Chimpanzee

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Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), sometimes colloquially known as chimps, are hominids native to Africa. Chimps share 96% of their DNA with humans,^[1] meaning that genetically speaking chimpanzees are more similar to humans than African elephants are to Indian elephants.^[2]

Chimpanzees have 48 chromosomes; humans have 46 chromosomes. Scientists have found evidence of two ancestral chromosomes of the great apes which seem to have fused - making Chromosome 2 in humans. The analogous chromosomes (2p and 2q) in the non-human great apes can be shown, when laid end to end, to create an identical banding structure to the human chromosome 2, which explains why humans have one less pair than the rest of the great apes. Plenty of evidence backs up this hypothesis, even evidence from the telomere (the ending sequence of the chromosome), and the centromere.

Many claim that chimps are humans' closest relatives in an attempt to defend misogyny,^{[note 1]} while ironically, bonobos, our other closest relatives, are female supremacists.^[3] Secondly, in the west African chimpanzee subspecies, females appear to have more power than in other chimpanzee subspecies. In western chimpanzees, females use tools more often than males do, are able to monopolize their food without males taking it from them^[4] and can even select which males to mate with on their own terms.^[4]

A chimpanzee in Austria is the first to have the opportunity to receive the same rights as a human being.^[5] Rumor has it that a negative issue from the court concerned will result in a thousand-chimp march down the streets of Vienna.^{[citation NOT needed]}

Chimpanzees in Fongoli, Senegal, have used spears to hunt and kill prey.^[6] Chimpanzees might also have, er, a "proto-religion", observers having seen some worshipping a tree, and also dancing in strange rituals around, above all things, fire, possibly indicating they have an actual understanding of fire, though that may be going a bit too far.^[7][8] However, it pays to be careful not to anthropomorphize animals too much, because assuming animal minds work exactly like human minds is philosophically problematic.^[9]

Phylogeny[edit]

Phylogenetic tree showing only extant (living) taxa:^[10]

See also[edit]

• Ape
• Humanzee
• Hominid

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

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