A modern, statistically based system of classification called cladistics reveals a surprising possibility: Not only are humans apes, but we are more closely related to chimpanzees than chimpanzees are to orangutans or gorillas. In other words, the chimpanzees’ closest living relatives are—us! A gorilla, looking past our culture and technology, might see us humans as just another type of chimpanzee.
Cladistics is a mathematical representation of a simple idea—that all living things are related. The more they are related, the more recently they had a common ancestor. These relationships are expressed in diagrams called cladograms.
The simplest cladogram links two living things—you and a chimpanzee, for instance. The diagram doesn’t seem to display much information, as there’s only one way to draw it. You and a chimpanzee have a lot in common, sharing among other traits four limbs, hair, a big brain, and almost 99 percent of your DNA. In other ways, you and a chimpanzee are different. That’s why you appear on separate branches of the cladogram, after all!
The interesting questions arise when we add a third living thing to the cladogram—let’s say a gorilla. There are three different ways to draw this relationship. How do we decide among them?
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