how are human beings and chimpanzees phylogenetically related?
In the past, many anthropologists categorized chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans together as âpongidsâ. Today, we recognize that these are not a natural group. Phylogenetically, humans are part of the group that includes orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. Many anthropologists call this group âHominidaeâ, although others would put this at a different taxonomic level than the family level (the level implied by the âidaeâ ending).
The fact that chimpanzees and humans have similar DNA does not make them evolutionary relatives. Humans did not evolve in a series of random accidents from an apelike ancestorâthey were created in the image of God. The Bible makes a clear distinction between man and the animals. Man is given the ability to fellowship with God and given dominion over the animals.
A common claim is that the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and human (Homo sapiens) genomes. are about 98 to 99% similar. The roots of this paradigm are based on DNA reassociation kinetics. technology popular in the 1970âs in the early days of the molecular biology revolution.