Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00158)

>I saw this and remembered that HPB and more so GdeP said that apes were descended from man rather than the other way round. I have looked up the
quotes but I won't post them unless requested. Science may be getting
closer to the SD in yet another area.
> Reuter
>
> SYDNEY (May 3) - Gorillas and chimpanzees should be reclassified into the
> same species group as humans because of the closeness of their DNA,
> according to a team of Australian and New Zealand scientists.
>
> The scientists on Friday called for a formal revision of the genus homo and
> for species classification to be based on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).
>
> "If you compare other mammal groups, like genus ratus (rat) there is much
> more divergence in DNA than there is between humans and chimpanzees,"
> Australian scientist Simon Easteal, from the John Curtin School of Medical
> Research in Canberra, told Reuters on Friday.
>
> "If the (species) classification is to have any sort of meaning and
> standard we should be in the same genus," said Easteal, a member of a team
> of Australian and New Zealand scientists who presented a paper "Human
> Origins and Evolution" at the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra on
> Friday.
>
> Using a nuclear DNA test the scientists found humans diverged from
> chimpanzees about 3.6 to four million years ago and the two had diverged
> from gorillas between four and five million years ago.
>
> "There is only 1.6 percent difference between our nuclear DNA and that of a
> chimpanzee, and only 1.7 percent difference from a gorilla," Easteal said.
> "The coding DNA is closer still and some DNA shows absolutely no
> differences at all."
>
> Eastel said the DNA test indicated that both chimpanzees and humans had a
> common ancestor who walked upright.
>
> Developments in DNA research meant that the old rules of classification of
> species based on appearance was now obsolete, as changes in DNA sequences
> were a more reliable way to classify animals than outward appearances
> because DNA appeared to change more evenly.
>
> "I think classification should be based on DNA distances. This (genus homo)
> is just one case of that," he said.
>
> DNA is the substance that functions as the chemical bearer of hereditary
> characteristics.

--



   Bee Brown
   Member TSNZ,Wanganui Branch.
   Theos Int & L