Post #2698914

It's actually the goat and sheep - they share an about 4-million-year-old ancestor, and can actually occasionally hybridize - if kept together, they will happily try their best to make that happen, though most commonly hybrids are stillborn. There are a few documented examples of viable sheep-goat hybrids, though. Sometimes people say that bonobos are our closest great ape relatives, but that's only partly true - they are exactly as closely related to us as chimpanzees are; the bonobo and chimpanzee lineages diverged well after their last common ancestor with humans, about 7 million years ago. I definitely understand why civilized people would *prefer* to be more closely related to the more peaceful and cooperative bonobos than to the violent and territorial chimps ... though bonobos actually aren't quite as gentle as their popular image. While bonobos are much less prone to murdering each other than chimps, male bonobos actually get into a lot more fights with each other than male chimps do. Also, bonobos are more prone to ostracizing a group member than chimps are (and a lone chimp or bonobo usually has a miserable and very short life).