Humans evolve fastest – The gap with Chimpanzees widens

Recent research demonstrates that the speed with which humans acquire and ditch new genes is the fastest yet studied in mammals.  Primates are noticeably quick at genetic variation, but humans are the fastest of all, meaning that the eternally quoted “Chimps share 97 % (or 98%, take your pick) of our DNA” does not tell the whole story about genetic difference. Whilst they may share 97% of our nucleotide sequences, the differences in quantities of this gene may indicate a more notable genetic difference. According to this Science article “6.4% of the 22,000-odd human genes aren’t present in chimps” making the difference between them seem considerably larger.