Western lowland gorillaFLICKR, WBEEM
Gorilla gorilla!
Species: Western lowland gorilla, Gorilla gorilla gorilla
Genome size: 3.04 billion base pairs
Interesting fact: An analysis of the genome of a 30-year-old female western lowland gorilla named Kamilah from the San Diego Wild Animal Park is poised to offer new insights into the evolution of our second closest living relatives as well as the Great Apes in general. Already, the draft gorilla genome has revealed around 500 genes that have been evolving on the fast track in parallel in gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans, particularly those involved with hearing. Surprisingly, around 15 percent of the gorilla genome is closer to that of humans than to chimpanzees. The analysis also confirms that the human, gorilla, and chimpanzee lineages diverged around 10 million years ago, ...
