Re: Open Letter To Glenn

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Wed, 07 Oct 1998 14:47:35 -0500

At 07:54 AM 10/7/98 +0100, Gary Collins wrote:
>Glenn:
>>
>> Why? 98% of YOUR DNA is IDENTICAL to that of the chimp!!!!
>> 96% of YOUR DNA is IDENTICAL to that of the gorilla!!!!
>> 92% of YOUR DNA is IDENTICAL to that of the Orangutan!!!!
>> 83% of YOUR DNA is IDENTICAL to that of the Baboon!!!!
>> ~ H Kim and O. Takenaka, "A Comparison of TSPY Genes from Y-Chromosomal DNA
>> of the Great Apes and Humans: Sequence, Evolution and Phylogeny," American
>> Journal of Physical Anthropology,100:301-309, p. 301.
>>
>> Notice that the more morphological difference, the greater is the DNA
>> difference.
>
>How are these figures derived and what do they mean? I understood that the
>human genome project is still ongoing, so how is it possible to make such
>assertions? I would have thought that given the different alleles possible
>in the human genome that there would be considerably more variation than
>this even between two individual humans. Obviously there is something I
>am not quite understanding correctly here. What is it?

My recollection was that these figures were derived by separating the
strands of human and chimp/gorilla/whatever DNA and allowing the foreign
strands to rejoin. There is a way to estimate the amount of mis-fit. If
any biologists want to jump in here, please do. They can probably do a
more credible job technically.
glenn

Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm