HEAS members So Jung Han and Martin Kuhlwilm publish study of the evolutionary history of bonobos
More On Article
- HEAS Keynote with Necmi Karul Takes Place in Vienna
- HEAS Members Publish Nature Communications Article with HEAS Speaker
- Ancient DNA reveals diverse community organizations in the 5th millennium BCE Carpathian Basin
- HEAS Member Awarded GO.INVESTIGATIO Fellowship by the Austrian Academy of Sciences
- A comparative archaeometric study of Late Bronze Age Black Lustrous and Red Lustrous Wheel-made wares from the Eastern Mediterranean
In a new study in Current Biology, HEAS members So Jung Han and Martin Kuhlwilm together with an international team, improve our understanding of bonobos. Bonobos are, together with chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, but the genetic structure of their population was so far not well understood. They show that three genetically distinct bonobo groups of inferred Central, Western and Far-Western geographic origin exist within the bonobo range. Their split times are up to ~145,000 years ago, which similar to that of some chimpanzee subspecies. This highlights the need of attention to bonobo substructure, which is fundamental both to understand their evolutionary past and preserve their future.