We’re more like chimps than chimps would like to admit.
From New Scientist
The latest twist in the debate over how much DNA separates humans from chimpanzees suggests we are so closely related that chimps should not only be part of the same taxonomic family, but also the same genus.
Check out this article. This may freak a few people, it claims that chimps are really human. Or something.
Also recommended – the p45rant row on the matter
Added on 05/21/2003:
Of course it’s the usual thing with these blasted people. ‘Chimps are humans yadda yadda…but I wouldn’t like living next door to me, with their eternal goddamn tea-parties’.
Breaking news on 05/21/2003:
Let’s look at this a different way
Humans genetically close to chimps
By Daithí Breathnach
Blather science correspondent
Humans are so closely related to chimpanzees that they should properly be considered as members of the chimpanzee family, according to new genetic research.
We shared a common ancestor many millions of years ago
Scientists from the Wayne State University, School of Medicine, Detroit, US, examined key genes in humans and several ape species and found our “life code” to be 99.4% the same as chimps.
They propose moving humans into the genus Pongidae taxonomic group, along with common chimps and another very closely related ape, bonobos. The genus Homo can be done away with as a result.
Humans, or Homo sapiens to give the species its current scientific name, are the only living organism in the Homo genus at the moment – although some extinct creatures such as Neanderthals (Homo Neanderthalis) also occupy the same grouping.
