Studies have also revealed in humans a number of introgressed Neanderthal genes – that is, genetic material from one species is integrated in the genome of another – which could affect our physical appearance, as well as our susceptibility to disease. In the past ten years, leading research on the evolutionary past of modern humans, as well as our close, extinct relations – the Neanderthal and Denisovan – have shown the impact of interbreeding in our own evolutionary history. Put simply, if we want to understand how species evolved and diverged from one another, we must understand how genes move between different lineages. Gene flow between diverging species has emerged as an important aspect in the evolution of species. The genetic relationship between chimpanzees and bonobos shows striking parallels to the evolutionary history of modern humans. Goran Tomasevic/Reuters Gene flow in evolution Our next step will be to explore whether the genetic material received from bonobos has had any selective advantage in the evolution of chimpanzees.īonobos are unique to Congo. This leads us to believe that the gene mixing between bonobos and chimpanzees occurred during two different episodes – the first one, 500,000 years ago and the second one 200,000 years ago. But only now has science been able to provide robust evidence of natural occurrences in the wild.īased on 75 complete genomes of chimpanzees and bonobos, we found that central and eastern chimpanzees share significantly more genetic material with bonobos than other chimpanzee subspecies do. We have observed from captive populations that it is still possible for the two apes to mate today, even after more than a million years as separate species. We now know that hundreds of thousands of years ago, chimpanzees and bonobos were able to mate and produce offspring, leaving a genetic mark on the animals that live in the wild today.
The geographic range of bonobos ( pan paniscus) and chimpanzees.īut, as our study reveals, there is evidence of ancient genetic mixing across species boundaries.
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