The gorilla line splits off
The lineage leading to gorillas separates from the one leading to chimpanzees and humans.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 2 million years
- Known to
- ± 1.5 million years
- Era
- Miocene, Cenozoic
Molecular estimates place the gorilla divergence at roughly 10 to 8 million years ago, and Chororapithecus from Ethiopia, at about 8 million years, has been proposed as an early member of the gorilla lineage on the basis of its molars. The African ape fossil record for this interval is very thin — a handful of teeth and fragments — which is why the divergence dates come mostly from genetics. After this split, the remaining branch contains only chimpanzees, bonobos and us.