Study: Humans, Chimps More Different

AP ^ | September 23, 2002

[Junior]

WASHINGTON (AP) - There are more differences between a chimpanzee and a human being than once believed, according to a new genetic study.

Biologists have long held that the genes of chimps and humans are about 98.5 percent identical.

But Roy Britten, a biologist at the California Institute of Technology, said in a study published this week that a new way of comparing the genes shows that the human and chimp genetic similarity is only about 95 percent.

Britten based this on a computer program that compared 780,000 of the 3 billion base pairs in the human DNA helix with those of the chimp. He found more mismatches than earlier researchers had, and concluded that at least 3.9 percent of the DNA bases were different.

This led him to conclude that there is a fundamental genetic difference between the species of about 5 percent.

Britten said the new study, appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( news - web sites), should help biologists figure out how species branched out from each other over the course of evolution.

"A large number of these 5 percent of variations are relatively unimportant," he said in a statement. The next step is to compare how the genes are regulated in the two species and find out where all the genetic differences are located in the DNA, he said.

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On the Net:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org

[Junior]

bump.

[goldstategop]

A 3% reduction? We'll still buck naked bipedal chimps under the skin and its said we share more in common with bonobos than with the common chimpanzee. If we still had our fur, we wouldn't be wondering why we bear an uncanny resemblance to our primate cousins.

[Gumlegs]

Darn. Farther from our more intelligent cousins than we thought.

[BikerNYC]

...the genes shows that the human and chimp genetic similarity is only about 95 percent.

Tough. I'm still genetically closer to a chimp than I am to the creatures in Washington.

[That Subliminal Kid]

this is news because... ?

[Junior]

It's an advancement on the frontiers of science.

[galt-jw]

MUCH of what we believe to be reality is illusion, and a great deal evolved due to junk science.

[balrog666]

Too many questions raised here:

Is this a comparison of a single sample of human (one human genetic code) versus a single sample of chimpanzee?
Were specific, well understood genes selected for comparison or was this a random sample of code? If so, selected how?
What was the comparison algorithm? etc

[Junior]

What do you consider to be "junk science?"

[beckett]

Phwew! Good News!
If the chimps ain't that close to 'em, we must be even further removed. We've all been trying to live down these distressing DNA similarities to humans for ages now!

[steve-b]

They must not have gotten any of their human samples from Palm Beach County this time.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

so where does Patrick Ewing fit into all of this?

[Junior]

Ain't he the one what shot JR?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

don't know who shot J.R. I was referring to the basketball player.

[Junior]

Sometimes it's hard to convey humor online...

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

lol, without seeing a grin on your face it was hard to know if you knew who I was talking about.

[dfwgator]

You humans are no match for the genius that is I, Mojo Jojo.

[KoestlersRedFiat]

"God made man,
but He used the monkey to do it.
Apes in the plan
We're all here to prove it.
I can walk like an ape,
talk like an ape,
do what a monkey can do.
God made man,
but the monkeys applied the glue."

-Devo

[PatrickHenry]

So that everyone will have access to the accumulated Creationism vs. Evolution threads which have previously appeared on FreeRepublic, plus links to hundreds of sites with a vast amount of information on this topic, here's Junior's massive work, available for all to review:
The Ultimate Creation vs. Evolution Resource [ver 19].