Page 197 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences
P. 197
The NAS's Human Evolution Error
The NAS's claim with regard to molecular biology is based on
the hypothesis that human beings are genetically closer to chim-
panzees and gorillas than to orangutans and other primates. The fact
is, however, that this is a totally incorrect analysis. First of all, it needs
to be made clear that the human genome was deciphered in 1998, the
year the NAS booklet was published. The results of the Human
Genome Project were published in 2001. The genetic codes of the
chimpanzee and gorilla have not yet been deciphered. Therefore, it is
not yet possible to make a reliable comparison between these species.
Claims of this kind that appear in certain publications are based on
comparisons of a limited number of proteins or genes. For this reason,
when a comparison is carried out on another protein or molecule, it
may give rise to very different or even conflicting results.
The Swedish paleontologist Bjorn Kurten, for example, writes
about such conflicting results:
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