Journal
RAMBAM MAIMONIDES MEDICAL JOURNAL
Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
RAMBAM HEALTH CARE CAMPUS
DOI: 10.5041/RMMJ.10009
Keywords
Hominin; evolution; Homo; chimpanzee; bonobo; common origins
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Funding
- Adams Fellowship Program of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
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The closest living relatives of humans are their chimpanzee/bonobo (Pan) sister species, members of the same subfamily Homininae. This classification is supported by over 50 years of research in the fields of chimpanzee cultural diversity, language competency, genomics, anatomy, high cognition, psychology, society, self-consciousness and relation to others, tool use/production, as well as Homo level emotions, symbolic competency, memory recollection, complex multifaceted problem-solving capabilities, and interspecies communication. Language competence and symbolism can be continuously bridged from chimpanzee to man. Emotions, intercommunity aggression, body language, gestures, facial expressions, and vocalization of intonations seem to parallel between the sister taxa Homo and Pan. The shared suite of traits between Pan and Homo genus demonstrated in this article integrates old and new information on human-chimpanzee evolution, bilateral informational and cross-cultural exchange, promoting the urgent need for Pan cultures in the wild to be protected, as they are part of the cultural heritage of mankind. Also, we suggest that bonobos, Pan paniscus, based on shared traits with Australopithecus, need to be included in Australopithecine's subgenus, and may even represent living-fossil Australopithecines. Unfolding bonobo and chimpanzee biology highlights our common genetic and cultural evolutionary origins.
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