Closer to Gorillas Than Angels
Let's face it, you always suspected as much. Not that you really believed that simian genes are equally shared among homo sapiens. Your genetic inheritance in particular has very few of them. On the other hand, your neighbours, those fumbling, bumbling, loud-mouths, those overbearing and shuffling-gaited embarrassments are obviously in possession of a whole s--t-load of simian genes.
It tells in their carriage, their high-pitched guffaws, their shambolic presence, their gross behaviour and their pathetic values. They're uncultured slobs, those hairy-chested - no, not Neanderthals, since they've been shown lately to have been gifted with large brains, capable of showing up homo sapiens in all manner of ways, including the manufacture of tools and playing musical instruments, and burying their dead with affection.
They're hairy-chested in memory of their gorilla antecedents. You know it now, because a worldwide consortium of scientists have sequenced the genome of the gorillas, comparing over 11,000 of their key genes with - you got it- modern humans. And chimpanzees. True, we're closer in genetic sharing with chimpanzees than gorillas, but they're there, in our genes. Just as Neanderthal genes are also present.
There was, for one thing, interbreeding between homo sapiens and Neanderthal, though no forensic anthropologists quite know what happened to the latter, while we're still here... The lowland gorilla's DNA indicates that 15% of the human genome nudges closer to them than to chimpanzees. Though that evolutionary split was made a long, long time ago - how does ten million years sound?
"As well as teaching us about human evolution, the study of the great apes connects us to a time when our existence was more tenuous, and in doing so, highlights the importance of protecting and conserving these remarkable species", the study out of Britain's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute points out, referring to the endangered species status of gorilla populations as a result of hunting and habitat loss.
It tells in their carriage, their high-pitched guffaws, their shambolic presence, their gross behaviour and their pathetic values. They're uncultured slobs, those hairy-chested - no, not Neanderthals, since they've been shown lately to have been gifted with large brains, capable of showing up homo sapiens in all manner of ways, including the manufacture of tools and playing musical instruments, and burying their dead with affection.
They're hairy-chested in memory of their gorilla antecedents. You know it now, because a worldwide consortium of scientists have sequenced the genome of the gorillas, comparing over 11,000 of their key genes with - you got it- modern humans. And chimpanzees. True, we're closer in genetic sharing with chimpanzees than gorillas, but they're there, in our genes. Just as Neanderthal genes are also present.
There was, for one thing, interbreeding between homo sapiens and Neanderthal, though no forensic anthropologists quite know what happened to the latter, while we're still here... The lowland gorilla's DNA indicates that 15% of the human genome nudges closer to them than to chimpanzees. Though that evolutionary split was made a long, long time ago - how does ten million years sound?
"As well as teaching us about human evolution, the study of the great apes connects us to a time when our existence was more tenuous, and in doing so, highlights the importance of protecting and conserving these remarkable species", the study out of Britain's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute points out, referring to the endangered species status of gorilla populations as a result of hunting and habitat loss.
Labels: Human Relations, Nature, Science
posted by Pieface @ 7:16 PM
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