Humans are only 70% chimp?
Around 80% of the human genome has an equivalent section in the chimp genome. When we compare these sections we find that they’re around 99% similar. That means, for example, […]
Category Archives: Genetics
Autistic individuals are NOT Neanderthal hybirds
A while ago I wrote about the Neanderthal theory of autism (NAT). For those of you who don’t remember (and are too lazy to click on that link), it’s the […]
The Neanderthal with a chin: a human hybrid?
Humans may have been evolving for millions of years, but some of our traits only developed recently. I’m always fascinated by these modern traits, they’re often the last thing you […]
Assassin’s Creed in your genes
I’m a big fan of the Assassin’s Creed games, they’re top notch murder simulators. The premise behind them is that the memories of our ancestors are encoded into our DNA which can […]
When did humans leave Africa?
Fossil evidence indicates that modern humans evolved in Africa around 195,000 years ago (McDougall et al., 2005). Genetic data confirms this, showing that all living people share an African ancestor […]
The genes that make you, you
Some segments of the genome are crucial to survival and so any changes to these regions, even small ones, can prove fatal. These means that these sequences don’t change much […]
Why did the Neanderthals go extinct?
This post will be appearing on the Advanced Apes shortly. You get a peak ahead of time, because I love you The Neanderthals were our closest relatives who dominated the […]
Our sense of smell is “devolving”
Humans have a really poor sense of smell, as anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock surely knows. It just takes a brief glance at the many animals we […]
Humans and chimps diverged earlier than previously thought
Our lineage’s fossil record is especially sparse between 4 – 8 million years ago. From that time period we have roughly 50 fragmented specimens making up only 6 or so […]
Denisovans diverged from humans 4,000 years ago?
Todd C. Wood is a geneticist who is also a genuine, dyed in the wool young earth creationist. The co-existence of two such divergant positions is perplexing, made all the […]
