Final answer:
Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives within the primate family, sharing nearly 99 percent of our DNA sequences.
Step-by-step explanation:
Closest Living Relatives to Humans in the Primate Family
The question of which primate is the closest relative to the common ancestor of all primates is an intriguing one. Within the primate order, chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing nearly 99 percent of our DNA sequences. This highlights the strong evolutionary ties between humans and chimpanzees, who are part of the Hominidae family along with gorillas and orangutans. While orangutans exhibit highly intelligent behavior and human-like care for their offspring, they are not the closest to the hypothetical common ancestor of all primates compared to chimpanzees.
Understanding the Primate Order
The Order Primates is divided into prosimians and anthropoids. Although prosimians, such as the bush babies and lemurs, are part of our broader primate family, it is the anthropoids group, which includes monkeys, lesser apes, and great apes, that are more closely related to humans. Unlike orangutans, who are great apes, our direct ancestors are thought to be more similar to the early genus Homo species that emerged approximately 2.8 million years ago.