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When did chimpanzees and bonobos become separate species?

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A common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) sits on a rock holding a long blade of grass in its mouth, with dense green foliage in the background. — chimpanzee The West African, or masked, chimpanzee (*Pan troglodytes verus*) is a critically endangered subspecies of chimpanzee.

Chimpanzees and bonobos diverged from each other as distinct species approximately 1.7 million years ago.12

While they were once considered the same species, with the bonobo historically regarded as a subspecies of the chimpanzee, they were first classified separately in 1933. Today, they are recognized as two distinct species: the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and the bonobo (Pan paniscus).21