For the hominid lineage – all of our ancestors since our split with the chimpanzee/bonobo lineage – the fossil evidence for the human-chimpanzee last common ancestor (LCA) is scarce because: 1. Apes were extremely rare during the Miocene. 2. These apes lived in a narrow range of environments that were not preserved well in the fossil record (like forests). 3. The LCA lived in the Paleocene, a time from which we have essentially no fossil record. 4. Most of the primates known from the mid-Miocene are Old World monkeys, who are from a different Linnaean family than we are.

The accompanying figure shows the percent of selected dna sequences that match between a chimpanzee and other primates. these data support the hypothesis that the figure shows the percentage of selected d n a sequences that match between the chimpanzee and other primates. the human has an almost 98 percent match, the gorilla has an almost 97 percent match, the orangutan has a 96 percent match, the gibbon has an almost 95 percent match, and the old world monkey has an almost 92 percent match. the accompanying figure shows the percent of selected dna sequences that match between a chimpanzee and other primates. these data support the hypothesis that the figure shows the percentage of selected d n a sequences that match between the chimpanzee and other primates. the human has an almost 98 percent match, the gorilla has an almost 97 percent match, the orangutan has a 96 percent match, the gibbon has an almost 95 percent match, and the old world monkey has an almost 92 percent match. chimpanzees and gibbons are the most closely related the chimpanzee's closest surviving relative is humans orangutans are the primates least closely related to chimpanzees old world monkeys and gibbons are the most closely related