Human's DNA is 98% like that of the ape?

Question

Is that right, if it is or a number similar to that how could such a little percentage difference bring about such drastic changes and differences between the two?

Answer 1

It is important to understand that, with more than one billion molecules and 1/3 (333+ million) of those being the programming molecules, there are more than 122.9637 x 10 to the 32nd power (sorry, I don't have super script on this software) possible different combinations in just one chromosome. That is 1,229,637 with 28 zeros behind it. Now multiply that times the 46 chromosomes you have in every cell in your body. It is easy to see how complex this can get.

So now the 3% and yes it is 3, becomes very big.
Also note not all of DNA is functional.

Answer 2

Well, first understand that genetics is a very, very complex subject. Without a good understanding of it, it is difficult even to talk about the relationship of the anthropoid apes with human beings.

First, and most importantly, not all genes do anything. The genes that are important are the ones that the messenger RNA brings from the double helix to the proteins in the cell. Some of the DNA in the copied sequences will cause proteins to do things. These are the important ones. Other sequences don't cause anything to happen, and are sometimes called "junk DNA."

Because there's no evolutionary impact for "junk DNA", it mutates at regular intervals, since it is not under the same pressures as active DNA to be in the correct form. The functional DNA sequences for almost all living forms are substantially the same. Your functional DNA is not only much the same as a chimp's. It is also almost the same as a rat's.

Where this gets interesting is that human DNA is not just like the functional DNA of a chimp. Our "junk DNA" is nearly identical as well. And since that mutates at regular intervals, that means that not a lot of time has passed since chimps and humans had a common ancestor to pass on the same junk DNA to both.

Differences, even big differences, do not require a lot of genetic changes. One tiny flawed gene in primates causes us all - monkeys, apes, and humans - to lack the "night vision" functionality most other mammals have. And then there's the example of dogs - a great dane looks nothing like a poodle, even though genetically, they are nearly identical.

But what, I think, also bears noting is that the differences between humans and apes actually aren't all that drastic. Take the little known Bonobo ape (sometimes called a pygmy chimp.) They look like people, they have a social organization similar to people, and even have a sexuality (albeit a promiscuous variant) strongly reminiscent of people. They can even be taught various human skills, such as flint-knapping stone tools and writing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzi

...so it would only have taken a few genetic changes here and there:

- to curve the spine a bit more, lengthen the legs a little
- Make the wrists a bit more dexterous, and the thumb a bit longer
- Ditch the opposable toe
- fuse the 2a and 2b gene strand
- Improve sweating and heat dissipation, and lose the hair
- Use this last innovation with sweating to grow a larger brain
- Modify the broca's brain area, the hypoglossal canal, throat positioning, and hyoid bone to enable speech.

...and voila, us! There really aren't that many differences. Just some key ones.

Answer 3

Because when you're considering "percentage of DNA" you're considering *millions* of base pairs. It seems like such a high number, until you actually start talking how many changes that really is.

Answer 4

Britain’s New Scientist magazine states:
“Large differences in DNA, not small ones, separate apes and monkeys from both humans and each other”.
Kelly Frazer of Perlegen Sciences (the California company that did the analysis) states:
“There are large deletions and insertions sprinkled throughout the chromosome.”
New Scientist magazine characterized the differences as a “yawning gap [that] divides monkeys and us.”

That's from the source!

Answer 5

i dont say this very much but somethimes a very special person comes around and says something so awesome i have to congadulate them...here goes! You sir are the king of all idiots. What you asked could have served better in a comedy act. But you bravely posted this with assurity that you made sence. Bravo. Of course man is going to share 100% DNA with humans. That was obvous. The number of precentage drop to show what we DONT have in commen with other species. That is unless you are part ameiba .

Answer 6

We share 99% of our DNA which in itself is impressive evidence of shared ancestry but combined with the fact that primates and man have a coccyx (the small bone at the base of the spine) which is unique amongst the millions of animal species, and also the fact that both primates and man can't synthesise vitamin c because of the same enzyme deficiency and what you have is irrefutable proof. Creationists have an impossible task trying to challenge that evidence-they must know that their beliefs are worthless.

Answer 7

Because the differences really aren't that drastic. A good plastic surgeon could make a person look like an ape. The stuff on the outside really doesn't matter much. The materials and mechanics are all the same. Apart from the thumb and big toe thing.

Answer 8

That is what they say. BTW the extra 2-3% represents millions and millions of data sets....so in reality we aren't very similar at all....98% just sounds impressive to some. You have to place the number in the proper context. Happy Thanksgiving.

Answer 9

mammalain DNA is a general template... it does not mean that any one species came from another... it just means they have similar starting material but how it is expressed is different......each genus and species are produced by the action of various proteins on specific genes during development... God made the general template because it was intelligent and efficient. then he allowed each species to express the DNA differently

just like you can take wood and make it into a table or a cabinet or a chair....the wood is the same... and can be used and created into different things... but this does not mean the table evolved from the chair

Answer 10

Its something like that but its not just the DNA being similar that scientists go off, I think it has something to do with chromosones, but I'm no scientist. We share similar DNA to a housefly and no-one sugeests we had a common ancestor with them...