify facts—it protects the conversation from drifting into false disagreements.

      Your follow-up adds real value to the thread without overcorrecting anyone, which is not easy to do.

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  11. What stays with me here is how quietly decisive DNA becomes in this conversation.

    Fossils invite interpretation, but chromosome fusion, shared transposons, and genomic alignment leave very little room for narrative preference. The story doesn’t need to be argued—it’s already written into the structure itself.

    I appreciate how this piece doesn’t aim to persuade through volume or confrontation, but through patient clarity. That restraint feels especially important for topics that sit at the crossroads of science, belief, and misunderstanding.

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      1. Some years back we watched a documentary or TV show called What Happened to the Wolf? that was a super interesting dive into the Wolves –> Dogs process. Now though when I search for that title I am just finding some recent foreign film drama, which is definitely not what we watched, and Google is insisting that the documentary I remember does not exist, so maybe I imagined it … 🤔

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        1. I certainly believe you, but since it was a while ago it might be difficult to find. The fact that there is a film drama with that name is going to make it much harder to find. Perhaps there is one word wrong?

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  16. We are all connected. I believe this applies to humans and animals. This makes sense to me just from looking at us and what we have in common. Thank you for the science to make this clearer. If we focused less on our differences and more on what we have in common, I think it would be a much better world.

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