quote:
Originally posted by digby:
Since this is my first post I thought I'd begin with something a little less incendiary than usual but it is an interesting topic.
What are the most recent estimates of how related we are to Bonobos (pygmy chimps)?
A little less incendiary? Who are you kidding?! How can you dare defile my bandwidth with the suggestion that we are in any way related to those revolting malodorous apes? Are you suggesting that an ancestor of mine in some way committed a disgusting act of bestiality with some "thing" that was less than a fully perfected human being? I am appalled.
But do check out these references, ...
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/chordata/mammalia/primates/hominidae.html a concise taxonomic account of the hominidae.
http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleo/primates.html an anthropological account of some behaviours, similar in bonobos and humans.
Possibly you were looking for the percentage of shared DNA? Here is a snippet from the web: [i][b]Humans differ from both common chimps and bonobos in about 1.6% of DNA, and share 98.4%. Gorillas differ somewhat more, by about 2.3%, from us and from both of the chimps. Humans differ from orangutans by 3.6% of DNA, and from gibbons and siamangs by 5%.[/i][/b] I have no idea where the orginal figures come from, but the same figures are pretty widely quoted. I wonder if they are true?
If they are, then it is compelling evidence for common ancestry for sure, but on their own the figures do not provide much to go on for other fields of argument - animal rights activists are fond of using them with a breathtaking lack of logic.
I would be interested to know how these figures compare to other species - how much DNA do we have in common with a pig? or a lizard? or an octopus?
And does anyone know where the figures originate? References?