This fusion event is a key evolutionary marker distinguishing humans from other great apes, as humans have 46 chromosomes while chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans possess 48. The fusion occurred through an end-to-end joining of two ancestral...
The study suggests that a specific genetic mutation, involving the insertion of an Alu element (a type of transposable DNA sequence), played a critical role in the evolutionary transition from tailed primates to tailless hominoids.