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In a recent discussion on The Discovery Institute’s ID the Future podcast, geologist Casey Luskin explained that the original “98-99%” figure was derived from a single protein-to-protein comparison before the chimp genome was sequenced. Since then, we’ve gained a great deal more precision. According to Luskin, humans and chimps have about 35 million single base-pair genetic differences and five million insertion-deletion differences. Humans also have 689 unique genes not found in chimps. And while there are different ways of quantifying the differences, almost none of these ways yield the famous “98-99%” number. For example, in 2018, Queen Mary University of...

Prof. Begun said: "Our findings further suggest that hominines [bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas] not only evolved in western and central Europe - but spent over five million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually dispersing into Africa."....This migration, he added, was "probably a consequence of changing environments and diminishing forests."

U.S. U.S. Border Patrol agents discover 7 "critically endangered" spider monkeys huddled inside migrant's backpack BY STEPHEN SMITH AUGUST 4, 2023 / 11:58 AM / CBS NEWS U.S. Border Patrol agents made a surprising discovery last weekend when they arrested a migrant carrying a backpack filled with seven spider monkeys, federal authorities said. Agents found the monkeys on Sunday when a Mexican juvenile was apprehended in Brownsville, Texas, which is on the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said in a statement. The Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector posted a video on Facebook showing the monkeys huddled inside a bag that appeared...

It could signal a new era in the treatment of age-related diseases. Anew gene therapy that reprograms cells to their younger state reversed vision loss in primates, according to a new study — potentially signaling a new era in the treatment of age-related diseases. The challenge: Non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) is a condition caused by decreased blood flow to the optic nerve, resulting in sudden, significant, and usually permanent loss of vision in the eye. Scientists aren’t sure what causes NAION, but most of the 6,000 Americans diagnosed with it every year are over the age of 50....

Comes after spate of violent attacks which have seen three killed by monkeys ... A farmer who was attacked by a troop of 30 enraged monkeys plunged to his death from a roof while trying to escape from them. Horilal, 52, from Baduan, was on the roof of his house on the evening of August 30 when the angry primates charged him. ... A relative of the victim said: 'Horilal died because of monkeys. 'The government should do something about it. There are over 100 monkeys who target our houses and crops every day.' ... In June, more than 50...

A Bay Area lawmaker is warning that San Francisco is "veering toward a public health mess" over monkeypox, citing a Wednesday announcement from the San Francisco Department of Public Health that said the agency is running low on monkeypox vaccines and will shutter its clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital until more supply arrives.

Visitors to the Chicago zoo showing the 415lb Amare pictures and videos through the glass wall has made him dismissive to other male gorillas A teenage gorilla in a Chicago zoo has been getting too much screen time, according to zoo officials. Amare, a 415-pound gorilla at Chicago’s Lincoln Park zoo, has been staring a little too frequently at the screens of cellphones from visitors who show him pictures and videos through the glass wall – including selfies, family photos, pet videos and even footage of Amare himself. He has apparently become so distracted as a result that last week,...

DANVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A truck carrying about 100 monkeys was involved in a crash Friday in Pennsylvania, state police said as authorities searched for at least three of the monkeys that appeared to have escaped the vehicle. The truck carrying the animals crashed with a dump truck in the afternoon in Montour County, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Andrea Pelachick told the Daily Item. The truck had been on its way to a lab, Pelachick said. Authorities have asked residents who might see the monkeys to call state police at 570-524-2662. It was unclear if any people or animals were...

Facebook users who watched a newspaper video featuring black men were asked if they wanted to "keep seeing videos about primates" by an artificial-intelligence recommendation system. Facebook told BBC News it "was clearly an unacceptable error", disabled the system and launched an investigation. "We apologise to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations." It is the latest in a long-running series of errors that have raised concerns over racial bias in AI. 'Genuinely sorry' In 2015, Google's Photos app labelled pictures of black people as "gorillas". The company said it was "appalled and genuinely sorry", though its fix, Wired...

Facebook issued an apology on behalf of its artificial intelligence software that asked users watching a video featuring Black men if they wanted to see more "videos about primates." The social media giant has since disabled the topic recommendation feature and says it's investigating the cause of the error, but the video had been online for more than a year. A Facebook spokesperson told The New York Times on Friday, which first reported on the story, that the automated prompt was an "unacceptable error" and apologized to anyone who came across the offensive suggestion. The video, uploaded by the Daily...

