Mountain gorillas are unsurprisingly one of the closest animals to humans in relationship. Their appearance is remarkably similar to the human form, only more hairy. When you look at the palm and fingers of man’s closest relative, the chimpanzee and then look at those of a gorilla you will agree that the gorilla’s finger formation are more less like the human fingers; only darker and magnified. Gorillas also dwell more on the ground than up in the trees among all other primates; a characteristic that only man does best with a few humans building tree houses.
When scientists measure relatedness among species they base on a number of factors in genetic composition like the nuclear DNA the unstable mitochondrial DNA. In terms of nuclear DNA, gorillas have up to 98.4% of the genetic composition humans while gorillas share 89.7% of the mitochondrial DNA with the humans. Gorillas come in second after the chimpanzees (both the common chimpanzees and the bonobos) which have 98.8% of the human nucleic DNA and 91.2% in terms of mitochondrial DNA.
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