RE: Chimps are more like humans than we knew
August 28, 2011 at 7:48 pm
(This post was last modified: August 28, 2011 at 7:56 pm by Anomalocaris.)
Of course chimps are more like humans than some people would admit. I mean it would be pretty embarrassing for creationists to admit they are precisely like chimps.
But I have to say the notion that we share 98% of genes with chimps is evocative but can be misleading. For one thing, majority of the genes we share with chimps don't have any function, as far as we can tell. So the fact that they are the same between us and the chimp doesn't say much about just how physically and behaviorally different we are, since those are controlled only by genes that have functions. For another, the genes that are actually different between us and chimp are often not just a little different, but very different. So where we are different, boy, we are different.
The the upshot is, even if homo sapiens share 98 % of chimp's genes, we are physically and behaviorally far from 98% chimp. Creationist, I am not sure.
But I have to say the notion that we share 98% of genes with chimps is evocative but can be misleading. For one thing, majority of the genes we share with chimps don't have any function, as far as we can tell. So the fact that they are the same between us and the chimp doesn't say much about just how physically and behaviorally different we are, since those are controlled only by genes that have functions. For another, the genes that are actually different between us and chimp are often not just a little different, but very different. So where we are different, boy, we are different.
