Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute find out the chimpanzees and bonobos interbred during ancient times.
They found out that one percent of chimpanzee genomes came from bonobos. They also said that they found two additional gene flow between the chimpanzee and bonobo population.
Researcher Yali Sue explained that they found that central and eastern chimpanzees share the same genetic materials with bonobos. They explained that at least 1 percent of this genomes came from bonobos, Science Daily reported.
For this study, researchers analyzed the genome of 75 chimpanzees and bonobos from 10 African countries. They also included 40 chimpanzees born in the wild from different locations.
They found out that theirs a correlation between the geographic origin of the chimpanzees and their genetic sequence. Chris Smith, one of the researchers, explained that they've created the largest chimpanzee analysis that can be used to locate where wild chimpanzees are from.
According to Scientific American, chimpanzees and Bonobos are the closest relatives of humans. They explained that they evolved differently from our ancestors 1.5 to 2 million years ago.
Researchers explained that until now they find it hard to believe that chimps and bonobos interbred because they were separated by the Congo River. Their findings showed that Bonobos and Chimps had the contact twice.
Their first contact happened 200 to 500 thousand years ago and 150,000 years ago. Researchers believe that their contact happened during the 100 thousand years of the human evolution.
Bonobos are chimpanzees that can be found in the Republic of Congo located south of the Congo River. They are smaller, slender and darker that most Chimpanzees.
They are mostly female dominated. They have same-sex social and sexual contact that limits their aggression.
On the other hand, Chimpanzees are mostly male dominated. They use more tools compared to Bonobos and preys on small monkeys.
Chimpanzees and Bonobos can be found in Africa. They are endangered species that are illegally captured.
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