Homo or Pan
A chimp link for human evolution - Deccan Herald - Internet Edition
Ian Sample The Guardian
The DNA study has revealed similarities in the evolutionary path of chimps and humans,supporting the call to reclassify chimpanzees.
They already use basic tools, have rudimentary language and star in TV commercials, but now scientists have proof that chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than other great apes.
Genetic tests comparing DNA from humans, chimps, gorillas and orang-utans reveal striking similarities in the way chimps and humans evolve that set them apart from the others.
The finding adds weight to a controversial proposal to scrap the long-used chimp genus 'Pan' and reclassify the animals as members of the human family. The move would give chimps a new place in creation's pecking order alongside humans, the only survivor of the genus Homo.
Hat tip to Beep Beep!
Oh, and there's more today.
This is interesting, but not particularly surprising; we've known for a long time that chimps share about 98% of our DNA.
ReplyDeleteYour line, "The move would give chimps a new place in creation's pecking order alongside humans, the only survivor of the genus Homo," however, deserves a whipping with wet noodly appendages. They're ALREADY alongside us, as ALL other Earth lifeforms are; evolution does not create a "pecking order" -- that phrasing implies the same thing as "the Great Chain of Being" concept that portrayed nature as being aimed at the creation of humans.
It would be just as valid to change OUR nomenclature to Pan sapiens.