22 May 2006 19:30
Humans & chimpanzees may have split from a common ancestor more recently
by kramkoobA detailed analysis of human and chimp DNA suggests the lines finally diverged less than 5.4 million years ago. The finding, published in the journal Nature, is about 1-2 million years later than the fossils have indicated. A US team says its results hint at the possibility that interbreeding occurred between the two lines for thousands, even millions, of years.
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