I checked, and this is totally unrelated to the WOT. But it's interesting...
Chimpanzees are so closely related to humans that they should properly be considered as members of the human family, according to new genetic research.
| Perhaps at the gene level. I happen to know that they smell different. There are also gross physical dissimilarities, most notably the conformation of the pelvis, which is a bit over twice as high as the human pelvis... |
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.
| Sounds like Ivory Soap, doesn't it? |
They propose moving common chimps and another very closely related ape, bonobos, into the genus, Homo, the taxonomic grouping researchers use to classify people in the animal kingdom. Humans, or Homo sapiens to give the species its scientific name, are the only living organism in the genus at the moment - although some extinct creatures such as Neanderthals (Homo Neanderthalis) also occupy the same grouping. According to this analysis, chimpanzees and humans occupy sister branches on a family tree, with 99.4% genetic similarity. Next on the tree are gorillas, then orang-utans, followed by Old World monkeys.
| I don't recall ever seeing anything on whether humans and chimps are closely enough related to breed. I suspect they're 99.44% not... |
None of the primates were closely related to mice, which were used as a control.
| But did they use cheese-eating primates? |
Dr Wildman said: "You could say that humans and chimps are as similar to one another as say horses and donkeys.
| Which can breed but produce sterile offspring. Easy enough to see if they're that close, if you can get her to hold still... |
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