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We Differ from Gorillas by Only 1.75%!

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More evidence that we are descendants of apes?

If Darwin’s theory is correct why is it that Gorillas/Apes have not ceased to exist, as only the fittest survive and they have evolved into Human Beings?

Gorillas/Apes are closer to Man-who is to be more ashamed-Man or the Animals?seeing the behaviour of man, one tends to ask.

“The complete sequence of 20,962 genes — extracted from the skin cells of Kamilah, a 34-year-old gorilla who lives at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park — was compiled by an international team of more than 60 researchers who worked on the project for about five years.

image of Gorilla sitting like a Man
Gorilla sitting like a man.

“The gorilla genome is important because gorillas are our second-closest living relatives,” said Richard Durbin, senior author of a paper about the discovery published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

By comparing the new gorilla DNA sequence with reference genomes of humans, chimpanzees, orangutans and macaques, scientists have already made a few surprising insights into the crucial periods when we diverged into separate species.

For instance, the new genetic data bolster fossil evidence that gorillas split off as a separate species about 10 million years ago and that humans and chimps parted ways about 6 million years ago. Previous genetic evidence had seemed to point to a more recent split, prompting a contentious debate betweengenetics experts and fossil scholars, said Durbin, who leads the genome informatics group at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-gorilla-genome-20120308,0,6590478.story

” In decoding the DNA of a western lowland gorilla, scientists made a discovery that may surprise you: Humans and gorillas differ in just 1.75% of their DNA, making our genomes more similar than previously thought. That percentage actually drops to 1.37% when compared to chimpanzees, our closest living relatives—but 15% of the time, gorilla DNA is actually more like human DNA than chimp DNA is, the Los Angeles Times reports. That “tells us that there are individual genes for which, if you want to find the closest sequence to humans, you won’t necessarily look at chimpanzees. In a few cases, you’ll look at gorillas,” says a geneticist.”

http://www.newser.com/story/141325/human-gorilla-dna-just-175-of-it-is-different.html

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3 responses to “We Differ from Gorillas by Only 1.75%!”

  1. Krishna Kumar Avatar
    Krishna Kumar

    About why human beings are not evolving into a better species, I would suggest the following things to keep in mind.

    1. We have had different human-like species (Australopithecus, Homo erectus, Neanderthal, etc.) before landing on Homo sapiens

    2. Among human beings, there are key genetic differences. One important one is the sickle cell trait which is common in Africa and confers better resistance against Malaria. This is absent in other races. I highly recommend the book “Survival of the Sickest” by Sharon Moalem.

    3. To continue from (2), most genetic changes for human beings have been against micro-organisms. Germs have been the most powerful influence on human history as invaders have successfully overrun populations (such as North America) by bringing germs that the natives could not cope with. See “Guns, Germs, and Steel” and “Plagues & Peoples” for more on this topic. It is beyond argument that the modern human being is far resistant to germs than his predecessor of 10,000 years ago.

    4. Visible changes do not offer as much advantage to human beings as other animals as human beings can manipulate the environment. and particularly in today’s modern world, any biological advantage is far less than advantages offered by machines through automation One example is the common sixth finger in people. It has not offered an advantage. Similarly the appendix survives even though it provides no benefit and can be harmful, because it is not that harmful to kill off people before they can reproduce.

    Reply
  2. Psilomelane Avatar
    Psilomelane

    I don’t quite understand your (rhetorical?) questions: The fittest gorillas have survived to this point, but it’s quite possible even -they- will become extinct due to factors such as human encroachment into their environments, along with outright killing of them by humans.

    Gorillas and other apes don’t evolve into homo sapiens over time: we shared a common ancestor with them far back, and each modern species is the result of “branching off” from the shared trunk of the ancestor species. A gorilla doesn’t evolve into a chimpanzee, and an orangutang doesn’t evolve into a human.

    These are my basic understandings of evolution, and again, I may just be misunderstanding your original comments.

    Reply
    1. ramanan50 Avatar
      ramanan50

      Thank you for taking time to clarify.
      If some of the organisms are not fit to survive and others are fit to continue, the newly evolved species might have evolved on their own or due forces not accounted by The Darwinian Theory.
      May be Genes or something else.
      Again, if an organism can not survive (while others could evolve normally), better Genus could have evolved.
      There is no necessity of themselves into a new improved organism.
      If a specific organism were to be unfit, the Genus must have an inherent defect some where.
      In that case, Nature by its natural Selection could have made the Genus evolve into a new better species,don’t you think?
      It makes nature’s job much easier and ensure evolution of better organisms that can adapt successfully.
      With the present explanation offered by Darwin none can check whether one species become extinct because of Natural Selection.
      If one were to assume that Genes and other Biological factors are responsible, Darwin’s Theory becomes redundant.
      Here we assign the process of Natural Selection to Genes.
      The other way of saying this that which can not live, for whatever reasons, become dead.
      Only this much is warranted by Logic,nothing more.
      As to the point that they evolve into some thing else is open to debate.
      I have another query.
      How is it that no human organism is found to be defective in terms of adjusting to environment and evolve into a new better Species?
      It is obvious that Evolution has progressed from Single Cell and Simple organisms to more Complex Organism like Man.

      This process is a long and tedious one.

      However doubts still persist on the Validation of Darwinian Theory of Evolution.

      To know more and have in depth Knowledge of various Theories and the important web sites on Evolution ,New York Times has come out with a series of articles and tools on this subject.

      Please follow the Links which are very useful.

      Essay: Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live

      Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder: Understanding How Secondary Sexual Traits Contribute to Evolution
      They’re More Evolved That Way: Examining How the Latest Theories on Human Evolution Might Impact Historical Understanding
      Fantastic Fossil: Examining the Impact of Tiktaalik on the World of Evolution
      Going the Way the Wind Blows: Examining How Climate and Geography Affected Prehistoric Humankind
      Watching Nature Take Its Course: Celebrating Important Evolutionary Milestones in the Tree of Life
      Making Prehistory: Creating Fossil Records Based on Current Scientific Theory About Prehistory
      http://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/evolutionteaching-and-learning-resources-tools/

      Reply

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