

Geneticists have come up with a variety of ways of calculating the percentages, which give different impressions about how similar chimpanzees and humans are. How do the monkeys stack up? All of the great apes and humans differ from rhesus monkeys, for example, by about 7% in their DNA. A difference of 3.1% distinguishes us and the African apes from the Asian great ape, the orangutan. Most importantly, chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans all show this same amount of difference from gorillas. The DNA difference with gorillas, another of the African apes, is about 1.6%. The bonobo ( Pan paniscus), which is the close cousin of chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes), differs from humans to the same degree. While the genetic difference between individual humans today is minuscule – about 0.1%, on average – study of the same aspects of the chimpanzee genome indicates a difference of about 1.2%. The amount of difference in DNA is a test of the difference between one species and another – and thus how closely or distantly related they are. DNA shapes how an organism grows up and the physiology of its blood, bone, and brains.ĭNA is thus especially important in the study of evolution. It also consists of the molecular codes that regulate the output of genes – that is, the timing and degree of protein-making. It consists of genes, which are the molecular codes for proteins – the building blocks of our tissues and their functions.

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the molecule that makes up an organism’s genome in the nucleus of every cell. The same is true for the relationships among organisms. Through news accounts and crime stories, we’re all familiar with the fact that the DNA in our cells reflects each individual’s unique identity and how closely related we are to one another. Science, Religion, Evolution and Creationism: Primer.Members Thoughts on Science, Religion & Human Origins (video).Teaching Evolution through Human Examples.
CHIMPANZEE VS HUMAN ANATOMY ARCHIVE
