How closely are We Related to Other Animals?

            Well, for example, you are 92% related to a mouse.  That is genetically speaking; your DNA is 92% similar to a mouse. Some animals are a lot closely related to you than you would think. For example you are 44% related to a fruit fly, and you are 26% yeast, and everyone knows that we are 99% related to Chimps.  But just because your DNA is similar doesn’t mean that you have anything in common.  The differences in the DNA could be only in the important genes, like the ones that determine how you look, or how big you are.

imagesCAK59F9B            All animals that are mammals automatically share quite a bit of the same DNA.  All mammals’ bodies have mostly the same structure and functions.  That is what makes us so similar.  This goes for all the different types of animals. Amphibians are most closely related to other amphibians, sea creatures to other sea creatures, and so on.  So then all the animals with similar body structures and functions would be the second closest related to that animal.   Another thing that sets us apart from other animals is our appearance.

Are all humans 100% related? Yes and no, we share 100% the same genes, but the “instructions” in the genes aren’t the same.  The only time the genes would be exactly the same, would be in identical twins.  There are very small differences in the DNA sequences that determine your physical features.  Those small differences can make a big difference in appearance.  These are things like, body type, skin and hair color etc.  So even though there are only a few changes in the DNA sequence, those small changes can make a big difference.

DNA is so similar also to the fact that most of the genes are made to do the same type of functions, they are just slightly different. “It’s a little bit like having a Ford or a Holden — it’s still obviously a car but a slightly different version. (www.abc.net, 2010).”  This could be like mammals having lungs and sea creatures having gills.  They have the same general function, but it completes the process in a totally different way.

Why we are so similar to other animals is quite interesting.  It is so simple, yet I can’t believe that we are so closely related certain animals.  It all depends on what type of animal we are, our structure and functions, and our appearance.  All of these factors change our DNA code very slightly, but changes the way our body is built quite a bit.

Questions:

  1. Why do identical twins have the exact same DNA?
  2. How many genes do we have in our body?
  3. What is our closest non-mammal relative?

1 thought on “How closely are We Related to Other Animals?

  1. I love thinking that even though we share 100% of our genes with other people, the directions themselves are different. An intriguing thought it that through genetic imperfection, evolution is formed. If our bodies reproduced with 100% accuracy, all of our offspring would eventually show more and more stressed genetic malformations. The fact that we aren’t perfect causes our reproduction to be.

    Identical twins have identical DNA because they started life as the same organism.

    http://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/25335-Percentage-of-genetic-similarity-between-humans-and-animals

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