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In a recent discussion on The Discovery Institute’s ID the Future podcast, geologist Casey Luskin explained that the original “98-99%” figure was derived from a single protein-to-protein comparison before the chimp genome was sequenced. Since then, we’ve gained a great deal more precision. According to Luskin, humans and chimps have about 35 million single base-pair genetic differences and five million insertion-deletion differences. Humans also have 689 unique genes not found in chimps. And while there are different ways of quantifying the differences, almost none of these ways yield the famous “98-99%” number. For example, in 2018, Queen Mary University of...

Visitors to the Chicago zoo showing the 415lb Amare pictures and videos through the glass wall has made him dismissive to other male gorillas A teenage gorilla in a Chicago zoo has been getting too much screen time, according to zoo officials. Amare, a 415-pound gorilla at Chicago’s Lincoln Park zoo, has been staring a little too frequently at the screens of cellphones from visitors who show him pictures and videos through the glass wall – including selfies, family photos, pet videos and even footage of Amare himself. He has apparently become so distracted as a result that last week,...

Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker cast doubt on the theory of evolution in recent remarks, saying the fact that apes and humans coexist disproves accepted science. “At one time, science said man came from apes, did it not? ... If that is true, why are there still apes? Think about it,” Herschel said in an appearance at Sugar Hill Church in Georgia on Sunday.

To make up for lack of interaction under Covid-19 restrictions, apes at zoos 150km apart can now watch each others’ daily lives on big screens Humans might be tiring of video calls, Zoom birthdays and streamed performances, but the chimps at two Czech zoos are just starting to enjoy their new live online link-up. To make up for the lack of interaction with visitors since the attractions closed in December under Covid-19 restrictions, the chimpanzees at Safari Park Dvur Kralove and the troop at a zoo 150km away in in Brno, can now watch one another’s daily lives on giant...

Jakarta (AFP) - Poaching and habitat loss have decimated Indonesia's orangutan population, but now coronavirus has emerged as another potential deadly threat to the critically endangered species. While there have been no confirmed cases of transmission from humans to the fuzzy-haired apes, they share 97 percent of our DNA. And staff at a rehabilitation centre in jungle-covered Borneo are not taking any chances. The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation has closed its doors to visitors and told staff to step up precautions to avoid passing on infection, including by wearing masks and protective gloves. "There haven't been any confirmed cases of...

Tree-dwelling apes in Europe strode upright around 5 million years before members of the human evolutionary family hit the ground walking in Africa. That’s the implication of fossils from a previously unknown ape that lived in what’s now Germany about 11.6 million years ago, say paleontologist Madelaine Böhme of the University of Tübingen in Germany and her colleagues. But the relation, if any, of these finds to the evolution of a two-legged stride in hominids by perhaps 6 million years ago is hazy (SN: 9/11/04). Excavations in a section of a Bavarian clay pit produced 37 fossils from the ancient...

The beautifully preserved remains of a 47-million-year-old, lemur-like creature have been unveiled in the US. The preservation is so good, it is possible to see the outline of its fur and even traces of its last meal. The fossil, nicknamed Ida, is claimed to be a "missing link" between today's higher primates - monkeys, apes and humans - and more distant relatives. But some independent experts, awaiting an opportunity to see the new fossil, are sceptical of the claim. And they have been critical of the hype surrounding the presentation of Ida. The fossil was launched amid great fanfare at...

An orangutan named Sandra, at the center of a landmark ruling in Argentina that said she is a "non-human person" entitled to some of the same rights as humans, is making her way to a Florida sanctuary where great apes enjoy those privileges without benefit of a court order. Once Sandra is there, the 33-year-old orangutan will have the company of others in her species for the first time in many years. Sandra left her solitary world at a zoo in Buenos Aires in late September and is currently in Kansas, where she'll remain in quarantine until she's cleared to...

THIS is the secret African island inhabited by super aggressive "monster'" chimps all freed from a US testing laboratory. The apes -who are infected with contagious diseases- were abandoned on the Liberian river island after being released by their captors. The jungle wilderness - known to locals as ‘Monkey Island’ - is now home to more than 60 chimps who are notoriously protective of its shores. Many of the animals are said to be "super aggressive"and those living nearby are terrified to go there for fear of being attacked. Only a select few locals - who regularly take the apes...

Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in 25 sequels, several authorized books by other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized. The film version of Tarzan as the noble savage (“Me Tarzan, You Jane”), as acted by Johnny Weissmuller,...

In the last few hundred years, dark-skinned peoples have been likened to apes in an effort to dehumanize them and justify their oppression and exploitation. This is familiar to most Americans as something that is done peculiarly to Black people. The history of U.S. discrimination against the Irish, however, offers an interesting comparative data point. The Irish, too, have been compared to apes, suggesting that this comparison is a generalizable tactic of oppression, not one inspired by the color of the skin of Africans.

Primatologist Jane Goodall has made her name studying chimpanzees for over half a century. So, if anyone can deduce a distinct correlation between a brash chimp and the egoistic hubris of, say, the president of the United States, it’s Goodall. Pre-election, last October, Goodall made a comparison between then-Republican candidate Donald Trump and the primates she has devoted her life to understanding. “In many ways the performances of Donald Trump remind me of male chimpanzees and their dominance rituals,” she told the Atlantic. “In order to impress rivals, males seeking to rise in the dominance hierarchy perform spectacular displays: Stamping,...

Lucy Languishes as a Human-Ape Link by Frank Sherwin, M.A. * Evidence for Creation Human evolution has consistently been shown to be without scientific or biblical merit. Although a parade of supposed transitions are displayed in every conceivable outlet, non-Darwinists maintain that the links between people and our alleged ape-like ancestors are—missing.

Fish as Smart as Apes? by Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D. * Evidence for Creation Since evolutionary thinking permeates the entire spectrum of biology, scientists are consistently surprised by the mental abilities of creatures thought to be lower on the so-called tree of life. In this mythical tree of evolutionary progression, apes are thought to be at the top of the intelligence scale—second only to humans. But now we have numerous examples of other land creatures, most notably birds, that rival or exceed apes’ mental capabilities.1-3 But what about fish, the supposed ancient ancestors of all land-dwelling animals? With such a...

All great mind reading begins with chocolate. That’s the basis for a classic experiment that tests whether children have something called theory of mind—the ability to attribute desires, intentions, and knowledge to others. When they see someone hide a chocolate bar in a box, then leave the room while a second person sneaks in and hides it elsewhere, they have to guess where the first person will look for the bar. If they guess “in the original box,” they pass the test, and show they understand what’s going on in the first person’s mind—even when it doesn’t match reality. For...

Study: Apes Could Make Competent Bartenders An ape in Sweden has demonstrated human-level flavour prediction abilities by memorising cocktail ingredients, according to a recent study. By providing a captive orangutan with its own personal cocktail bar, a group of researchers found that large primates exhibit a type of taste memory thought to be unique to humans. In a new study published in the Animal Cognition journal, researchers at Lund University in Sweden offered Naong, a male orangutan at a Swedish Zoo, three distinct tasting juices – cherry, rhubarb and lemon – as well as cider apple vinegar. Each in a...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We're gonna get to the gorilla business. That's easily explained, too. Folks, you remember when the two fish, what kind of fish were they, I keep thinking dolphins or porpoises, way back in the nineties, a couple of them got caught in sea ice, way far north of where they should have been, and the whole country became captivated with, will they find their way out? What can we do? Can we cut holes in the ice so that the porpoise, the dolphins, whatever they were, can we guide them out? Can we do something? Can we...

Following are excerpts from an address by Algerian cleric Chemseddine el Djazairi, which aired on Ennahar TV on February 8, 2015: Chemseddine el Djazairi: A viewer asks: What is your position about the prevalent belief that contemporary Jews are of the seed of those who were transformed into apes and pigs? This belief is not true. Contemporary Jews are of the seed of Adam, not of the apes and pigs, because the line of those transformed into apes and pigs was severed. […] A Jew who rebelled so much against God that he was thus transformed – how is this...

Audiences will get more than a dystopian future when they line up to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes next month. The second film in the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise reportedly packs a pro-gun control message, according to a new review of the film in Variety. The story also touches on environmental fear mongering, albeit in a reduced fashion compared to the first installment. The “Apes” franchise has always been a politically loaded one, and this latest entry states its left-wing credo in ways both allegorically implicit and bluntly direct. (You’d have to be pretty obtuse...

It is one of the most unusual evolutionary ideas ever proposed: humans are amphibious apes who lost their fur, started to walk upright and developed big brains because they took to living the good life by the water’s edge. This is the aquatic ape theory and although treated with derision by some academics over the past 50 years, it is still backed by a small, but committed group of scientists. From next Wednesday through Friday, they will hold a major London conference when several speakers, including British naturalist and broadcaster, David Attenborough, will voice support for the theory. “Humans are...