The genus Pan: population genetics of an endangered outgroup

A new study of Y-chromosome variation has shed fresh light on the population history of the genus Pan, which includes our closest living relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees . The study confirms a great diversity in both species and suggests these species have substantially larger effective population sizes than humans. Y-chromosome lineages appear distinct between bonobos and chimpanzees, and also between the different chimpanzee subspecies. During the Pleistocene, forest fragmentation led to recurrent, transient subdivisions within regional Pan subspecies; did these contribute to their apparently higher effective population sizes?