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."
Sounds like an oxymoron to me.
Does this qualify for the "this is your brain on creationism" list?
you MIGHT want to read something about this thing called....
GRAVITY.....(*chortle*)
There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battle for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!´´
--Patrick Henry
"I know, sir, how well it becomes a liberal man and a Christian to forget and forgive. As individuals professing a holy religion, it is our bounden duty to forgive injuries done us as individuals. But when the character of Christian you add the character of patriot, you are in a different situation. Our mild and holy system of religion inculcates an admirable maxim of forbearance. If your enemy smite one cheek, turn the other to him. But you must stop there. You cannot apply this to your country. As members of a social community, this maxim does not apply to you. When you consider injuries done to your country your political duty tells you of vengeance. Forgive as a private man, but never forgive public injuries. Observations of this nature are exceedingly unpleasant, but it is my duty to use them."
--Patrick Henry
"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impossible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be a nation of free men. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, are incompatible with freedom."
--Patrick Henry
Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.
--Patrick Henry
There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable. and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!
--Patrick Henry
Ahem...
I believe THIS is the Patrick Henry I know.
"How many millions of years did that whale have to adapt when he found himself in the Thames? He didn't adapt at all, and so evolved himself right into the grave.
Populations evolve, not individuals. Populations also go extinct. If the change is too great too quickly, populations die. If the change only kills off a portion of the population, any existing characteristics active at the time including those important to the survival of the few will be passed on to succeeding generations.
BTW you'll find more strawmen on creationist sites and the 'Wizard of Oz' than anywhere else on Earth.
PH responded to my post, in #66, above. Again, note the tagline.
I'll admit I'm not a scientist. Most of my education comes from sites like FR and others.
I am a scientist (archaeologist); maybe the fringes of real science, but we do deal in numbers on a good day so its not all opinion.
I mention this because the definitions I posted above are pretty much the way these terms are used by scientists. Creationists are always trying to twist them to 1) include intelligent design as a theory (it isn't), and 2) to state that the theory of evolution is not a fact, but a theory (it is actually both in that evolution has been seen to occur and the theory of evolution attempts to explain how it occurs).
If most of your education comes from FR and similar sites, please check out PatrickHenry's List-O-Links. There really is a lot of good information there. Unless your mind is made up.
Wasn't it Heinlein who wrote:
Belief gets in the way of learning.Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, 1973
Those of us not arrogant enough to assume we know everything generally need to have some independent evidence before we accept something as true. Do you have any evidence that Chimps and Humans are not related?
Gravity - another communist, un-American athestic garbage used by those who reject God.
It was me - I probably Googled it after seeing that documentary...
It's satire.
>You have no idea how absurd that is, do you?
As I understood it in the definitions posted above: Hypothesis->Theory->Law. So, it may not be afull-fledged theory theory yet...more like a hybrid between theory and law. That's ID.
Theories do not become Laws, and Laws were never theories.
If thunder & lightning aren't God's way of voicing his displeasure, then my life has no meaning!
"They obey laws- they have no choice. Amazing. Put a gas into a fixed volume- increase the temp or pressure, and the gas will respond predictably every time.
They obey 'laws'? Who created those laws? You are aware that we, meaning humans, apply the word 'law' to observations that are observably consistent? There is no magic in the anthropomorphization of this consistency by our naming them as 'laws'. In other words, the consistency is observed first, then we describe them mathematically and call them laws simply to give us a sense of that consistency. We could have called them 'blauplant' in which case your astonishment would have been less severe and more realistic.
...substitutions need to be passed to the next generation in order to have any lasting effect on the species,
Brilliant deduction! Any more such gems in the actual study? BTW 63 million out of 3 billion is ~2%.
Some of my best friends are chimps.
Yes.
Some say thunder is God's way of showing displeasure, but I think it is just satan having bowel movements. But to be sure, I have to read a 5,000 year old book on atmospheric gods. Those things have all the answers.
Thunder and lightning as a means of God showing his displeasure are so pre-history. God has grown more subtle, and now voices his displeasure by allowing the mass torture of millions of individuals through the proliferation of reality television.
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