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Which living primates are the closest relatives of modern humans?

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Side view illustration of Australopithecus afarensis, an early human ancestor, shown walking upright with a hairy body and ape-like facial features. A scale beside the figure marks 12 inches and 40 centimeters. — Australopithecus Artist's rendering of *Australopithecus afarensis*, which lived from 3.8 to 2.9 million years ago.

The closest living relatives of modern humans (Homo sapiens) are the African great apes, specifically chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus).12

Genetic analysis indicates that the evolutionary lineage leading to modern humans diverged from the lineage shared by chimpanzees and bonobos between approximately 6.5 million and 9.3 million years ago. While humans and these apes share a significant portion of their genomes—at least 98 percent in the case of chimpanzees—they are classified into distinct groups within the family Hominidae. Humans are members of the tribe Hominini, whereas chimpanzees and bonobos belong to the tribe Panini.345

Other great apes, such as gorillas and orangutans, are also related to humans, but they are more distantly related than chimpanzees and bonobos.26