ABSTRACT
This chapter examines our relationship to other organisms from a biological perspective. Genetic and anatomical analyses show African apes and humans to be more closely related, in terms of evolutionary history, than either is to the orangutan. The use of genetic data to assess relationships among different primate species began in 1904 when George Nutall suggested that analysis of blood chemistry could potentially tell us something about our relationship to other primates. The immunological research of Morris Goodman and others in the 1960s led to the development of a new field, molecular anthropology, which examines the evolutionary relationships of different primate species based on comparative biochemistry at the molecular level. Evolutionary relationships between humans and great apes based on the number of mtDNA substitutions. Perhaps the label "naked ape," given by zoologist Desmond Morris to human beings, is an apt description after all.
