You overhear a friend of yours say "humans descended from chimpanzees". Using "plain language"-such that someone who has completed high school biology, but not BIOL 1001 can understand-clearly argue why this is not an accurate view of human evolution. For full marks, you must also explain why there are physical similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees (no need to list all the differences, just explain why they exist). You may use diagrams if you wish, but there must be text to explain these. While you can refer to analogies, your answer cannot be limited to these (i.e., you must expand on the analogies).
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Both humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor from which they evolved separately over millions of years. Show more…
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"Humans evolved from chimpanzees". This statement is incorrect from an evolutionary standpoint because humans and chimpanzees are genetically dissimilar humans and chimpanzees do not share a common ancestor humans and chimpanzees are part of a monophyletic clade the ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was neither a human nor a chimpanzee
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If chimpanzees and humans are each other's closest relatives, how do you explain the fact that chimpanzees have an opposable hallux (big toe) like gorillas but unlike humans? (Pick the most parsimonious answer) Gorilla and chimpanzee lineages independently evolved an opposable hallux. The opposable hallux is an ancestral character that has been modified in the human lineage. Chimpanzees are more closely related to gorillas than humans. In young gorillas and chimpanzees, the hallux becomes opposable as they climb trees, and this trait is passed on to their offspring. Chimpanzees and gorillas have a developmental constraint that prevents the hallux from resembling the human morphology.
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DNA sequences in many human genes are very similar to the sequences of corresponding genes in chimpanzees. The most likely explanation for this result is that a. humans and chimpanzees share a relatively recent common ancestor. b. humans evolved from chimpanzees. c. chimpanzees evolved from humans. d. convergent evolution led to the DNA similarities.
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