Question

what information, if any, might convince you that humans and chimpanzees should share the same genus ? why? if you could not be convinced, then what scientific evidence leads you to that conclusion?

Answer 1

Solution:-

Genus

• It is a group of closely related species.
• Humans are presently classified under genus Homo and Chimpanzees under genus Pan.

Human taxonomical classification

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Mammalia
Order	Primates
Suborder	Haplorhini
Infra order	Simiiformes
Family	Hominidae
Sub Family	Homininae
Tribe	Hominini
Genus	Homo

Chimpanzees Taxonomical Classification

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Mammalia
Order	Primates
Suborder	Haplorhini
Infra order	Simiiformes
Family	Hominidae
Sub Family	Homininae
Tribe	Hominini
Genus	Pan

From the above taxonomical classification we can see that

Both Human and Chimpanzee are under same Tribe Hominini.From there they classify into two different genus Homo and Pan.

If we want to put humans and chimpanzee into a single genus, the points to consider are:-

• The humans and chimpanzee are genetically more similar (99.4% similarity approximately in their DNA.
• The humans are more closely related to Chimpanzee than any other animals in case of similarity in the genetic makeup.
• The common ancestor of Human and Chimpanzee originated about 7 million years ago. And both evolved as different species between 5-6 million years ago, which can be considered as recently.

The points to disagree are:-

• The complete sequencing of humans and chimpanzee have not been done yet.
• There are lots of differences also in their genetic make up.

1. Human have 23 pair of chromosomes, whereas chimpanzee has 24 pair of chromosome,
2. Human chromosome 2 formed as a result of the fusion of two ancestral ape chromosome at their telomerase.
3. There are 9 major differences in human chromosome 1,4,5,9,12,15,16,17,18 due to chromosome segment inversions.

• The humans are bipedal and Chimpanzee are quadrupedal or knuckle walkers.
• The Chimpanzee lacks a "theory of mind" whereas Humans are having a higher consciousness.

There is no doubt that Humans are closely related to Chimpanzees. But considering all these differences it is more suitable to classify human and chimpanzee in  different genera.