dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Paul DuBois) (11/10/84)
> [Ethan Vishniac] > Biochemical evidence > suggests an ordering of relationships between man and the great apes > which consists of individual lineages splitting off from the one that > lead to man. That is that Chimps and humans split recently. Gorillas > diverged somewhat earlier. Orangs slightly earlier than Gorillas, and > Gibbons earlier still. Note that since the biochemical evidence has > matched the fossil record in other, better documented cases, that this > constitutes a prediction of the kind of fossils we will find. No, it doesn't. It suggests that humans, chimps *and gorillas* share a common ancestor. DNA agreement is 99 percent between each of the three pairs. Jerold M Lowenstein, Adrienne L Zihlman, "Human Evolution and Molecular Biology", Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 27(4), 1984, p. 611-622, if you want to look it up. This same article also points out the disagreements between the biochemists and the paleontologists. The fit isn't so close as Ethan would have us believe. -- Paul DuBois {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois