The conclusion of molecular biology is that the gorilla must have separated from our family tree – or we from theirs – about ten million years ago and the chimpanzees only about seven million years ago. The closest relative of the chimpanzee is not the gorilla but the human being. To give a few figures: we differ from gibbons by 5% and from orangutans by 3.5%. With gorillas we share 97.7% of our genes and with chimpanzees we only differ by just over 1.5%.
Our similarity to apes and monkeys was known for a long time. The Mayan authors of the Popol Vuh believed that monkeys were the last failed experiment the gods performed before they succeeded and succeeded in creating human beings. Many peoples in Africa, Central America, South America, and the Indian Subcontinent believed that anthropomorphic apes and monkeys had some deep relationship with man: they were aspiring men , men frustrated or degraded by some kind of transgression of divine laws. Some even believed that monkeys are truly intelligent and have the ability to speak. The only thing is that they do not show it because they know that we would put them to work immediately.
But perhaps the best metaphor for this resemblance, which incidentally makes the mistake of thinking that we come from a modern ape, appears in a Johnny Hart comic strip. In it a couple of prehistoric humans are chatting and one says: “If man evolved from the ape … How come there are still apes out there?” To which his partner replies: “Some were allowed to choose.”
