Chimpanzee and human ancestors may have interbred�-�Genetic analysis suggests a messy split between the two lineages.

One more reason that we should extend rights and adequate protections to our fellow great apes:

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/060515-10.html

Dear Editor:

The latest genomic comparison of humans and chimpanzees has not only given us a new timeline for our close evolutionary relationship, it has provided an unprecedented and unique view of the history of our co-existence. Undoubtedly, this should give us pause to reflect on the present. On one hand, we describe chimpanzees as primate cousins and as a gravely threatened, valuable part of nature. Yet on the other hand, we relegate them to tiny, barren cages and use them like disposable test tubes.

Great ape research has been banned in some nations and is very strictly regulated in many others, but even the discussion of expanded protections is in its infancy here in the U.S.

Given all that we know about chimpanzees, we must also know that how we currently keep and use them in labs is replete with ethical problems. Certainly, to continue experimentation on them given their extraordinary similarity to humans is unconscionable. We must use the new information about the amazing relationship between humans and chimpanzees as motivation to extend protections to chimpanzees and ultimately end experimentation on them and all nonhuman primates.