# What degree of cousin is a chimpanzee (or some other animal)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847 "2009-02-14T18:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![misterW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@misterW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterW)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/1 "2009-02-14T18:49:17Z")
Has anyone ever tried to approximate what degree of cousin any nonhuman organism would be to a person? It seems there might be some trouble since the different species would have different generation lengths… but has anyone ever tried to approximate this? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/2 "2009-02-14T19:10:56Z")
From Wikipedia article on _Hominini_: > [@](#): > > Hominini is the tribe of Homininae that comprises humans (_Homo_), chimpanzees (_Pan_), and their extinct ancestors. Members of the tribe are called hominins (cf. _Hominidae_, “hominids”). The subtribe _Hominina_ is the “human” branch, including genus _Homo_ and its close relatives, but not _Pan_. > > The creation of this taxon is the result of the current idea that the least similar species of a trichotomy should be separated from the other two. Through DNA comparison, scientists believe the _Pan/Homo_ divergence was completed between 5.4 to 6.3 million years ago, after an unusual process of speciation that ranged over four million years. Assuming a median of 25 years per human generation (based on the median of a women’s childbearing years), there have been 216,000 to 252,000 human generations since the divergence. How many generations of _Pan_ (chimpanzees and their extinct ancestors) there have been since the divergence, I would not even guess. The maximum degree of cousinhood would be 252,000th cousin, but depending on how short a chimpanzee generation is, there could be a lot of “_n_ removed” after that. ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/3 "2009-02-14T19:40:42Z")
With chimps achieving breeding age at 7 - 15 years, I think we can approximate chimp generation at 10 - 12 years. Roughly twice the human. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/4 "2009-02-14T19:51:04Z")
All right, assuming a chimpanzee generation of 11 years, then the maximum degree of cousinhood between humans and chimps would be 252,000th cousin, 321,000 times removed. Minimum degree of cousinhood: 216,000th cousin, 275,000 times removed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/5 "2009-02-14T20:26:35Z")
Of course, both of those probably overstate the generational remove, since shortly after the split, the human and chimp lines probably had very close to the same generation length. To really do it properly, you’d need some way of estimating how long it took for human generation length to increase. ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/6 "2009-02-14T22:38:03Z")
Would we have to calculate in that we’re all heavily inbred once you go a number of generations back? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/7 "2009-02-14T22:57:52Z")
No. All you need is the number of generations between the cousins in question and the last common ancestors. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/8 "2009-02-15T00:22:13Z")
> [@](#): > > All you need is the number of generations between the cousins in question and the last common ancestors. Exactly. You’d need to figure out who was the most recent creature that was the common ancestor of a living human and a living chimpanzee. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-degree-of-cousin-is-a-chimpanzee-or-some-other-animal/485847/9 "2009-02-15T01:06:13Z")
Richard Dawkins’ _The Ancestor’s Tale_ takes sort of this approach to explaining life. It may interest you.