Origins of Human Evolution

[Minimalist]

We have to sit back and re-evaluate what we once thought

Oh, The Club hates that!

[Beagle]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3 ... plies.html

The latest twist in the debate over how much DNA separates humans from chimpanzees suggests we are so closely related that chimps should not only be part of the same taxonomic family, but also the same genus.

The new study found that 99.4 percent of the most critical DNA sites are identical in the corresponding human and chimp genes. With that close a relationship, the two living chimp species belong in the genus Homo, says Morris Goodman of Wayne State University in Detroit.

The closeness of relationship between chimps and humans has become an important issue outside taxonomy, becoming part of the debate over the use of chimps in laboratory experiments and over their conservation in the wild.

I found this older article and thought it was interesting enough to post. Chimps are so genetically close to us that transplants from them are considered unethical, and some folks are working on a "Bill of Rights" for chimps.

It's also felt that a hybrid could be accomplished - a Humanzee.

[Rokcet Scientist]

and some folks are working on a "Bill of Rights" for chimps.

Why the 'apartheid'? Those folks can save themselves the trouble. If chimps, after all, are homo, then we've got all the declarations of human rights etc. etc. they could ever want.