Showing posts with label John Grehan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Grehan. Show all posts

Monday, June 22, 2009

Orangs Our Closest Ancestors?

There is a short story out of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Jeffrey Schwartz and John Grehan have discovered that chimpanzees may not be our closest relative but that, rather, it is the orang. The article is short but has this to say:

They conducted a detailed analysis of the physical features of living and fossil apes that suggested humans, orangutans, and early apes belong to a group separate from chimpanzees and gorillas.

According to a news release, the researchers reject as "problematic" the popular suggestion, based on DNA analysis, that humans are most closely related to chimpanzees, "which they maintain is not supported by fossil evidence."

I am guessing this will make some very large waves.