Japanese macaque Japanese macaque The Japanese macaque (; "Macaca fuscata"), also known as the snow monkey, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. They get their name "snow monkey" because they live in areas where snow covers the ground for months each year – no other nonhuman primate is more northern-living, nor lives in a colder climate. Individuals have brown-grey fur, red faces, and short tails. Two subspecies are known. In Japan, the species is known as Nihonzaru (ニホンザル, a combination of "Nihon" 日本 "Japan" + "saru" 猿 "monkey") to distinguish it from other primates, but the
Rhesus macaque from the common ancestors of the primate clade to "Homo sapiens"," said Bruce Lahn, University of Chicago. After the human and chimpanzee genomes were sequenced and compared, it was usually impossible to tell whether differences were the result of the human or chimpanzee gene changing from the common ancestor. After the rhesus macaque genome was sequenced, three genes could be compared. If two genes were the same, they were presumed to be the original gene. The chimpanzee and human genome diverged 6 million years ago. They have 98% identity and many conserved regulatory regions. Comparing the macaque and human genomes,