Are humans more genetically close to rats or chimps?

We are genetically much closer to chimpanzees because the two values ('shared genes' and 'working DNA') are so different. And this has created great confusion online with people starting to think we are closer to rats than chimpanzees, which is scientifically completely and extremely wrong. read more

Chimpanzees have diverged from a common ancestor comparatively recently. Whereas, the common ancestor of rats and humans is far back in the evolutionary time scale. As a result, chimps and humans have more similar characteristics and base pair composition than rats and humans. read more

It wasn't until 2012 that we learned bonobos vary only slight from chimps. In fact, the two share 99.6 percent of their DNA. That means they're almost as close to humans on the genome sequence as chimpanzees are. Researchers believe the three of us separated on the evolutional path between 4 and 7 million years ago. read more