Evolution's human and chimp twist

Humans and chimpanzees may have split away from a common ancestor far more recently than was previously thought.

A 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. This hybridisation would have been important in swapping genes for traits that allowed the emerging species to survive in their environments, explain the scientists affiliated to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Harvard Medical School.

And it underlines, they believe, just how complex human evolution has been.

[Comment: Wow! Oh and yes... I'm back. Sorry again for the downtime. Chances are high I won't keep it as updated as before though, but we'll see. :) ~ Ed.]

Only part of the text from this article have been posted -- read more @ BBC Science News.