Taxonomy & Genetics
Chimpanzees and humans belong to the animal order “primates”. Primates include the suborders strepsirhines (lemurs and lorises) and haplorhines (tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans).
Primates are characterized by many features, including:
Large brains, relative to body size
An increased reliance on stereoscopic vision (commonly known as depth perception)
Less reliance on smell (the dominant sensory system in most other mammals)
Most have opposable thumbs and flexible joints
Apes and humans belong to the superfamily hominoid, that share similar characteristics, such as the absence of a tail, dental features, even larger brains, and greater mobility in shoulders, elbows and wrist suited for different locomotion.
Within this superfamily, chimpanzees and humans share the most similar genetic makeup, sharing 98.6% of our genes.
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