Chimp and Human Y Chromosomes Evolving Quickly

When discussing the supposed evolutionary ancestor of chimpanzees and humans it is often cited that we share a large percentage of our DNA with each other; however, this year the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research has conducted the very first interspecies comparison of the chimp and human Y chromosomes and discovered that they are very different.

This is only the second time that a chimp Y chromosome has been completely decoded. When the chimp genome was first decoded in 2005 they skipped large portions of the Y chromosome because the decoding process did not work well due to the long repetitive sequences.

Good Science

“The results overturned the expectation that the chimp and human Y chromosomes would be highly similar. Instead, they differ remarkably in their structure and gene content. The chimp Y, for example, has lost one third to one half of the human Y chromosome genes--a significant change in a relatively short period of time.”

Bad Conclusion

“In chimps, this potent combination of intense selective pressure on sperm production genes and the inability to swap genes may have fueled the Y chromosome’s rapid evolution.”

The Y chromosome in humans contains about 60 million base pairs. Individual genes are made of several base pairs but a change of 30% - 50% would still be millions of changes. Drawing a conclusion using empirical science requires observation of the change occurring. Comparing two gene sequences side by side can never determine if the two subjects were ever related or how long they have been in existence.

Humans arrived on this planet in one of two ways:

1. We evolved.

2. We were created.

If your presupposition is that we evolved then you look at the evidence and make it fit your world view. This means that if you discover a chimpanzee and human chromosome are very different from each other you then need to make the leap of faith that the chromosome had to have changed very rapidly.

If you believe the Bible is true and believe that God created the monkey kind different than the human kind then it is no surprise to discover millions of differences between chimps and us.

Adapted from materials provided by

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research http://www.wi.mit.edu/news/archives/2010/dp_0113.html Image: National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)