• Question: what do you think our common ancester is ?

    Asked by lillytot11 to Vera, Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve on 20 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by marieharris.
    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      The details of the story of human descent vary a lot and people love fighting over it, but the immediate ancestor to species of the genus Homo (like Homo sapiens – humans, and other species such as Homo neanderthalensis or Homo erectus) was a chimpanzee-like animal. Some people have even argued that we are genetically so similar to chimpanzees that we should really be considered a chimpanzee species.

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      Or Chimpanzees should be in the genus Homo. If you go back far enough in evolution of animals, you will find common ancestors we share with most species, although this is mostly between different classes ( I think, i forget the classification system) such as dogs and cats. Go back far enough, about 3.5 billion years and you reach the common ancestor that all animals share. This would have been some kind of bacteria!

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      The immediate common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees lived 5-7 million years ago. It walked on 4 legs and had a similar sized brain to a modern chimp. But we don’t know exactly what it looked like, we can only guess from the ancient bones we find.

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      I agree with the others! Not anything else for me to say really.

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Nothing to add – the others have covered this very well.

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