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Re: Gorillas, Chimps and Humans
James Borrett (jamesb@hgu.mrc.ac.uk)
Wed, 17 Jul 1996 11:31:39 +0100
Paul Crowley wrote:
> 1. We are genetically closely related to chimps. The date of the
> split from them gets later and later and certainly post-dates the
> split from gorillas which also knuckle-walk.
Are we completely sure about this? I know the molecular evidence fits
with this theory, but there are geneticists who argue that the molecular
techniques can't give that fine a resolution to really distinguish if we
and the chimps split off first or if it was a trifurcation (ie all three
speciated at the same time) because of differences in mutation rates in
different species etc.. In any case, how much earlier are the gorillas
thought to have speciated? Not that this affects your argument much!
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