The genus "Homo" evolved and diverged from other hominins in Africa several million years ago. The gibbons (family Hylobatidae) and orangutans (genus "Pongo") were the first groups to split from the lineage leading to humans, then gorillas, and finally, chimpanzees (genus "Pan)". The splitting date between human and chimpanzee lineages is placed 4–8 million years ago, during the late Miocene epoch. During this split, chromosome 2 was formed from the joining of two other chromosomes, leaving humans with only 23 pairs of chromosomes, compared to 24 for the other apes.