how are the general structures of human similar to those of chimpanzee?

Question

thanks!

Answer 1

Well... to start with, we're both primates. That means we have the following things in common:

- five fingers with fingernails
- opposing thumbs
- collarbone
- generalized teeth functions (three kinds, at least)
- forward-facing eyes, eye socket characteristics
- color vision
- posterior lobe in brain
- always two mammaries
- sexual dimorphism (males and females are different)
- comparatively long lifespans (I like this last one, myself)

...and, of course, there are all the other characteristics from higher levels of classification. If we go one level up to mammal, we get:

- backbone
- four-chambered heart
- hair or fur
- three small bones in the ear
- produce milk
- blood cells without nucleii
- warm-blooded, controlled by the brain
- a placenta in the womb
- a neocortex region in the brain

...then there's chordata (spinal cord, slits in the pharynx, a tail), and animalia (eukaryotic, multicellular, heterotrophic, motile, and without cells walls). I suppose we could even get more specific too.

Something like 98.5% of our common DNA is identical... still, even those small differences are enough to cause around 17% of our proteins to be different (or if you're an optimist, 83% are the same). One of those proteins that is identical is hemoglobin - a similarity we share with no other species. The chromosomes themslves have a great deal of similarity in structure and spacing.

Answer 2

I woke up this morning and found out that I looked a lot like a chimp. In fact, I cataloged myself, and found only a few minor differences:

1. My jaw is a little different. Chimps think I'm weird because my jaw doesn't jut forward from my face.
2. I have a bigger brain than a chimp has. Chimps think my head looks ugly.
3. My hands may be better suited to knapping stone than a chimp's. Not that this matters now. Neither I nor chimps do much knapping of stone.
4. My arms are proportionately shorter than a chimp's. Chimps think I'm retarded because I don't walk on the knuckles of my hands.
5. The muscle insertion points in my arms are somewhat different from a chimp's, giving my arms a mechanical disadvantage when compared with a chimp's. Chimps think I am a weakling, and laugh when they see that I can't swing around in the branches of trees.
6. I have, ahem, buns, which balance me for running upright on my hind legs. Chimps run on all fours.
7. My hind legs are disproportionately long compared with a chimp's, another adaptation for running on my hind legs. Chimps think I look silly when I run. They're right about that.
8. I can't grasp things with my feet very well. Chimps think my feet are horribly deformed, and, while sympathetic, they call me "cripple" behind my back.