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Humans, chimps share 96% of DNA Humans and chimpanzees share "perfect identity" in 96 per cent of their DNA sequence, an international team of scientists reports yesterday. Their findings, a landmark in the scientific study of humans and great apes, are drawn from the completion of the full genome sequence of a chimpanzee. Clint, a 24-year-old male who died of heart failure last year at a research centre in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, now lives on in the world's databases as the fourth mammal after humans, mice and rats to yield a full genetic blueprint. The research findings could offer a new way of understanding human biology, and underline once again the close kinship between Pan troglodytes, the larger species of chimpanzee, and Homo sapiens. It also throws new light on the tiny differences that set humankind on a different evolutionary path. "As our closest living evolutionary relatives, chimpanzees are especially suited to teach us about ourselves," said Robert Waterston of the University of Washington in Seattle, a leading member of the research team. "We still do not have in our hands the answer to a most fundamental question: what makes us human? But this genomic comparison dramatically narrows the search for the key biological differences between the species." Scientists have only begun to sample the richness of the genetic information now at their disposal. Comparison between human and ape DNA reveals that some human and ape genes evolved very swiftly, especially those linked to the perception of sound, the transmission of nerve signals and the production of sperm. First fossils of chimps discovered As scientists find out chimpanzees are close relatives of humans, the first fossils from a chimpanzee have been discovered in East Africa, filling one of the biggest gaps in the evolutionary record. While remains of our human ancestors have been found around the world, scientists had not identified a single fossil example of humanity's closest remaining relative. Three teeth discovered in Rift Valley, Kenya, have been confirmed as belonging to a chimp that lived approximately half a million years ago. Professor Nina Jablonski, of the California Academy of Sciences, led the research, which is reported in the magazine Nature. She had been invited to a dig by Sally McBrearty, of the University of Connecticut. The discovery promises to overturn the view that humans and chimps rarely co-existed since they diverged from a common ancestor five to 8 million years ago. (China Daily 09/02/2005 page7)
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