Director, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Associate Professor, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Genetically speaking, chimpanzees are close relatives of ours. About 99 percent of our DNA is identical. Humans and chimps may have shared a common ancestor as recently as 5 to 6 million years ago. Henrik Kaessmann and Svante Pääbo use the techniques of molecular biology to investigate the origin and evolution of the human family. The museum exhibit invites visitors to compare a stretch of DNA from a human and a chimp to explore their similarities and differences.
Explore the web pages of Dr. Pääbo and Dr. Kaessmann.
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. 0229294. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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