| cheerfulgreek |
05-29-2008 09:54 PM |
I wonder what would happen if...
This past weekend I went out of town to visit a few museums and a couple of different zoos. While I was there, I got a chance to hold a chimp. I've never held one before. I thought it was pretty amazing seeing how intelligent they actually are. Of course everyone knows the old theory about humans evolving from apes and stuff. Well, I was reading the information they had about the chimps and other primates there, and some of the information I read said that humans are very similar to chimpanzees because they have 98% of our DNA. At one time I thought they had the same number of chromosomes we had, but they don't. They actually have 48 while we have 46.
The lady that was giving the presentation about the chimpanzees got a little irritated with me, because I kept asking her questions she couldn't answer. o.k. so I was a bit of a skeptic at first, my reasons for all the questions to her.:p One of the questions I asked her was "If the DNA sequence in humans is so close to that of chimpanzees, why do the two species look so different?" She kind of changed the subject.:rolleyes: Then I asked her again, and she said it could be a lot of things. I said "Like what?" Then she asked me what do I think it could be. I told her I didn't know, but the only thing I could think of was that the small changes in regions of the DNA that have a regulatory function probably can have major effects on the appearance, I guess. I told her that maybe chimps and humans have different developmental trajectories, who knows? lol :p
When I left the zoo, on the ride back home, I started thinking about some of the things she said. Well, if chimps and humans are so close in DNA and chromosome number, what if we were to use the science of In vitro fertilization. Would something come from it? I looked it up, but I didn't see anything.
The way I look at it is, every species has a typical number of chromosomes revealed by it's karyotype. Like in a dog. Dogs have a total of 78 chromosome as an example. Another example, would be in some deer, I do know of two species of Asian deer. They look similar in appearance but have very different chromosome numbers.
Horses have 64 chromosomes, while donkies have 62. Not the same number, but yet they can produce a mule. Of course mules are usually sterile, because genetically mules have 32 horse chromosomes and 31 donkey chromosomes, giving them a total of 63 altogether...I think.:o:)
So through In vitro fertilization I wonder what would happen, since we're supposedly so closely related to chimps. That was one of the questions I asked the tour guide lady. I think she thought I was nuts, which is why I was a little skeptical about posting this.:) What the heck, I thought it would be something to chit chat about.
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