My Science School

It is a misunderstanding that humans evolved from chimpanzees, we do share a common ancestor, though. And, sharing a common ancestor means sharing a lot of traits too. Come, let's find out more about these similarities and how they helped debunk a certain myth.

A common ancestor

Chimpanzees and humans are primates, and as mentioned earlier, share a common ancestor. One group of this ancestor evolved to become modern chimpanzees (a great ape) while another evolved to become early humans, finally leading to Homo sapiens modem humans. Which perhaps explains why chimpanzees are our closest relatives today. It is said that chimpanzees share about 99% of our DNA. For humans, this is a percentage much higher than what we share with other great apes or even other primates such as monkeys.

Many similarities

The most significant contributions towards establishing the similarities between chimps and humans, and debunking the myth that certain traits were uniquely human came from pioneering English primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall.

Having spent most part of her f adult life studying chimpanzees in the wild, she noticed a chimp using a twig to fish out termites from a nest. This was about six decades ago, when it was commonly accepted that only humans could create and use tools.

When the primatologist informed her boss back then about what she had seen, he's believed to have famously joked:

"Now we must redefine man redefine tools, or accept chimpanzees as humans." Trailblazing Jane Goodall made a few other "epic discoveries" too that highlight the similarities between chimps and humans. These are hunting: engaging in war against rival groups" and killing "members of their own species"; strong bonds between mothers and young ones, and among siblings and compassion - as first witnessed when one chimp comforted a mourning chimp, and through the adoption of an orphaned chimp.

 

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In spite of the popular expression ‘as blind as a bat’, bats are not blind at all. In fact they see quite well. However, since the fly mostly at night when it is difficult for us to see, people have assumed that they can’t see either.

Bats don’t actually need to see where they are going as much as we might think. They avoid bumping into things in the dark by using a kind of radar system. This sends out a stream of high-pitched sounds. The sound hits objects in their path and then bounce back to the bat. It picks up these reflected sounds and pin-points the obstacles to avoid crashing into it.

 

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There should be a punch line for this one, but I can’t think of it at the moment. The reason itself is fairly disgusting, so a joke probably is not appropriate anyway. Vultures feed on carrion – dead animals and birds. They often put their heads right inside carcasses to pull off tasty bits. If their heads had feathers these would get covered in all sorts of unmentionable gore and mess. Worse still, vultures would not be able to clean them. So nature has given them bald heads to avoid the problem.

 

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Almost all the monkeys of the American continent live in the dense forests around the Amazon River. These monkey spend most of their time in trees and are extremely agile acrobats, using their long tails to hand on to the branches. The best-known of these animals are the capuchin monkeys which were once the inseparable companions of travelling musicians and organ-grinders.

The capuchin monkeys are easily domesticated for they are gentle and good-natured and live well in captivity. For this reason there are always many of them in zoos and they are often sold in pet shops. They are not much bigger than a cat and are grayish brown in colour with a long, hairy tail which is not so good at gripping things. They live mainly on fruit but also eat tender shoots and buds, insects and eggs which they steal from birds’ nests.

 

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The gavial is a type of crocodile some 4 to 5 metres long, that lives in the river Ganges in India and is quite different from the crocodile of the river Nile in Egypt. Although it belongs to the same order of reptiles, it forms a family of its own, the Gavialidae.

The distinguishing characteristic of the gavial is its very long, slender jaws that swell out into a bump at the end and this is where the nose is. This nose enables the gavial to breathe while the rest of its body is completely under the water.

The gavial has rows of sharp, equal-sized teeth which look very frightening when it opens its jaws wide. But this is not a dangerous creatures and will not attack people or animals who may approach it on the river banks. It prefers to eat dead animals and fish which it catches with quick sideways movements of its head.

Many people in south-eastern Asia believe that the gavial is sacred. In some places gavials are kept in the grounds of temples and looked after with great care and respect.

 

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Cranes are elegant birds that strut about on their stilt- like legs, stretching out their long necks and holding their heads slightly to one side. Whenever they stop to rest in a field or by the side of the river, they tuck one leg underneath their bodies and stand on the other, sometimes remaining like this for many hours.

The crowned crane has a beautiful crest of yellow feathers on its head and its dark plumage is broken here and there by a few patches of colour. It lives in most tropical regions of Africa in large flocks near lakes or rivers, feeding on seeds and insects which it finds on the ground. The crane flies up to the trees after dark to spend the night safely perched on a branch.

 

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There is an incredible number of extremely poisonous vipers in the Sahara desert. They hide by burying themselves in the sand and lie in wait for their prey.

Even while walking very carefully a person can accidentally tread on one of these snakes. The consequences can be very serious.

The most common desert viper is the cerastes, also known as the horned viper. This snake has two horn –like growths above its eyes that give it a very fierce look. It is a rare species for most horned vipers have only one horn. The reptile is hunted and sold to zoos because it is so uncommon.

 

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The bison are typical ruminants of great prairies of North America where they are commonly called buffalo. When the first settlers went to the west were an estimated 60 million of these animals who provided the Indians with their major source of food and skins; but the Indians only killed when necessary.

Then the white man came and the massacre began. During the years across the continent, these animals were wantonly slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands. The white settlers only used the tongue of the bison and the animal’s bones were sold by the ton for a few dollars to be made into fertilizer.

Finally all but a few bison were killed. Today they are carefully protected and are breeding again in great numbers.

