Human mutation rate has slowed recently
Researchers from Aarhus University and Copenhagen Zoo have discovered that the human mutation rate is significantly slower than for our closest primate relatives. The new knowledge may be important for estimates of when the common ancestor for humans and chimpanzees lived - and for conservation of large primates in the wild.
The study "Direct estimation of mutations in great apes reconciles phylogenetic dating" has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution and is a collaboration between researchers from Aarhus University (Mikkel Heide Schierup and Søren Besenbacher), researchers from Copenhagen Zoo and from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.