When did the human lineage diverge from the lineage leading to chimpanzees and bonobos?

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Illustration showing side-by-side reconstructions of five hominins in the human lineage: Australopithecus afarensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens, with each figure labeled and depicted in a walking pose to highlight evolutionary changes in posture and body structure. A scale bar at the top right indicates relative height. — human evolution An artist's depiction of five species of the human lineage.

The evolutionary lineage leading to modern humans diverged from the lineage leading to chimpanzees and bonobos approximately 7 million years ago.1

While estimates vary based on different analytical methods, genetic data and molecular clock studies generally place this divergence between 6.5 million and 9.3 million years ago. Some research and reanalyses of the fossil record have suggested a range of roughly 6 to 8 million years ago for the earliest putative hominin ancestry.23

It is important to note that chimpanzees and bonobos are distinct species; the lineage leading to bonobos (P. paniscus) diverged from that of chimpanzees (P. troglodytes) much more recently, approximately 1.7 million years ago.2