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You're a bonobo Harry
The bonobo, scientifically called Pan Paniscus
is relative to the chimpanzee
both are the closest relatives to man, sharing 98.7% of our
DNA, and the only thing separating us from the great ape bonobo
is a mere 2% difference. That is closer to us than Gorillas.
how can we be so similar and yet so different?
physical description: the physical characteristics
of this mammal give the bonobo an appearance more closely resembling that
of humans than that of the common chimpanzee. Bonobos are more graceful than chimpanzees
Adult female bonobos are somewhat smaller than adult males.
Found in the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central africa,
They inhabit primary and secondary forests. Because the two species are not proficient swimmers,
the formation at the conga River 1.5 to 2 million
years ago possibly led to the speciation of the
Bonobo. Bonobos live south of the river
and thereby were separated from ancestors of the common chimpanzee
which live north and the Congo River. It has been hypothesized that the Bonobos
are able to live more peaceful lifestyle in part because
on an abundance of a nutritious vegetation in their natural habitat, allowing them to travel
and forage into large parties.
Behavior: not only Bonobos highly intelligent,
they are also known for their emotional awareness, being capable of
human emotions such as compassion and kindness. They have great emotional control
which greatly contributes to human evolution. While bonobos are able to
coperate and share, tolerating within and between other groups
The chimpanzee is more violent in their behavior
there is also a slight difference in their DNA, between Chimpanzees and Bonobos.
Kanzi,
A bonobo raised with his mother in captivity,
was able to show us that Bonobos can comprehend and understand the human language.
Because of this, he is even able to play video games, such as
Pacman, while taking directions from scientists. There is no training involved.
Kanzi is able to understand 360 lexigrams symbols,
all which represents words from the human language.
Similarity to Humans:
humans, chimps, and bonobos descended from a single ancestor species
that lived six or seven million years ago. As humans and chimps
gradually evolved from a common ancestor, thier
DNA, paseds from generation to generation changed too. In fact, many of these DNA
changes led to the differences between human and chimp appearance and behavior.
The same genes are expressed in the same
the brain regions in the human, chimp, and gorilla, but in different
amounts. Thousands of differences,
like these affect brain development and function, and help explains
why human brains are larger and smarter.
Bonobo body proportions, closely resemble those of Austrolopithacus
leading evolutionary biologists to suggest that bonobos may be a living example of our
distant human ancestors. There are significant brain differences between Bonobos and chimps.
The brain anatomy of bonobos, has a more developed and larger region
assumed to be vital for feeling empathy, sensing distress in others,
and feeling anxiety, which makes them less aggressive and more empathetic than their close relatives.
Although Bonobos and Chimps are similar in many ways, they evolved separately and differently
understanding how that happened may shed light on our behaviors, since we are so similar
to bonobos.