Scientists have discovered that the animal with the most genes–about 31,000–is the
near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, or water flea
. By comparison, humans have about 23,000 genes. Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced.
Humans are most closely related to the
great apes
of the family Hominidae. This family includes orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos. Of the great apes, humans share 98.8 percent of their DNA with bonobos and chimpanzees. Humans and gorillas share 98.4 percent of their DNA.
Chimpanzees
, our closest living animal cousins share 98% of our human genes, meaning that for 98% of our genes, there is a similar gene in the chimpanzee genome.
1.
Chimpanzees
. Researchers determined back in 2005 that chimpanzees share somewhere between 98.6 and 99 percent of our DNA.
We also share a shocking amount of DNA with plants and insects. We share around 60% of our DNA with bananas,
50% of our DNA with trees
, 70% of with slugs (gross), 44% with honey bees, and even 25% with daffodils.
What has the longest DNA?
The Australian lungfish
has the largest genome of any animal so far sequenced. Siegfried Schloissnig at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Austria and his colleagues have found that the lungfish's genome is 43 billion base pairs long, which is around 14 times larger than the human genome.
What is the smartest animal?
- Crows.
- Pigs.
- Octopi.
- African Grey Parrots.
- Elephants.
- Chimpanzees.
- Bottlenose Dolphins.
- Orangutans.
Is a chimp stronger than a human?
Chimpanzees do have stronger muscles than us – but they are not nearly as powerful as many people think. … This result matches well with the few tests that have been done, which suggest that when it comes to pulling and jumping, chimps are
about 1.5 times as strong as humans relative to their body mass
.
What animal brain is closest to humans?
Chimpanzees
. The closest animal to the human, a chimp has at least 98% of the same genomes as us.
Aardvarks, aye-ayes
, and humans are among the species with no close living relatives. There are 350,000 species of beetles—that's an awful lot of relatives. And yet some animals, like humans, have no fellow species in existence.
What do we already know about the potato genome? “Potato has 12 chromosomes, each one about 70 million base pairs long, which makes it
about a quarter the size of the human genome
.
Even bananas surprisingly still
share about 60% of the same DNA as humans
!
Do trees have genders?
Lots of trees are hermaphroditic
— that is, their flowers contain both male and female reproductive parts. Other species have male trees and female trees, which you can tell apart by looking at their flowers: The male reproductive parts are the pollen-laden stamen; the female parts their egg-holding pistils.
What has the closest DNA to humans?
Ever since researchers sequenced the chimp genome in 2005, they have known that humans share about 99% of our DNA with
chimpanzees
, making them our closest living relatives.
Which monkey is closest to humans?
Bonobos and
chimpanzees
look very similar and both share 98.7% of their DNA with humans—making the two species our closest living relatives. Bonobos are usually a bit smaller, leaner and darker than chimpanzees.
What is the most genetically complex organism?
A microscopic, see-through water flea
is the most complex creature ever studied, genomically speaking. Daphnia pulex is the first crustacean to ever have its genome sequenced, and it turns out it has about 31,000 genes — 25 percent more than we humans.