Chimpanzee and Human Evolution: Uncovering the Mystery of Our Common Ancestor

[Calpalned]

10) Why have there been no (or very few) chimpanzee

fossils found? Was the common ancestor of humand and chimps a

chimpanzee or a different species completely? How similar is a

chimp/human to that ancient ancestor?


Thank you all so much! These 10 questions have been bothering me for

some time and their are few answers online...

 

[Pythagorean]

Determining chimp from human may be more complicated than we thought; they might not have had a clean speciation:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16710306

Finding any specific species at a specific point from the past, common ancestor or not, has a low probability (there's lots of dirt and preservation of fossils relies on certain geological conditions at time of death). There's a couple fossils that are close to the common ancestor, like Ardipithecus (for which it is a matter of debate whether it is a human or chimpanzee fossil) or Sahelanthropus.

Also, don't forget our other cousins in the genus Pan, bonobos. They can technically still mate with chimps, but it's only been observed in captivity.

 

[Calpalned]

Determining chimp from human may be more complicated than we thought; they might not have had a clean speciation:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16710306

Finding any specific species at a specific point from the past, common ancestor or not, has a low probability (there's lots of dirt and preservation of fossils relies on certain geological conditions at time of death). There's a couple fossils that are close to the common ancestor, like Ardipithecus (for which it is a matter of debate whether it is a human or chimpanzee fossil) or Sahelanthropus.

Also, don't forget our other cousins in the genus Pan, bonobos. They can technically still mate with chimps, but it's only been observed in captivity.

Thank you

 

[Calpalned]

I am under the impression that scientists believe that the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was much more similar to a chimpanzee than a human. According to this credence, chimpanzees are basically a living and unchanged version of our common ancestor. Is this the popular belief?

 

[Pythagorean]

I don't know to what extent we can judge and infer beyond bone morphology. There may be significant nervous system or immune system differences. It would depend on how complete the molecular story is.