Several other 'common ancestor' projects have arrived at some startling results.

But how close were they really to the common ancestor of both that vanished species and our own?

This ancestral chain would extend less than 300 miles before reaching the common ancestor that we share with the chimpanzee.

If both inherited it from a common ancestor, then the two versions would by now be slightly different.

This suggests that our common ancestor with chimpanzees also had a fairly typical repertoire of vocal communication for a nonhuman primate.