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Since most scientist believe in evolution why don't genetic test say you have a certain percentage of primate in your DNA? Such .000000000009% Primate?
1) Human is a kind of primate. You're 100% primate.
2) Assuming you meant percentage of chimp or something like that, because the statistical algorithms used by consumer DNA testing companies aren't set up to separate that out. It's doable, research in evolutionary genetics indicates that there were multiple introgressions of chimpanzee DNA into the pre-human genome after the main split between human and chimp lineages. It could be calculated but because it's so much farther back in the human family tree than Neanderthal or Denisovan ancestry the percentage for everyone would be so close to identical that no useful information would be gained by all that math and computer time.
Exactly... that's a common misunderstanding that I see. Especially with people having a hard time understanding the science behind us being related to Chimps... they are cousin species more or less (well everything is, but a close cousin vs. say a distant cousin).
Exactly... that's a common misunderstanding that I see. Especially with people having a hard time understanding the science behind us being related to Chimps... they are cousin species more or less (well everything is, but a close cousin vs. say a distant cousin).
Worse when they wonder about "monkeys", rather than chimps.
Since most scientist believe in evolution why don't genetic test say you have a certain percentage of primate in your DNA? Such .000000000009% Primate?
Well, since humans are primates, all humans have 100% primate DNA. All of our DNA would be primate DNA.
I assume you want to see what percentage of common genetic material in a human's DNA compared to a the dna of one of today's primates. Percentage of common genetic material is probably not the best way to do this, since genetic structure is just as imprtant as composition of the genome, but it is an interesting point.
My understanding is that the most extensive research into this was a study published in the January 4, 2002 edition of the journal Science, entitled "Construction and analysis of a human-chimpanzee comparative clone map." It was a small study, but of the portions of the genome it reviewed, there were over 98% common results and under 2% differences, but those differences were incredible and really show the diversity that small changes to the genome can do. Entirely difference species are extremely similar, yet so very different. While its probably boring to many, you can find the article at any library for free and online in various pay and free research sites. I would love to see something done using the advances in genome mapping made in the 14 years since this was published. Maybe someone will fund some research. But to answer your question, any basic genetic test does show that you and a chimpanzee are remarkably similar on a genetic level, but those small differences (like the extra chromosome pair for the chimp, the huge y chromosome for the chimp, the massive changes in the 12th chromosome pairing between the two and many others) are what make humans so human. Now whether you believe a deity designed it this way or its the result of evolution, I leave to your own thoughts. But its clear we humans and chimps have mostly common dna.
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