Are Humans And Chimps Really Cousins?

(Update: Article corrections made on February 6th, 2:32 pm).

Despite what may be taught in the classrooms of America, our associations with "our cousin" may not be as close as many people think. Scientists have for many years declared humanities close ties with the chimp, boasting the similarities between our genes.

Dr. Georgia Purdom, a molecular geneticist takes a closer examination and publishes her observations.

• The chimp genome is 12% larger than the human genome.


• Only 2.4 billion bases have been aligned between the two genomes, leaving a maximum similarity of 68-77%.


• In many areas of the genome, it appears major rearrangements of DNA sequences have occurred, accounting for another 10-20% dissimilarity.


• Chimps have 46 chromosomes and humans have 44 chromosomes (excluding sex chromosomes for both species).


• To save money and time, the chimp genome was assembled using the human genome as a template (because of the presupposition that humans evolved from the same line as chimps); it is currently unknown if the pieces of the chimp genome "puzzle" were put together properly.

This comes to no surprise to this author, who at one time submitted his views towards the theory of evolution. Despite the thousands of books that have been written about this theory, it yet to provide an explanation refuting the serious holes in Darwins faith (such as the gap in the fossil record and why only one star system is similar to ours out of 150 worlds discovered).

The debate over who founded the universe will probably be discussed and debated fiercely well into the next century. As Purdom notes, all scientists have their specific biases before entering the lab, and generally look for clues or evidence backing up their theories.

Evolutionists do not understand why Creationists pray to a being they reject as existing, while Creationists are surprised that Evolutionists refuse to bring the debate into the classroom.

Although this author does no longer adheres to Darwin's faith, discussion of our origins between the two philosophies is important, and will hopefully lead towards a final conclusion to our beginnings.



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