Friday, May 23, 2003

Chimps Belong on Human Branch of Family Tree, Study Says

Homo Troglodytes Fanni holding infant Fax. Photo : © Michael Neugebauer I find this article very interesting for a couple reasons. The main reason is that it opens a new conversation with ourselves and our place in the world. I am an omnivore, but I am also a "Pinnacle-ist." I believe that every single thing that exists today, animals, plants, or even planets and suns, are the pinnacle of their own evoloutionary ladder. To me, that is a very leveling thought, and the very reason I hate people cutting down trees as much as I hate people putting dogs to sleep unnecessarily. That is the same reason I eat a plant as I eat an animal, with respect, and when the time comes, so may I be eaten. John Pickrell in England for National Geographic News A new report argues that chimpanzees are so closely related to humans that they should be included in our branch of the tree of life. Chimpanzees and other apes have historically been separated from humans in classification schemes, with humans deemed the only living members of the hominid family of species. Now, biologists at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, provide new genetic evidence that lineages of chimps (currently Pan troglodytes) and humans (Homo sapiens) diverged so recently that chimps should be reclassed as Homo troglodytes. The move would make chimps full members of our genus Homo, along with Neandertals, and all other human-like fossil species. "We humans appear as only slightly remodeled chimpanzee-like apes," says the study. I do find the last paragraph a little political talk, because he concludes that we lose a tool and I only see the tool as being reshaped to be a better and more accurate tool. Fossil human-like species are currently divided into at least three genera. Grouping them all in the genus Homo could be very confusing, Wood said. Classification schemes "should be the signposts for differences between organisms," said Wood. "The problem is, if you call the chimp Homo troglodytes, you deny yourself that tool to help guide you though the tree of life." Read the complete Article. Posted on 5/23/03; 7:48:36 AM by Jack Mancilla Dept.Mumblings, Comment (0)