Gorilla
The gorilla, the largest of the living primates, is a ground-dwelling omnivore that inhabits the forests of Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies.[1] Comparison of DNA sequences of humans and gorillas show them to be 99% identical, but even with these similarities there are so many gaps in the sequence that it is nigh impossible for them to have descended from a common ancestor.
| Gorilla | |
|---|---|
| |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom Information | |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum Information | |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Sub-phylum | Vertebrata |
| Class Information | |
| Class | Mammalia |
| Order Information | |
| Order | Primates |
| Sub-order | Hominoidea |
| Family Information | |
| Family | Hominidae |
| Sub-family | Homininae |
| Tribe Information | |
| Tribe | Gorillini |
| Genus Information | |
| Genus | Gorilla |
| Species Information | |
| Species | gorilla |
| Subspecies | See article for full list of subspecies |
| Population statistics | |
Attempts have been made to teach a gorilla named Koko a form of sign language, although this is highly questionable.[2] Young earth creationists believe that gorillas were created about 4000 years ago. According to evolutionary thought, humans shared a common ancestor with gorillas as recently as four to seven million years ago.[3]
Taxonomy
- G. gorilla (Western gorilla)
- G. g. gorilla (Western Lowland gorilla)
- G. g. diehli (Cross River gorilla)
- G. beringei (Eastern gorilla)
- G. b. beringei (Mountain gorilla)
- G. b. graueri (Eastern Lowland gorilla)
References
- â A proposed third subspecies of Gorilla beringei (which has not yet received a Latin designation) is the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest population of the Mountain Gorilla, called the Bwindi Gorilla International Fund for Animal Welfare
- â As part of her research into animal communication in 1972, a young graduate student in developmental psychology volunteered to teach sign language to a 1-year-old female Gorilla named Koko. [1]
- â Hobolth A, Christensen OF, Mailund T, Schierup MH (2007) Genomic Relationships and Speciation Times of Human, Chimpanzee, and Gorilla Inferred from a Coalescent Hidden Markov Model PLoS Genet 3(2)