Does man share a closer relation with bonobos than previous champ..chimpanzee?

Question

Behavioral differences have been documented between bonobos and chimps and their similarities with humans. Bonobos are less aggressive, female dominated, and copulate for reasons other than procreation...Are they closer to us evolutionarily speaking?

Answer 1

did u read chromosome 6 by robin cook?

Answer 2

It is a good question.  Man shares a common ancestor with chimps and bonobos about 5 to 7 million years ago.  The animal that went on to become a chimp branched off about a million years ago to become a bonobo (aka pigmy chimps).  It is true that Bonobos share more characteristics with humans but since they share the same common ancestor, they are equally distantly related from humans as common chimps.  It may be that Chimps diverged (evolved more) from our common ancestors relative to bonobos.  This would indicate that bonobos are more like the common ancestor.  Since bonobos are more like us, this indicates that the common ancestor may be more like us and less like a chimp.  The implications of this are that it could be argued that is is just as valid if not more so to say that chimps evolved from humans as it is to say humans evovled from chimps.  It is more accurate to jsut say we evolved from a common ancestor.