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#20744 04/23/07 01:21 AM
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April 20/07

They may all be black and hairy and they may all eat and act in much the same way, but chimpanzees from different parts of Africa are genetically more diverse than all of humanity, researchers reported on Friday

Experts have long marveled that older ideas of race are not reflected in human DNA.
Genetic diversity is more pronounced within population groups than between them, with only a few gene differences accounting for the wide variations seen in eye, skin and hair color across humanity. So animals all about the same size and color and showing few behavioral differences must be even more genetically identical, right?

Wrong, says Molly Przeworski, assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago.Her team looked at the DNA of the three designated populations of chimpanzees in Africa -- the eastern, western and central populations, designated by some researchers as sub-species of the chimpanzee.

They found that a western african chimpanzee has more differences, genetically, from an eastern african chimp than any one human being has from another.

It is the first genetic confirmation that they are distinct populations.

Millions of years ago in Africa, ancient remains indicate that several species of pre-humans emerged and lived perhaps side-by-side. Chimpanzees, the closest genetic living relative to human beings, may be undergoing changes similar to those that drove human evolution.

Researchers say they estimate that bonobos, which live south of the Congo River, split off from the ancestors of modern chimpanzees about 800,000 years ago.
Western chimps appear to have separated from central and eastern chimpanzees about 500,000 years ago and central and eastern chimps would have divided from one another about 250,000 years ago

One major barrier between the populations is the Congo River. "Chimps don't swim," Becquet said. "For them, water provides a very effective border."

It means we have to protect three separate habitats, all threatened, instead of just one," Przeworski said.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=gene-study-shows-chimps-m&chanId=sa003&modsrc=reuters

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
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"You will never find a real Human being - Even in a mirror." ....Mike Kremer.


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Chimps don't swim was part of one of the best ideas about human history I ever read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis

Personally I have always liked the theoretical basis for it.


DA Morgan
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Originally Posted By: DA Morgan
Chimps don't swim was part of one of the best ideas about human history I ever read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis

Personally I have always liked the theoretical basis for it.


And dos'nt 'Wiki' cover the subject well.
Thanks Daniel.

Mike Kremer.


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"You will never find a real Human being - Even in a mirror." ....Mike Kremer.


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Wow, thanks Mike; thanks Dan.
I had no idea that was such a "widely held" "theory."
Years ago I came up with the same idea, partly from seeing the proboscis monkeys and then clinching it when i saw how the pelvis of evolving aquatic mammals turned (facilitating bipedalism too).
Anyway, thanks again.
Dan, your link really is a shining example of what Wikepedia is capable of, isn't it?

~SA


Pyrolysis creates reduced carbon! ...Time for the next step in our evolutionary symbiosis with fire.
samwik #20760 04/23/07 10:59 AM
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It is indeed.

If you can get a copy of Elaine Morgan's (not related) book you will find it an interested read.


DA Morgan

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