• Question: Is our DNA very different to monkeys.

    Asked by Bubbles9 to Reka on 10 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Reka Nagy

      Reka Nagy answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      Not that different! Although apes (such as gorillas, orangutans and chimps) have DNA that is more similar to our than monkeys, such as the macaque or rhesus monkey.

      Let’s compare two humans first – if you take any two people on Earth, their DNA will be VERY similar – 99.9% smilar, in fact – so that 0.1% difference is the reason why humans look so different from each other.

      Chimps, on the other hand, have about a 1.2% difference in DNA compared to us – that’s 12 times more than the difference between any two humans!

      Gorillas are a bit more distantly related, so there’s a 1.6% difference there, while the orangutan has DNA that is 3.1% different to ours.

      In contrast, the rhesus monkey’s DNA is about 7% different to that of humans and apes. The further back the most common ancestor of two species is, the more different their DNA is likely to be!

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