Posted on 01/23/2006 4:31:58 PM PST by PatrickHenry
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found genetic evidence that seems to support a controversial hypothesis that humans and chimpanzees may be more closely related to each other than chimps are to the other two species of great apes – gorillas and orangutans. They also found that humans evolved at a slower rate than apes.
Appearing in the January 23, 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, biologist Soojin Yi reports that the rate of human and chimp molecular evolution – changes that occur over time at the genetic level – is much slower than that of gorillas and orangutans, with the evolution of humans being the slowest of all.
As species branch off along evolutionary lines, important genetic traits, like the rate of molecular evolution also begin to diverge. They found that the speed of this molecular clock in humans and chimps is so similar, it suggests that certain human-specific traits, like generation time, began to evolve one million years ago - very recently in terms of evolution. The amount of time between parents and offspring is longer in humans than apes. Since a long generation time is closely correlated with the evolution of a big brain, it also suggests that developmental changes specific to humans may also have evolved very recently.
In a large-scale genetic analysis of approximately 63 million base pairs of DNA, the scientists studied the rate at which the base pairs that define the differences between species were incorrectly paired due to errors in the genetic encoding process, an occurrence known as substitution.
"For the first time, we've shown that the difference in the rate of molecular evolution between humans and chimpanzees is very small, but significant, suggesting that the evolution of human-specific life history traits is very recent," said Yi.
Most biologists believe that humans and chimpanzees had a common ancestor before the evolutionary lines diverged about 5-7 million years ago. According to the analysis, one million years ago the molecular clock in the line that became modern humans began to slow down. Today, the human molecular clock is only 3 percent slower than the molecular clock of the chimp, while it has slowed down 11 percent from the gorilla's molecular clock.
This slow down in the molecular clock correlates with a longer generation time because substitutions need to be passed to the next generation in order to have any lasting effect on the species,
"A long generation time is an important trait that separates humans from their evolutionary relatives," said Navin Elango, graduate student in the School of Biology and first author of the research paper. "We used to think that apes shared one generation time, but that's not true. There's a lot more variation. In our study, we found that the chimpanzee's generation time is a lot closer to that of humans than it is to other apes."
The results also confirm that there is very little difference in the alignable regions of the human and chimp genomes. Taken together, the study's findings suggest that humans and chimps are more closely related to each other than the chimps are to the other great apes.
"I think we can say that this study provides further support for the hypothesis that humans and chimpanzees should be in one genus, rather than two different genus' because we not only share extremely similar genomes, we share similar generation time," said Yi.
Even though the 63 million base pairs they studied is a large sample, it's still a small part of the genome, Yi said. "If we look at the whole genome, maybe it's a different story, but there is evidence in the fossil record that this change in generation time occurred very recently, so the genetic evidence and the fossil data seem to fit together quite well so far."
Could you please document this claim?
Whereas on FR, comparing Clinton to a chimp passes for intellectual comment.
"I was made in the image of God."
So, what does God look like? Like a Chinese person or a British? Perhaps Arabic, or simply a South American Indian?
Personally, I think ancient people wanted closeness to their gods. Ancient Hebrews, similary, thought God looked like them, hence the story of the man created in God's image, from soil. Christians adopted that story and Muslims did, too. But, Muslims modified to say that God did not have an image and any attempt at saying what God looks like was blasphemy. Today's Muslims believe that man was created from mud, but not in Allah's image(who does not have an image).
I don't think they teach men created from mud in Saudi Arabian universities. In some cases, they do not literally interpret their holy scriptures.
I hate your incessant use of photos in your posts. It's obnoxious, unecessary, unfunny, and keeps my page-load rate below instantaneous.
after checking out your previous posts, I've come to learn it ain't gonna stop.
Just had to get that off my chest. Cheers.
The discussion here is about evolution. Christianity is a completely unrelated topic. Why are you trying to change the subject?
I do believe the question is one of being a close relative not an identical twin. We are indeed the smarter cousin but the difference is one of contingency, we happened to become upright, freeing our hands for all sorts of manipulation, large brained and had our palate change enough to facilitate language. The chimps may have been upright walkers at the point of human/chimp separation but they lost that and never developed the palate and brains we did.
Even so, chimps are capable of learning, communicating and using tools. The division between chimps and humans is one of degree not essence.
In any case the evidence of transitional fossils, morphological similarity and molecular evidence trumps your - we aren't related because we are a little better than them.
I thought of that, but it was getting too long even without that stuff. I kinda decided to say what it IS, and deal with the goofy stuff another time. I donno. I'm still mulling it over.
You wouldn't get it.
The chimps also have 5 fingers! I never knew that. God must have 5 fingers, too.
"Look shweetheart, I don't even know what the cowbell thing means or how it got shtarted, so don't blame me!"
He said we "could" be, not that it is known that we are. Leave it to a creationist to play semantic games rather than address reality.
Now, on with nailing the CRIDer's standard logical fallacies. (eyes closed -- strawman, begging the question, post hoc in the first 50).
Talk to yourself - always stimulating.
One suggestion: near the end, deal with the splitting of the herd. One part of the herd goes on the north side of the mountain (river, continent, etc.) while the other part goes to the south side. One part of the herd stays in the forest while the other part carefully explores the spreading grasslands.
This gives changed (and changing) conditions which can in turn speed up adaptation.
Your browser probably has a "block images from this site" control. You may find it by right-clicking on the image. I've used it for every one of that spammer's posts. Thread loads fast, and spam-free.
You conclude your post with the assertion that "evolution is a theory". However, if we examine your definition of theory:
(1)A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; and
(2)An organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena
We find that evolution satisfies neither of these. It is not a well substantiated explanation of the appearance of man on earth and it explains nothing in repeatable experimental experimental terms.
If it were the explanation, WHERE THEN ARE THE TRANSITIONAL FORMS?? Why are there no transitional life forms to point to? Did the forces of evolution exist only long enough to evolve man and then suddenly halt? Give me a break. The theory (?) of evolution is nothing but a scam.
What is it in the evolutionist psyche that enables you to ignore this fundamental flaw in your bogus theory...to live in denial of the fact that your bogus theory is full of holes and phoney??
Your ship is thinking pal. No matter how hard you try to plug the leaks with kneejerk bandaid explanations for your many failures, you're going under just like Kennedy at Chappaquidick...gurgle! gurgle! gurgle!
And indeed I did not just make this up, the evidence is there for those who dare to look.
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