18Dec/06Off
The complex evolutionary history of Gorillas
A new paper by Thalmann et al in MBE shows that the genetic diversity of gorillas is similar to that of chimpanzees but almost twice as high as that of bonobos and humans, and finds evidence for “a complex demographic history with a constant, long-term population size and ancestral population structure”, including a split between the western (Gorilla gorilla) and eastern groups (G. berengei) at around 0.9–1.6 Million years ago followed by primarily male-mediated gene flow from the eastern to western populations until approximately 80,000–200,000 years ago.