It’s Similar if You Ignore the Differences

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You have probably heard that chimps and humans share 98% of their DNA. But where did this number come from? Well, DNA matching is complicated. To simplify it, researchers ignored the large mismatched sections, totaling 1.3 billion DNA letters. The remaining 2.4 billion letters were 98% similar.

So, researchers left out huge parts of both human and chimp DNA in their comparison. Yet this number is supposed proof that we are related.

Our DNA isn’t 98% similar to chimps. Yet, we share some similarities in our DNA with apes—that is no surprise. We are made of similar things like muscles, bones, and hair.

Dig Deeper

• Differences Between Chimp and Human DNA Recalculated
• Greater Than 98% Chimp/Human DNA Similarity? Not Any More.