Dekodiran genom bonoba
If one compares the DNA “letters” in the sequences of all three species, there is only a 1.3% difference between humans and their ape cousins.
The separation between the bonobo and the chimp is smaller still. Only four letters in every thousand is changed.
But as similar as their genomes are, bonobos and chimps do display some quite diverse behaviours.
Chimps are very territorial and resort to aggressive actions to resolve conflicts, whereas bonobos are more placid and will use sex as a tool to settle their differences.
“That’s the great hope,” said Dr Prufer. “If you look at bonobos, chimpanzees and humans, what you can see is that there are some specific characteristics that we share with both of them.
“So, for instance, the non-conceptive sexual behaviour is a trait that is certainly shared with bonobos, while the aggressive behaviour unfortunately is also a trait that is shared with chimpanzees.
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