 

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The ways of owls are much the same the world over. But there is one owl, a native of America, which is very unusual because it is quite unique in the bird kingdom. This is the burrowing owl. It has this name because instead of building the usual rough nest in a sheltered gorge, animal such as the anteater, armadillo or the prairie dog.

The owl does not take over a burrow that has been abandoned by its owner but frequently shares one, living quite peacefully together with the real owner of the burrow. Unlike other owls, the burrowing, owl goes hunting by day. It stands perfectly still and waits for its victim to come close, rather than fly after it.

 

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It seems incredible that there are snakes so poisonous that their bite is greatly feared and that at the same time these snakes should behave in such a way that they help man. These are the coral snakes which live throughout America. They allow themselves to be picked up by people for they are very shy and tame and it is rare for anyone to be bitten by one. But it is not safe to play around with the coral snake: their poison is very powerful and can cause a swift death.

Coral snakes are shy only with people; with other snakes they are extremely aggressive. They eat many other reptiles, most of them poisonous, and in doing this, the coral snake destroys many poisonous creatures and clears large areas of reptiles which are dangerous to man.

Coral snakes have a brightly coloured skin marked with red, yellow and black rings. They live in sandy places where they busy themselves. When their victims come along the coral snake darts out from its hiding place and kills them.

 

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In the days of the dinosaurs the sky was crowded with huge winged reptiles such as the pterodactyl. These flying reptiles had a wing span of more than 7 metres and would constantly glide above the water, catching fish and crablike animals. They were excellent fliers and could travel over 100 kilometres away from the land in search of their food. Pterodactyls were probably the most skilful fliers of the winged reptiles, but their huge wings were a hindrance to them whenever they landed to rest. At such times the pterodactyl would have to drag itself painfully along the ground in contrast to its agility and grace in the air.

The fossil remains of the pterodactyl have been found in several parts of North America. This means that these flying lizards must have lived in this part of the world.

 

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Many alligators live in the great rivers that flow across China and are especially common in the lower reaches of the Yangtze Kiang. These alligators look different from the crocodile because they have shorter jaws. The fourth tooth of the Chinese alligator’s upper jaw is also large a sticks out when the animal has its mouth closed.

The American alligator which lives in the Mississippi River grows to about 6 metres in length, but the Chinese alligator is rarely longer than one and a half metres. It is too timid to attack large animals and presents no danger to human beings. It prefers, instead, to catch fish, water-birds and small mammals.

 

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This very strange mammal lives in the dense equatorial jungles of Asia and is common in the islands of Malaysia. Another type of pangolin makes its home in the forests of Africa.

The pangolin is a shy, harmless, nocturnal animal with a long body up to a metre in length which resembles the anteater. It has a small head, short legs and a thick tail which is always curled up like a question mark. The skin of its throat and the under parts of body is soft, but the rest of the body pangolin’s body covered in hard, horny, yellowish-brown scales which are so made that the pangolin can roll itself up into a ball when it is frightened or in danger.

The name ‘pangolin’ comes from a Javanese word meaning ‘the animal that rolls up into a ball’. The pangolin, which has no teeth, use its long, sticky, snake-like tongue to scoop up ants and termites, insects that provide its only food. The pangolin also has very strong claws on its forefeet, but it uses these only for tearing down anthills to force the insects out into the open ground.

 

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The dense forests of tropical Asia often echo to the hoarse, piercing, far-reaching cries of the gibbon. This is a small, man-like ape or monkey which is quite common in the East, especially in indo-Malayan countries.

It is not difficult to recognize gibbons because they have certain striking characteristics. The chief of these is their extremely long arms. When a gibbon stands up on its hind legs it can still touch the ground with its fingertips, for its arms are about twice as long as its legs.

The gibbon has a slender body covered in brown fur, but no tail. It is an extremely muscular animal and a marvelous acrobat, swinging from branch to branch of the trees with considerable skill and agility.

Sometimes gibbons jump great distances between trees. They can also hang for a very long time with one hand from a branch while swinging gracefully to and fro like a pendulum.

They feed on young bamboo shoots, nuts, fruits, insects and birds’ eggs, and live mainly in the trees, when on the ground they walk upright, without any help from their long arms, which are held above their heads or behind them.

 

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The gorilla lives in the dense forests of equatorial Africa. It is the largest and most powerful of the ape family. The gorilla is extremely strong but it is a unduly disturbed. But other animals are very much afraid of it: few of them will dare to attack a gorilla because they know they would have the worse of the encounter.

A full-grown gorilla stands nearly 2 metres tall, with a massive body and very muscular arms and legs, and can weigh over 200 kilograms. Its jaws jut out and it has a broad, flattened nose and huge beetling eyebrows.

There are two main kinds of gorilla: the lowland gorilla that lives in the rain forests of western Africa, has a dark grey coat; the mountain gorilla which lives in the eastern regions of Zaire-Uganda borderland at altitudes of more than 3,000 metres, has black fur, Little is known about the ways of these big apes. This is because gorillas are very shy animals and also because they were first found only during the last century.

Gorillas usually live in groups which include both young and old. They build rough dwellings in trees a few metres above the ground. These dwellings look like platforms made of branches and twigs.

Gorillas do not spend all their lives in the trees. During the day they wander about on the ground looking for food. They feed on leaves, roots and fruit which the forest has in plenty. Gorillas walk in a crouching position, but every so often they stand up straight on their long hind legs.

 

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