[EBUCK]

3rd paragraph in the article reveals the true intent of this reclassification. I'm pretty surprised tho...normally the true intent is burried as deeply as possible...

"The loss of the [wild] chimp and gorilla seems imminent," said Morris Goodman, a study co-author. "Moving chimps into the human genus might help us to realize our very great likeness, and therefore treasure more and treat humanely our closest relative," he said.

[Hodar]

Wrong

Historical classification schemes, based on physical similarities such as bones, argued that chimps and gorillas where each other's closest relatives, and that both where closely related to orangutans to the exclusion of humans.

However, with the advent of molecular techniques to compare similarities in our DNA starting in the 1960s, most experts have come to accept the fact that humans and chimps are most closely related. Studies indicate that humans and chimps are between 95 and 98.5 percent genetically identical.

The older method relied upon appearances, the more scientific method relies on DNA. Furthermore:

The results suggested that within important sequence stretches of these functionally significant genes, humans and chimps share 99.4 percent identity. (Some previous DNA work remains controversial. It concentrated on genetic sequences that are not parts of genes and are less functionally important, said Goodman.)

And so what if they rename them? My job will still pay the same, my taxes won't go down, and my truck still gets 26 mpg.

[KarlInOhio]

"Moving chimps into the human genus might help us to realize our very great likeness, and therefore treasure more and treat humanely our closest relative," he said.

No, it will just make if funnier when they are dressed in suits and made to roller skate.

[norton]

"Moving chimps into the human genus might help us to realize our very great likeness, and therefore treasure more and treat humanely our closest relative,"

Somehow I don't picture the people involved in killing off the mountain gorilla or any brand of chimpanze as great readers of National Geographic or anything else for that matter.

[man of Yosemite]

What I want to know is when will they start paying taxes? Maybe we could put one down on the deck of an aircraft carrier with the handle BYRD.