Chimps Belong in Human Genus?

Bradley Chapman writes "I found this interesting story from Discovery News about our ties with chimpanzees. Excerpts: 'Chimpanzees share 99.4 percent of functionally important DNA with humans and belong in our genus, Homo, according to a recent genetic study. Scientists analyzed 97 human genes, along with comparable sequences from chimps, gorillas, orangutans and Old World monkeys (a group that includes baboons and macaques). The researchers then took the DNA data and estimated genetic evolution over time. They determined that humans and chimps shared a common ancestor between 4 and 7 million years ago. That ancestor diverged from gorillas 6 to 7 million years ago.'" Genus is the next step up from species, if you recall your taxonomy. Humans are the only living species in genus homo, currently.

Comments

first post

[YourMissionForToday]

From a serial-controlled RCA SelectaVision CED player running IRIX 5.3!

Happy Troll Tuesday, cockazoids!

Have you Meta Moderated recently?

[Anonymous Coward]

The next Slashdot dupe will be ready soon, but Homosexuals and Teenage Posers can beat the rush and see it early!

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More importantly..

[grub]

Many of the drunken, jobless welfare scum around my city's downtown are not quite human, not quite chimp. Are they a new branch of the tree?

What does 99.4% mean?

[solarrhino]

Look around at all the variation on the surface of the earth. The highest point, Everest, is 8846 meters above sea level. The lowest point, the Dead Sea, if -400 meters. But since the mean radius of the earth is about 6.3 million meters, all that variation represents little more then 0.1% difference.

A "little" difference can matter a great deal.

Ballmer?

[dominator]

Which one is Steve Ballmer again?

Re:It's about time...

[Suidae]

they're still swinging in trees. Humans are reaching for the starts

Well, a very few humans are reaching for the stars. Most of humanity spends its time trying not to starve, while the rest of us do our best to ignore those who are starving. Not that thats bad, I'm just saying that generalizing humanity into some great thing is kind of silly. If you were a chimp you'd probably think those hairless freaks were stupid to live inside and eat processed food, missing out on Real Life.

Re:Cleo has arived

[Anonymous Coward]

That made so much sense....

Re:Slackers?

[Pres. Ronald Reagan]

Only in poor areas of the world is there a threat of overpopulation. Many European countries are actually showing a negative natural increase, and the US (aside from illegal immigration) has kept a fairly steadily low population growth.

I find it kind of funny that the countries that can least support more people are the ones with the irresponsible famlies having ten or 12 children, especially in Africa. I guess those blacks can't get enough sex no matter what culture they are in.

Troglodytes!

[vsprintf]

total chimp reads (Pan troglodytes): over 12 million

Holy crap, that proves we're related -- so that's where the troll gene comes from!