Chimpanzee
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
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Chimpanzees are a species of ape that, along with the bonobo are considered by evolutionary science to be the animals most closely related to humans. Chimps are classified as the genus Pan of the troglodytes species while the "pygmy chimpanzee" or bonobo is a unique species in of itself called Pan paniscus.
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Anatomy
A chimpanzee body is short and has long arms which are longer than its legs.
Size: females: height- 2-3.5ft weight- 57-110 pounds. males: height- 3-4ft weight- 90-115 pounds.
Hair and skin: Their body is covered with black hair except for on their fingers, palms, armpits, and bottoms of their feet. In the bald spots they have a very pale skin, and on their rump they have a white tuff of hair.
senses: They have similar senses to humans, like hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch.
Face: They have slight, low brow ridge, elongated snout, large ears and small nostrils. Their face is bald except for a white beard that both males and females have.
Hands and feet: Their hands have four fingers and an opposable thumb that is kind of like ours. Their feet have four toes including an opposable big toe, this helps them grasp things with their hands and feet. [1]
Chimpanzees move on the ground quadrupedally, called knuckle-walking. They also move quadrupedally in the trees and they also use a suspensor manner to move around in a feeding source. While dominance and aggression displays an chimpanzee will walk in a bipedally way.[2]
Reproduction
A chimpanzee is able to reproduce young at about the age of 12-13. The females pregnancy usually lasts 8.5-9 months and only have a single baby, twins are uncommon.
Females nurture their young very carefully, babies are able to grab their mothers back hair at 6 months of age. The young chimpanzee move out of their mothers nest and make their own once they are weaned.[3]
They live about 60 years in captivity and 35-40 years in the wild.[4]
Ecology
Seeds, nuts, flowers, leaves, pith, honey, insects, eggs and vertebrates including monkeys, are what chimpanzees eat. They use 300 different plant species per year and 20 per day. They also consume termite clay and rocks for the minerals in them. Males will usually form bands and hunt for antelopes, pigs, duikers and monkeys. Chimpanzees particularly like to hunt western red columbus monkeys. The chimpanzee who kills the prey get to eat the prey and the rest sit there and beg for food and they usually get some. Chimpanzees use tools to extract insects and to break open nuts. They will use the hammer-anvil method to break open nuts. The females are able to break open coula nuts up in the trees without having to bring them down to an anvil. The hardest nut to break open is a panda nut and males usually don't have the patience to wait for it like the females do. Some eastern species don't break the nut open but eat off the skin instead. Chimpanzees also have a specific stick to put in termite and ant mounds to fish for termites and ants. The termites and ants will attack the stick and the chimpanzee will take it out and lick them off. [5]
They will live in a lot of habitats like tropical rain forest, woodlands,swamp forests and grasslands in western africa. They live in 21 different african countries. Most of them are found north of the congo, in the moutain forests and are rarely spotted in the flat savanna. When they are spotted they are usually moving from one tree patch to another. [6]
Community
Chimpanzees are sociable animals and are diurnal. There are groups 40-60 chimpanzees and smaller subgroups of 6-7 chimpanzees. Grooming- Cleaning the hair of one another is a major occupation of chimpanzees. Every night they will make a nest up in the trees and curl up and sleep in them. They are in the shape of a bowl and are made of leaves. They are only shared by mothers and there young. Young chimpanzees play a lot learning the skills they will need as an adult.
They use communication to teach the young skills that they will need and to convey info about food, social relationships, distress and mating. They have a complex system of communication. There cries to warn other chimpanzees of danger can be heard 2 miles away. They also bark to let other chimpanzees know that there is a lot of food near by. They will also indicate their needs and emotions with gestures. Approaching other chimps with open hands means that they want food. If they are friends they might even hold hands, hug and kiss. They pucker their lips to show that they are worried. When frightened a chimp will show is teeth and a smile will tell you he is friendly and when his lips are tightly close it means that he ready to attack.
Genetic similarity to humans
Evolutionary scientists have conducted many different genetic studies on chimps, and have claimed conclusive evidence that humans and chimps are closely connected to a relatively recent common ancestor. Depending on the nucleotides counted, chimps and humans are touted as having between a 95% and 98.5% similar DNA structure. Interestingly, evolutionists often claimed a mere two percent discrepancy between man and chimp before the human genome had even been fully mapped.[7]
It is important to note that even when there are similarities in the structure of two creature's DNA, such does not necessitate a common ancestor. The so called evidence of a recent common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans only works within the philosophy of naturalism, and genetic similarity is easily explained within the creationist worldview as being the result of a common intelligent designer. Furthermore, using a percentage when explaining genetic similarity masks the fact that a mere 5% equates to a difference of 150,000,000 DNA base pairs. While chimps certainly look somewhat similar in structure to humans, they are obviously members of another created kind.[8]
Fossils
In the light of attempts to link the human race to the Chimpanzee, Darwinists fail to answer a critical question: where do Chimpanzees come from? Henry Gee, in an article published by Nature said:
"Fossil evidence of human evolutionary history is fragmentary and open to various interpretations. Fossil evidence of chimpanzee evolution is absent altogether".(Gee, p131)
Gallery
 chimpanzee - African congo. |
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References
- Henry Gee, "Return to the planet of the apes", Nature 412, 131-132 (2001)
- Greater than 98% Chimp/human DNA similarity? Not any more. by by David DeWitt. Journal of Creation 17(1):8–10. April 2003
External links
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