Humans and apes

[Jason de Koning]

Dear Drs. Grehan, Delprete, et al.,

There is little doubt left by a wide array of consistent molecular data
that bonobo and chimpanzee are sister species, separated by only a few
million years, and that the chimpanzee lineage (including both Pan
spp.) is the sister group to humans.  This being the case, it makes no
evolutionary sense to say that one chimpanzee is more 'closely related'
to human than the other, since we are equally related to both species.

The human-chimp-gorilla trichotomy problem has been resolved
molecularly, with high statistical support for a number of years (e.g.,
see papers by Mary-Ellen Ruvolo or Morris Goodman for reviews), and is
no longer really considered a problem.  Molecular clock estimates
generally place the human-chimp split at about 6 million years, the
gorilla-(human-chimp) split around 7 million years, and the
orang-(human-chimp-gorilla) split around 14 million years.  These
results are consistent, and the dates are pretty robust to statistical
methodology and calibration details.

There is not any molecular evidence that suggests that orangutan and
human could be sister species, to the exclusion of chimps and gorillas.
  To the contrary, all available data strongly excludes that hypothesis.

Best wishes,
- Jason de Koning,
   University at Albany, SUNY.  USA.

________________________________________________________________________
__
   A.P. Jason de Koning, Doctoral student        Email: apjdk at albany.edu
     Department of Biological Sciences             Lab:  (518) 442-4347
     University at Albany, SUNY                    FAX:  (518) 442-4767
     1400 Washington Ave., Albany NY 12222, USA  Mobil:  (518) 210-4504
________________________________________________________________________
__


On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at 03:31 PM, Delprete, Piero wrote:

> Dear Dr. Grehan,
>
> I thought that the current agreement in the scientific community is
> that the
> closest living hominid to Homo sapiens is the Bonobo pygmy chimpanzee.
> This species seems to have the closest behaviour to the human one. I
> have
> just recently read the a young bonobo rased in captivity is able to
> make
> four distinct sounds "somewhat similar" to human sounds.
>
> It is also a diffcult comparison because of the complex and little
> known
> evolution of the species within the hominids. One of the theory about
> hominid species is not linear, and it suggest that three species were
> co-existing in Africa and the most violent one (Homo sapiens) killed
> the
> other two. A specialist in the field should give you a most definite
> answer
> to your quest, but these scientists are probably not likely to read
> taxacom.
>
>
> Well, here are my two cents...
>
> Piero Delprete
> New York Botanical Garden
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: john Grehan [mailto:jgrehan at SCIENCEBUFF.ORG]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 9:25 AM
> To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
> Subject: Humans and apes
>
> I have a question regarding a primate exhibit we have prepared for our
> museum. In this exhibit we present to the public the current state of
> hominid systematics involving two major competing proposals for the
> nearest
> living relative to humans. One hypothesis is the chimp (sometimes
> chimp and
> gorilla), the other is the orangutan. We emphasize that there are two
> candidates for nearest relative and that the answer is a matter of
> current
> scientific debate.
>
> In the popular science literature the orangutan hypothesis is usually
> suppressed entirely (e.g. recent article in the Natural History
> magazine)
> or glossed over if mentioned at all. In our exhibit we attempt to give
> some
> of the evidence for each. I am curious to know whether any other
> museums
> have presented both models to the public, or by some chance are we the
> first?
>
> Comments on that status or not for our exhibit would be most welcome. I
> regret I have not had the opportunity to visit other museum primate
> exhibits to even begin to answer this for myself and TAXACOM offers a
> chance for me to obtain a global response.
>
> John Grehan
>
> Dr. John Grehan
> Director of Science and Collections
> Buffalo Museum of Science
> 1020 Humboldt Parkway
> Buffalo, New York 14211-1293
> Voice 716-896-5200 x372
> Fax 716-897-6723
> jgrehan at sciencebuff.org
>