Great apes split from gibbons

The great apes, the family Hominidae, are the orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and humans. Genomes suggest their common ancestor split from the gibbon line about 17 million years ago, in the Miocene, when apes were spreading across Africa and Eurasia. Orangutan ancestors branched off first, around 14 to 15 million years ago, followed by the line to gorillas about 8 to 10 million years ago, and then the human and chimpanzee lines about 7 to 6 million years ago. Great apes are bigger than gibbons, with larger brains and long childhoods.

Fossils show how varied they were. Apes of the Miocene lived in the forests of Europe and Asia as well as Africa, when the climate was warm. Sivapithecus, from South Asia, has a face resembling an orangutan's. In Germany, Danuvius guggenmosi, about 11.6 million years old, had limbs suggesting it could walk upright along branches while climbing, which some researchers think hints at the origin of upright walking. Where the last common ancestor of the African great apes lived is debated, Europe or Africa. Humans and chimpanzees share about 98.8 percent of their DNA sequence.