Evolution

What will we humans be in another 65 million years?

The ancestors of humans, apes and monkeys may have taken to the trees because of their small body size. Scientists have long wondered why early primates inhabited forest canopies, given that climbing appears to consume more energy than walking. US researchers studied primates climbing and walking on treadmills. They say there was no difference in energy consumption for small primates, giving clues to how their ancestors entered the trees 65 million years ago. Early primates, which would have been about the size of large rats, then underwent a number of evolutionary changes as they adapted to their new environment. These changes included nails rather than claws and grasping hands and feet.

So there's the Jesse tree, and Teshara, which is 'he's a rat,' add 2+2, you get 5, I am the creator!
I also knew a Deana (Dn'A?) who went to go work at Genentech. Yeah, I know, I'm goofy.

There's the saying, "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny," which I think is a fancy-shmancy way of saying the growth in the womb demonstrates our evolution, most obviously demonstrated with the fact that the human foetus goes through a stage in which it has gills (!). I think I remember something about lanugo I think it's called, in which the fetus is covered with hair, as well.

A note on chimps:
Chimpanzee, often shortened to chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of apes in the genus Pan. The better known chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes, the Common Chimpanzee, living primarily in West, and Central, Africa. Its cousin, the Bonobo or "Pygmy Chimpanzee" as it is known archaically, Pan paniscus, is found in the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo River forms the boundary between the two species. Chimpanzees are members of the Hominidae family, along with gorillas, humans, and orangutans, and the two chimpanzee species are the closest living relatives to humans

The genus Pan is now considered to be part of the subfamily Homininae to which humans also belong. Humans shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees five to eight million years ago. Ground breaking research by Mary-Claire King in 1973 found 99% identical DNA between human beings and chimpanzees, although research since has modified that finding to about 94% commonality, with at least some of the difference occurring in 'junk' DNA. It has even been proposed that troglodytes and paniscus belong with sapiens in the genus Homo, rather than in Pan. One argument for this is that other species have been reclassified to belong to the same genus on the basis of less genetic similarity than that between humans and chimpanzees.

I've been a chimp, in a past life. Mojo Jojo! Hanuman!

I have a question: Is the amount of genetic variation/variability greater within the human population than it is between the most similar chimp and human individuals?

Also, if you disagree with evolution, remember God is love, and love believes all things. Check out this top 10 list of creation myths you should also believe in.

If you're not a naked ape, and a bipedal carbon-based lifeform, then what are you? (I used to call milk the lactic fluid of a female bovine; pass the lffb, please).

Being called a monkey is usually considered offensive. In fact, it was a factor in the Congo crisis. Prime Minister Lumumba, upon giving a speech on the day of independence which extolled the struggle "of tears, fire and blood," attacked the Belgian Congo's "regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation" and said "Nous ne sommes plus vos singes" (We are no longer your monkeys).

Did you know that fetuses also have tails at some point, in addition to gills and hair? (Monkeys have tails, and apes don't: humans are technically a type of ape, I believe). The same type of thing happens with other animals; e.g. whale embryos have legs that recede into the body before birth.