How was the supposed common ancestor of Chimpanzee and man look like?
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I'm currently reading a book called Physics of the Future, by Michio Kaku, and I came across a few things that might be of interest concerning the link between humans and chimps. Here are a few quotes from the book:
"...in the future a computer program should be able to analyze our DNA and the chimpanzee's DNA and then mathematically approximate the DNA of the common ancestor who have birth to both species." [p. 182]
"...it might be possible to actually create the DNA of this organism, implant it into a human egg, and then insert the egg into a woman, who will then give birth to our ancestor." [p. 182]
And on a slightly different tangent:
"...the handful of key genes that separate us from the chimpanzees are now being analyzed in detail. One interesting candidate is the ASPM gene, which is responsible for controlling brain size. [...] Intriguingly, it is possible using computers to analyze the history of this gene. Analyses show that it mutated fifteen times in the last 5 to 6 million years, since we separated from the chimpanzees, which coincides with the increase in our brain size. Compared to our primate cousins, humans have experienced the fastest rate of change in this key gene. [p. 183]
Even more interesting is the HAR1 region of the genome, which contains only 118 letters. In 2004, it was discovered that the crucial difference between chimps and humans in this region was just 18 letters, or nucleic acids. Chimps and chickens diverged 300 million years ago, yet their base pairs in the HAR1 region differ by only two letters. What this means is that the HAR1 region was remarkably stable throughout evolutionary history, until the coming of humans." [p. 183]
Chimps and chickens diverged 300 million years ago, yet their base pairs in the HAR1 region differ by only two letters. What this means is that the HAR1 region was remarkably stable throughout evolutionary history, until the coming of humans." [p. 183]
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