Chimpanzee vs Gorilla

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Which do you consider closer to homo sapiens?

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:02 (twenty-three years ago)

gorillas are nice but dumb, chimps are smart but cruel

― simon trife (simon_tr), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Both gorillas and chimps have 48 chromosomes to our 46, but the chimp shares our A/B/O bloodtype. Score!

Mind you, I'd rather be related to an oranoutan. Right turn, Clyde.

― Michael A. (Michael A.), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:22 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to the zoo recently and the gorillas were better than the chimps. The chimps were just twatting about.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:23 (twenty-three years ago)

1. Which animal is better with tools?

2. Do chimpanzees really have tea parties?

3. Is the chimp's scientific name, 'pan troglodytes' (!!), related to the 'pan' in its common name? Or is this an extraordinary coincidence?

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:26 (twenty-three years ago)

I have seen the chimps' tea party at Twycross Zoo. Early 70s, I'd guess. I don't think they'd have it if they were left to their own devices, but they definitely did have one, with a teapot and everything.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Mind you, Dian Fossey didn't dick about with chimps. But that could have been because she knew, even before she went to Africa, that Chimpanzees in the Mist would be a crap title for anything.

― Michael A. (Michael A.), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:37 (twenty-three years ago)

gorillas are nice but dumb, chimps are smart but cruel

the real question is Bonobo Chimpanzees v. Pygmy Chimpanzees.

Pygmy Chimpanzees are clever, but they are kind of awful behaviour wise. apart from their cute faces you wouln't want to be like them.

Bonobos shag all day long and are very laid back. I wish I was a Bonobo Human.

Regarding Gorillas, it's still the case that all I really know about them is that they didn't pull David Attenborough's arms off when he sat down with them.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 12:58 (twenty-three years ago)

The Vicar: I have read that there is no such thing as the Pygmy Chimp: only the Bonobo.

― the pinefox (the pinefox), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 13:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know what DV is on about - the pygmy chimpanzee is the same as the bonobo.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 13:18 (twenty-three years ago)

N. is correct. Chimp is closer to us, but still not very close. Australopithecines (which led to us) split off from the great ape lineage at least 6 million years ago.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 13:22 (twenty-three years ago)

and I suspect the Pan derives from the mythological character, not because it's part of the word chimpanzee.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 13:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know what DV is on about - the pygmy chimpanzee is the same as the bonobo.

OK, I may be wrong. but there are definitely too types of chimpanzee - the Bonobo and the Cockfarmer.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 13:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Are you people high? Pan is Latin for "all".

Pan: The genus of our closest living cousins among the apes, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and the bonobo (Pan paniscus). Used alone, Pan means both species (and perhaps our common ancestor with them). "Ancestral Pan" means the unnamed species between 5-6 million years ("Pan prior") and the chimp -bonobo split about 2.5-3.0 million years ago; it is analogous in use to "bipedal ape" in our branch since the common ancestor.

Don't say you never learned anything here.

― Michael A. (Michael A.), Tuesday, 17 September 2002 14:07 (twenty-three years ago)

But why should Pan be used for 'all the chimps' - rather than eg 'all the primates', 'all the gibbons', 'all the Hominoidea', etc? It still doesn't add up, for me.