Well, aren't we special........

[patgund]

Okay, having always been a science geek way back when, especially when it came to early man and paleoanthropology, I remember when the breakdown for humans was:

Superfamily: Hominoidea, Family: Hominidae, Genus: Homo.

Chimps, Gorillas, Orangs, and Gibbons were all Family: Pongidae. Clear difference, them and us. Later on, this got modified, gibbons were spun into Family: Hyloatidae. Still, them and us.

Until molecular biology started having a look in at when speciation started to happen. What happened then is that the Ponginae became a subfamily under Family: Hominidae. Humans at this point became:

Superfamily: Hominoidea, Family: Hominidae, Subfamily: Homininae, Genus: Homo.

By the mid 70's, (bear in mind the childrens books on science I was reading then were from the 60's, as well as the National Geographics, so I missed this), they realized that Orangs were the outgroup, and were actually the sole members of the Ponginae. Chimps and Gorillas both were grouped under Subfamily: Homininae.

This didn't sit well with some, because while many biologists don't like to distingish other species to that level, they make an exception where Humans and Apes are the case.

So they tried to spin off Chimps and Gorillas into their own Tribe, the Gorillini, with Humans in the Hominini tribe.

Superfamily: Hominoidea, Family: Hominidae, Subfamily: Homininae, Tribe: Hominini, Genus: Homo.

By the early 1990's, it was found that, chimps were closer to humans than Gorillas. This placed Chimps under the Hominini tribe.

With a 93% DNA match, they should have counted Chimps as a sister species, rather than a seperate genus. No, instead Humans got the subtribe Hominina, and Chimps got subtribe Paninina.

Which is why you now have a classification for H. s. Sapiens that reads like a tounge-twister.....

Domain:Eukaryota, Kingdom:Animalia, Phylum:Chordata, Class:Mammalia, Order: Primates, Superfamily:Hominoidea, Family:Hominidae, Subfamily:Homininae, Tribe:Hominini, Subtribe:Hominina, Genus:Homo, Species: Homo sapiens, Subspecies: Homo sapiens sapiens

As far has I know, they don't break down dogs, cats, horses, or just about any other spieces with a backbone like this.........

Comments

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Because dogs, cats, horses, etc. won't get their knickers in a twist about being in the same family with "inferior" species. Sometimes I think they are smarter than we are.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

I suspect a political aspect to it as well. Some zoologists have been promoting the idea that since chimps, gorillas, and orangs are so close to us genetically, that either the same "universal rights", or at least a limited subset thereof, that humans enjoy be extended to them as well. In effect, bringing them under our umbrella and making any work on them - or any harm caused to them, equal to experimentation or slaughter of human beings.

Needless to say, this argument isn't widely shared.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_on_Great_Apes

[angelique69.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the radical Christian groups that GOD (male gender of course)FORBID we might be related to / desended from APES!!!!! ;D Blessed Be, Angelique

Why isn't PETA spelled PITA?

[henglaar.livejournal.com]

It used to be that if you were an animal rights activist, you were respectable, like say, the Humane Society. Now, the ones who claim the title are trying to turn their carnivores into vegetarians, turning laboratory rodents free (to the delight of the local predators), and keeping the more exotic lab animals when they know no more about how to care for them than I do. And probably from the same books at that.

When a gorilla or chimp can be taught to sign and make up its own sentences instead of "communicating" by rote, then maybe they do deserve some additional protections. Making them co-equal with humans isn't fair to them or us, and I say that without being worried about what my ancestors were a thousand generations back.

Re: Why isn't PETA spelled PITA?

[patgund.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't object giving a sibling species (and some cousins) some special rights and protections. Certainly our relatives could use it.

What I find funny is the lengths some biologists will go to to deny the kinship is that close

[nolly.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised, actually. Remind me to lend you This Is Not a Weasel sometime.