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Phoenix666 writes:

For the first time, scientists have revealed ancient gene mixing between chimpanzees and bonobos, humankind's closest relatives, showing parallels with Neanderthal mixing in human ancestry. Published in the journal Science, the study from scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their international collaborators showed that one percent of chimpanzee genomes are derived from bonobos.

The study also showed that genomics could help reveal the country of origin of individual chimpanzees, which has strong implications for chimpanzee conservation.

Chimpanzees and bonobos are great apes found only in tropical Africa. They are endangered species and are supposedly fully protected by law, yet many chimpanzees and bonobos are captured and held illegally.

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