Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00213)

At 05:01 PM 5/3/96 -0400, you wrote:
>>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
>
>
>Bee: Thanks for that posting it's fascinating and to me kind of wonderful.
If you want to read a really wonderful book read:"When Elephants Weep" by
Jeffrey Mousseiff Masson. it makes one laugh and weep.

alexis d.