The video, uploaded by UK tabloid the Daily Mail in June 2020, contained clips of two separate incidents in the US – one of a group of black men arguing with a white individual on a road in Connecticut, and one of several black men arguing with white police officers in Indiana before getting detained. According to The New York Times, Groves posted the screenshot in question to a product feedback forum for current and former Facebook employees. A product manager then called the recommendation “unacceptable” and promised to investigate the incident. Last year, Facebook formed a team at Instagram...

"Specifically, we have shown for the first time that the primate larynx is larger, less closely linked to body size, and under faster rates of evolution than the carnivoran larynx, which is a well-matched comparison group, indicating fundamental differences in the evolution of the vocal organ across species."

Boston, Mass. - With nearly 5 million confirmed cases globally and more than 300,000 deaths from COVID-19, much remains unknown about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. Two critical questions are whether vaccines will prevent infection with COVID-19, and whether individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 are protected against re-exposure. A pair of new studies led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) sheds new light on these questions. Both studies were published today in the journal Science. "The global COVID-19 pandemic has made the development of a vaccine a top biomedical priority, but very little is...

Four fossilized monkey teeth discovered deep in the Peruvian Amazon provide new evidence that more than one group of ancient primates journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa. The teeth are from a newly discovered species belonging to an extinct family of African primates known as parapithecids. Fossils discovered at the same site in Peru had earlier offered the first proof that South American monkeys evolved from African primates.

Oldest hominid skull in Australia found near Bega Friday, 13 January 2006 THE endocast of a primitive hominid-like skull was recovered from among the rubble of a volcanic plug in the Bega district in May 2005 The find could suggest that a race of ancestral hominids had evolved in Australia from tree-dwelling primate ancestors by seven million years ago. This is well before our primate ancestors supposedly left the trees for a terrestrial existence in Africa around six million years ago! The fossil was discovered by noted prehistory researcher Rex Gilroy of Katoomba NSW, where he operates the 'Australian-Pacific Archaeological...

Hamilton, ON - A gigantic ape, measuring about 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds, co-existed alongside humans, a geochronologist at McMaster University has discovered. Using a high-precision absolute-dating method (techniques involving electron spin resonance and uranium series), Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at McMaster, has determined that Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago. This was known as the Pleistocene period, by which time humans had already existed for a million years. “A missing piece of...

A gigantic ape standing 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds lived alongside humans for over a million years, according to a new study. Fortunately for the early humans, the huge primate's diet consisted mainly of bamboo. Scientists have known about Gigantopithecus blackii since the accidental discovery of some of its teeth on sale in a Hong Kong pharmacy about 80 years ago. While the idea of a giant ape piqued the interest of scientists – and bigfoot hunters – around the world, it was unclear how long ago this beast went extinct. Precise dating Now Jack Rink,...

Infectious Evolution: Ancient virus hit apes, not our ancestors, in the genesMarch 5 Bruce Bower A vicious virus infected ancestral chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa between 4 million and 3 million years ago. Not only did it kill a great many of these primates, but it also infiltrated the surviving animals' genomes, altering the course of evolution. That's the picture emerging from a new analysis of modern-primate DNA. Around 1.5 million years ago, this virus of the class called retroviruses also infected ancestors of modern baboons and macaques, two African monkeys, reports geneticist Evan E. Eichler of the University of...

Full title: Four ancient skulls unearthed in Mexico suggest that North America was a melting pot of different peoples and cultures 10,000 years ago The first humans to settle in North America were more diverse than previously believed, according to a new study of skeletal fragments. US scientists analysed four skulls recovered from caves in Mexico that belonged to humans that lived sometime between 9,000 to 13,000 years ago. The researchers were surprised to find a high level of diversity, with the skulls ranging in similarity to that of Europeans, Asian and ...

The beautifully preserved remains of a 47-million-year-old, lemur-like creature have been unveiled in the US. The preservation is so good, it is possible to see the outline of its fur and even traces of its last meal. The fossil, nicknamed Ida, is claimed to be a "missing link" between today's higher primates - monkeys, apes and humans - and more distant relatives. But some independent experts, awaiting an opportunity to see the new fossil, are sceptical of the claim. And they have been critical of the hype surrounding the presentation of Ida. The fossil was launched amid great fanfare at...