1. Chimpanzee
In 2005 researchers re-examined that chimpanzees have 98.6 and 99 percent similarities of our DNA. They are closer to humans than gorillas! Remarkably, female chimpanzees also share a reproductive cycle similar to humans, with sexual maturity the longest before or during their teenage years. They also have a gestation period of around 8 months.
2 | Bonobos
Only in 2012 did we learn that bonobos are only slightly different from chimpanzees. In fact, both of them share 99.6 percent of their DNA. That means they are almost as close as possible to humans in the genome sequence as chimpanzees. Scientists believe the three of us separated in the evolutionary path between 4 and 7 million years ago. Bonobos has the most emotional of all apes, an emotional characteristic that is the same as humans.
3 | Gorilla
Although the appearance of a gorilla makes us think reverse, we are also closer in terms of kinship with gorillas than gorillas with chimpanzees. We share 98 percent of our genetic sequence with most of its members. Scientists believe humans and gorillas separated from the same ancestor about 10 million years ago. The fun fact is that they also found that certain shared genes in our DNA cause diseases such as dementia in humans, but not gorillas.
4 | Orangutan
The word "orangutan" is taken from the term in Malay, which is 'person' which means human and 'utan' which means forest. Orangutans include two subspecies, namely Sumatran orang-utans (Pongo abelii) and Kalimantan Orang-utans (Borneo) (Pongo pygmaeus). What is unique is that orangutans have a close kinship with humans at the level of kingdom Animalia, where orangutans have a DNA similarity rate of 96.4%.
5 | Gibbon
Gibbon, although belonging to the Hominoidea family like the ape shown above, is actually considered a lower ape. Around 4 million years ago, these people developed weapons and shoulders that now allow them to swing trees easily. One interesting study that determined that Gibbon used at least 26 sounds that resembled the songs used by the first humans 1.8 million years ago.
6 | Monyet
Most species fit the definition of a monkey - more than 260 at the last count. Scientists have found that many aspects of our brain that control our thinking processes are similar to monkeys. The human brain also has several areas that are similar to apes such as brain regions that cause OCD and substance abuse.
7 | Lemur
You may remember King Julien film that depicts lemurs who like to dance, but do you also know that they are primates just like us? Okay, it's not like we are exactly, but close enough that we might evolve from the same ancestors, along with slow lorises and aye-ayes. Unfortunately, more than 70 percent of lemur species are now endangered with humans as one of the biggest causes of their death.
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