The human and chimpanzee lines diverge
Around seven million years ago one population becomes two, and one of the branches is ours.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1 million years
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Miocene, Cenozoic
Genomic comparisons place the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages at roughly 7 to 6 million years ago, with the separation likely protracted rather than instantaneous. Humans and chimpanzees share about 98.8 per cent of their DNA. Nothing about the ancestor was remarkable at the time: it was an African ape in woodland, and the branch that leads to us was, for millions of years afterwards, just another ape lineage among several. Everything human begins on this side of the split.