# Are Humans -- Great Apes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-great-apes/424738 "2007-10-31T17:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-great-apes/424738/22 "2007-11-02T13:05:16Z")
That picture is pretty cool once it loads. But you know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words–well I think this one **contains** a thousand words. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-great-apes/424738/23 "2007-11-02T18:16:31Z")
[The whole chimapnzee thing just got a bit more complicated.](http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1023/2) > [@](#): > > Many more genes separate humans from chimpanzees than scientists believed. A new study shows that what sets us apart from our closest primate cousin is the accelerated rate at which we acquire new genes and ditch unnecessary ones. IIRC, we’re having to readjust a lot of our groupings of species as more genetic information becomes available. Before it’s done we’ll probably find out that humans are really descended from chickens or something. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-great-apes/424738/24 "2007-11-02T18:25:54Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Before it’s done we’ll probably find out that humans are really descended from chickens or something. 😉 [/QUOTE] That seems unlikely: it’s more likely that they will find that our ancestral line diverged from the chimps a million or so years earlier or later than currently believed. Our ancestors and the chicken’s ancestors both lived at a time when the chicken’s ancestors were non-avian dinosaurs and ours were non-primate mammals. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-great-apes/424738/25 "2007-11-02T19:27:47Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] [The whole chimapnzee thing just got a bit more complicated.](http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1023/2) [/quote] Just in case anyone’s interested in the actual paper, it’s scheduled to appear in the journal _Genetics_ in November: [Hahn, Matthew W., Jeffery P. Demuth and Sang-Gook Han _Accelerated rate of gene gain and loss in primates_](http://www.genetics.org/future/177.3.shtml) Note also that while the overall genetic differences between humans and chimps may actually be higher than previously stated, it won’t necessarily change any phylogenetic relationships between or among groups. We are still likely to be more closely related to chimps than to gorillas, etc., and chimps and humans are likely still going to be one another’s closest relatives. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-great-apes/424738/26 "2007-11-03T02:46:41Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] That seems unlikely: it’s more likely that they will find that our ancestral line diverged from the chimps a million or so years earlier or later than currently believed. Our ancestors and the chicken’s ancestors both lived at a time when the chicken’s ancestors were non-avian dinosaurs and ours were non-primate mammals. [/QUOTE] Uh, the 😉 should have indicated that I was making a joke about the chicken thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-humans-great-apes/424738.md?page=1)