THE statement that we share all but a few per cent of our DNA with chimpanzees is so well known it is almost a cliché. And the publication of the chimpanzee genome resoundingly verifies the close genetic relationship between humans and chimps (see “Lessons from our closest cousin”).
Yet this announcement has overshadowed a more surprising discovery: the report of the first chimpanzee fossils, dating back half a million years (see “And a fossil too…”). The surprise is that these fossils were found in eastern Africa, home of our own Homo ancestors. This overturns the tidy…
