Like humans, chimpanzees may only be as smart as their parents because they inherit intelligence through genes.

According to New Scientist, researchers identified another human similarity in chimpanzees in a new study on the primates' genes. Their findings suggest the chimpanzee get roughly 50 percent of their "general intelligence" (g) from their genes.

For their study, published in the journal Current Biology, the researchers examined 99 captive chimpanzees: 70 females and 29 males whose ages ranged from 9 to 54. They tested the primates' cognitive abilities by tasking them with 13 different tests.

"Our results in chimps are quite consistent with data from humans, and the human heritability in g," study lead author William Hopkins, of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Ga., told New Scientist. "The historical view is that non-genetic factors dominate animal intelligence, and our findings challenge that view."

Hopkins and his team used the different tests to measure different cognitive abilities:

Spatial memory: the chimps had to remember which of three beakers in front of them contained food.

Communication skills: the chimps were then presented with food without it being given, requiring them to coax the humans into giving them the prize.

The researchers concluded that these two cognitive abilities were the most affected by the genes they inherited, though the chimps were also tested in tool use and cause-and-effect situations. After taking into account sex, family relationships and culture, the scientists determined half a chimp's g is inherited.

"The fact that we can establish this in an organism that has none of the baggage of our social-cultural systems points strongly to the role that genes play in their intelligence," Hopkins told LiveScience.com. "So there's a case where nurture really matters."

The study leader said he would next like to broaden his sample size as well as try to determine which genes influence intelligence specifically. One ultimate goal would be to determine how human intelligence became as advanced as it is today.

"We wanted to see if we gave a sample of chimpanzees a large array of tasks," Hopkins said in a press release, "would we find essentially some organization in their abilities that made sense. The bottom line is that chimp intelligence looks somewhat like the structure of human intelligence."