385, 472x GREAT GRANDPARENTS ?
BOB AND CINDY BONOBO
A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there was an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man.” – Thomas Huxley
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The Chimpanzee and Bonobo Ape are man’s closest living relatives. The three species are alike in many respects, physically and in terms of behavior. Humans and chimps share 98.8 percent of their DNA. The missing 1.2% explains why Chimps avoid smoking, fast food restaurants, fast cars, reality TV, and elevator music.
“Are you sure those are bonobo apes? They look like chimpanzees.” Claire peered over my shoulder and into the muzzles of the two critters found in the photograph lying on my desktop.
I considered the question and launched into an exhaustive review of every fact I had recently digested in my quick study of chimps and bonobo apes. I even displayed a handout I had created as a marketing piece for a book that was pending.
“They’re two separate species within the genus, Pan. You remember the high school biology lesson that included the mnemonic device: ‘King Phillip Called Out Five Good Soldiers.'”
“Yeah, yeah. Yes. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. I remember.”
“Wow. I’m impressed,” I exclaimed. But I wasn’t surprised.
“It was a question on last weeks Zoom Trivia Contest,” Claire clarified. It’s what she does. It’s who she is. Her first name is a verb form. Used in a sentence, I could say to my secretary, ‘please claire this for me.’
I continued my pseudo lecture, “The Chimp and Bonobo are that tight. In fact they’re 99.6 percent genetically similar to each other, but do have different appearances and vastly different social behaviors.” I leaned back and struck my professorial pose, confident that the information was accurate.
“I’m pretty sure that’s a picture of two chimps. Bonobo generally have darker faces,” Claire shared an image on her laptop and convinced me that I needed to find an accurate image of a Bonobo.
