These baboons borrowed a third of their genes from their cousins
Recent genomic studies on wild baboons in southern Kenya show that the majority of them have DNA signs of hybridization. A third of their genetic composition is made up of DNA from another, closely related species as a result of interbreeding. The study was conducted in an area close to Kenya's Amboseli National Park, where yellow baboons and their anubis baboon neighbors that dwell to the northwest occasionally interact. The Amboseli Baboon Research Project, one of the longest-running field studies of wild primates in the world, has tracked these creatures almost daily since 1971, recording when they married with outsiders and how the progeny fared during their lifetimes. The faces and undersides of yellow baboons are white, and their fur is yellow-brown. Male Anubis baboons have shaggy manes wrapped around their heads and have greenish-gray hair. Despite being separate species that split 1.4 million years ago, they are capable of hybridizing in areas where their ranges intersect....