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, 17 October 2009
Not A Chimp, Not Even Close
I have just put a commentary on the OUP US blog about the relevance of the discovery of Ardipithecus ramidus - Ardi - to the general thrust and argument of NOT A CHIMP. Basically, it's bad news for those scientists who over-stress the proximity of humans and chimps and have assumed that the common ancestor of both chimps and man must have looked very much like a chimp.
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