Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Primally speaking

We share 96% of the same DNA with chimpanzees. We are apes, we are primates, taxonomically.

Or as some people like to put it, we're just monkees in tennis shoes with cell phones.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/304989_10151202182536244_326896732_n.jpg

Although of course, the other primates couldn't wear tennis shoes, because their big toe is more like a thumb than ours.  Admit it - when you've had your arms full and would have loved to have a third hand, we've all improvised on occasion by picking something up off the floor with our toes; wouldn't it have been nice to have a foot thumb for those occasions?  And the heel of those primate feet? The bone that forms our heels, and the back of the plantar surface on these primate feet, those are the hocks on a horse or cat, cow or dog, or other quadrupeds.  Three cheers for prehensile toes instead of hooves or paws.



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