I hate it when people who oppose evolution scream that DNA proves nothing because our DNA is similar to that of many species, not just apes. All living beings share a large percentage of DNA. Humans, however, share approximately 98.8% of their DNA with chimpanzees and bonobos.
The fact that humans and chimpanzees have different chromosome numbers initially seems to contradict a close relationship. However, the specific detail that human chromosome 2 is a fusion of two separate chromosomes that are still present in chimpanzees is a powerful piece of evidence for a shared common ancestor.
Think of it like this: if you and your sibling both have a book report, and you tape two of your pages together into one, but your sibling keeps them as separate pages, it's strong evidence that you were both working from the same source material. In this analogy, the chromosomes are the pages, and the fusion is the "taping."
This chromosomal fusion event is not something that would happen by random chance in two unrelated species. It's an event so specific that it acts as a molecular "fossil" or signature, indicating that the human lineage diverged from the chimpanzee lineage after this fusion occurred in our common ancestor's line. It provides compelling evidence of a common evolutionary history, even more so than the percentage of shared DNA, as it shows a direct, shared genetic event.
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