Any Freepers out there know what percentage of Neanderthal’s genome is identical to modern human? The apes were just kicked out of the human club yesterday from what I read here on the forum. Chimps are as close to humans as chickens are! What is the Neanderthal’s status?
I didn’t read that, now I have to go find it.
Neanderthal DNA is halfway between ours and that of a chimpanzee. That totally rules out any possibility of our being descended from the Neanderthal via any process resembling evolution and all other hominids were further removed from us. We are not related to hominids at all other than possibly via similar design, which is how Fords and Chevrolets are related.
This is what passes for truth among creationists?
Pitiful.
Humans and chimps are more closely related to each other than either is to any other living species. Among the ape clade we are the two closest related species by DNA comparison. The genetic DNA is 98% the same, over the entire genome that includes the non-genetic regions, we are some 95% the same.
Neanderthals are not only very similar in DNA to humans, it has been estimated that some 1-4% of the ancestors of anyone of European or MiddleEastern heritage were Neanderthals.
There’s only a couple of DNA specimens available (so far, but the number will never be large). The old one (the one done with mitochondrial DNA back in the 1990s) only came up with a few hundred base pairs (out of a presumed original in excess of 16000 base pairs), about a quarter of one percent. There’s still a pretty weird bias against Neandertal, it comes from a 19th c martinet, Rudolph Virchow.
A recent one (past year or two) uses nuclear DNA, and shows a tiny difference here and there. Since this is a single Neandertal that was used for the research, and a long period of time since he died, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’ll be interesting when the “gracile” “anatomically modern” archaic human remains have their DNA sequenced. :’)
There’s some stupidity floating around the web (and FR) about both studies, and it comes from non-scientists who constantly have to shift their claims because they don’t know what they’re talking about, and saddle on anything that appears to support their a priori assumptions.
Morphology (still) rules! See my second post in this topic.
You have a response from wendy who has argued against the latest scientific opinion in other posts. It is estimated that chimps have about 98% similar genetic material to us. I think I saw somewhere that the Neanderthal might be something like 99.8%, but am not certain. Also, recent genetic studies indicate that humans have from 1 to 4% identical genes to those of Neanderthals. Specifically, the Celtic red hair, blue eye, pink skin may be Neanderthal, which gives an advantage in absorbing the sun’s rays to produce Vitamin D. This is essential in the formation of good bone structure, especially well formed pelvis for childbearing in northern climes. Try Googling “Recent Neanderthal Research.”
BION, probably like 99.9999 similar. Apes are like 99%.