Being an evolving ape, I feel obligated to respond to the claims by geographer Akhil Bakshi that blacks, whites and Asians have different ape ancestors. There are several robust arguments for the ”out of Africa theory”, a theory that Bakshi seems to oppose. But we do not even have to use any of those arguments to scrutinise Bahshi’s claims. Instead we can simply look at the number of chromosomes in apes and humans.
All six species of apes (orangutan, gorilla and chimpanzee, two species each) have 24 pair of chromosomes, whereas humans have only 23 pairs. If black, whites and Asians evolved separately from different ape ancestors, than the three different groups have had to lose one pair each, independently of one and other. The odds for this happening are so slim that we are talking in terms of monkeys on typewriters… And moreover, we could be pretty sure that there would be an irreversible reproduction barrier between the groups, making it impossible for black, white and Asian people to cross mate with each other. But as far as I can see there are still babies born by “multiple group” couples.
The Time
Personal info:
- Geoffrey Goines
- Swedish, Nature conservation freak, Passionate about Africa, Loving Peace, Politically neutral
Monday, 18 August 2008
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4 comments:
Tack för råden! Ska komma ihåg det :)
Man haven't evovolved from apes, we have the same ancestors as apes.
>yogi bear
Depends what definition one use for "ape". I know that the gibbon species are sometimes referred to as "apes" (but nowadays more commonly as "lesser apes"). If this is the case than monkeys with ape characteristics evolved more than 10 million years ago. Long before (well at least some 3 million years) humans and bonobos went their separate ways.
Goodness, there is so much useful information above!
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