Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Neoteny Led To Big Human Brain
I mentioned, in an earlier post, that Philipp Khaitovich, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, had followed up the idea that neoteny - the retention of juvenile traits - might be mirrored in the pattern of gene expression in the brain - i.e. certain genes might have their activity delayed ct. chimps. For those of you interested in this idea (I deal with it in the domestication chapter in NOT A chimp) this is a very accessible Scientific American piece.
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