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From: throopw@dg-rtp.UUCP (Wayne A. Throop)
Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.bio,soc.women
Subject: Re: Univerrsal Common Female Ancestor
Message-ID: <343@dg-rtp.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Oct-87 10:10:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: dg-rtp.343
Posted: Tue Oct 20 10:10:09 1987
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> rmr@chefchu.SGI.COM (Robert Reimann)
> If I
> remember correctly, the point where the gorilla/human ancestor split from
> chimps is not very far from the point where gorilla and human lines split.
> 
> 		      ------- chimps
> 		      | 
> 		-------  ---- gorillas
> 		      |  |
> 		      ----
> 			 |
> 			 ---- humans

Um.  I don't think this is correct.  In the "Eve" episode of Nova last
year, the diagram was resolved by molecular similarity studies in the
opposite way (that is, "chimps" and "gorillas" should be exchanged in
the above diagram).

If *I'm* remembering the program correctly, the human-chimp common
ancestor existed about 5 million years ago, and the human-chimp-gorilla
common ancestor existed about 8-12 million years ago.

Molecularly, gorillas are an equal distance from either humans or chimps
(about 95% similarity according to the Nova episode mentioned), while
chimps are closer to humans than to gorillas (about 98% similarity).

--
"It was just paper before and it's still just paper."
                        --- Sam Walton, Oct 19, 1987
-- 
Wayne Throop      <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!throopw